By Bill Speer
July 17, 2010

"One tough Nerd" visited Alpena Thursday when GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder held a town hall meeting with the community.

In a political year that seems to be keeping both party's gubernatorial candidates away from Northeast Michigan for whatever reason, Snyder made the time to come and visit.

Did he not get the memo that this part of the state was statistically insignificant to candidates, or is he just a person who marches to the beat of a different drummer? Probably the answer to that question would be that Snyder has shunned public debates with the other GOP gubernatorial hopefuls this primary, choosing instead the town hall format to get his message before the electorate.

Snyder explained Thursday that he chose a limited amount of debate formats with which to participate with his fellow candidates, but he still preferred to hold at least 50 town meetings around Michigan to really have a give-and-take with the public about what was needed to correct the course of government out of Lansing.

He has leaned heavily on the fact he is not a career politician looking to continue in office, but rather a successful businessman who hopes to share his experience in public service to his state. It is a theme that seems to resonate well with voters this year.

Most years political pundits might downplay Snyder's chances of being elected because of his lack of political experience, but this year it might prove just the opposite, and actually enhance his chances. Polls this week show Snyder doing very well with voters and have him among the leaders at this point in the campaign.

In a sit-down with business representatives before his town hall, Snyder had good interaction with them carrying on conversations about taxes, regulations and other burdens created for them by government. As a businessman and economic developer, Snyder said he knows first-hand the challenges and obstacles government can create for the business sector.

Listening to him, he offers a common-sense approach to correct them. For instance, he proposes doing away with the controversial Michigan Business Tax and replacing it with a flat corporate income tax that is based on the federal income tax return filed by that business. Gone would be the complicated formula that exists for businesses today.

It's a solution that seems almost too simple, except it seemed to meet with the hearty support of those gathered.

Later at the town hall Snyder urged residents to "build a system that actually works right and well. Let's get to a more efficient government - smaller, better, faster, cheaper."

Snyder said vision and goal setting always has been a part of his life, and as such he always wanted to be in public service in some capacity after his children were out of school. Should he win the GOP primary, and later the general election in November, that service would begin for him ahead of his original schedule, but he blames his wife for that.

He smiled while sharing the story abut a "date night" with his wife over a year ago in Ann Arbor when they sat down to dinner at their favorite restaurant and she started the conversation with "Honey, we have to talk."

This is all her doing, he joked with the business leaders.

Snyder's path that he's hiking on might indeed be a different one, but it seems to be a popular one right now.

Who knows, maybe his wife's intuition was right after all.

The entire article is avaialble on The Alpena News website, here.