Word: ilitch
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Most of the attention has focused on the prospective Democratic candidacies of Andy Dillon, speaker of Michigan's house of representatives, and Denise Ilitch, a scion of the family that owns the Little Caesar's pizza chain and the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. The Democrats, says Michigan political analyst Bill Ballenger, are "holding their breath and saying, 'This is going to be a dogfight...
...Ilitch, 55, bills herself as a self-made businesswoman. Also trained as a lawyer, Ilitch worked for her family's pizza and sports enterprise before launching her own jewelry company. She also co-owns a local lifestyle magazine called Ambassador. She is a fixture on Detroit's civic scene, joining Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's transition team last year and frequently challenging some of his top advisers to make deeper budget cuts. "She zeroed in on the finance piece as her baby, trying to get them to think through how to make immediate cuts," recalls a person familiar with...
...Still, some observers are skeptical that Ilitch has the stamina and gravitas to endure a grueling political race. Apart from being on the Bing transition team, Ilitch has little political experience (she was also elected to the University of Michigan's board of regents), and her views on many social and political issues are largely unknown. In recent days, local news reports have presented her as the Obama Administration's preferred candidate, but she has reportedly donated money in the past to Republicans as well as Democratic causes and candidates. Fundraising is expected to be tricky in the current economic...
...says Ballenger. Republicans are very aware that if they are to replicate Brown's Massachusetts success in their quest to win back Michigan's governor's seat, the party must aggressively court independents and conservative Democrats - who are also part of the base of support for Dillon and Ilitch. "The message," says Ron Weiser, Michigan's GOP chair, "has to be about the economy and why we're able to make the changes necessary to stop the avalanche that our economy is rolling down...
...none of those extravagances really made him happy. So in 1989 Monaghan took a two-year leave from Domino's to devote himself to Catholic charities and soon began to dump his toys. (The Tigers went to Little Caesars owner Michael Ilitch in 1992 for $85 million.) "Most of the time I was buying things to get attention, to have people notice me," Monaghan once remarked. "That's the sin of pride, the worst sin of all, and I'm the guiltiest person...