Republican Rick Snyder called himself #onetoughnerd when he swept into the Michigan governor’s office in 2010, winning election easily after pledging to run the state more like the businesses that generated his substantial wealth.
Although he was a first-time elected official, by 2012 he was considered a possible running mate for the Republican presidential nominee, former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. A few years later, he was actively exploring his own bid for president.
Yet now, as he prepares for congressional hearings on the water-contamination debacle in Flint, Mich., a new Twitter hashtag to describe Snyder might be #onedonedude.
No fewer than three efforts to recall him are formally underway, and a special prosecutor is investigating whether the governor or others in his administration should face criminal charges. Some people want him jailed. In Ann Arbor, where he bought a $2 million loft when times were better, his home is picketed and chalk drawings on the sidewalk taunt him.
“This is the one thing that people know about him. … He’s the face of Flint, fair or not,” said Arthur Lupia, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan and an expert in political communication. “He has no political future.”
As the national spotlight falls on Snyder on Thursday, his predicament is more than just another political fall from grace. Nine people are dead from Legionnaires’ disease that may be linked to Flint’s tainted water, and thousands of children may have been poisoned for life by lead. Many in the city of about 100,000 are still drinking bottled water. No one knows how long it will be before they can trust what comes out of their taps.
All of it is being laid at the feet of a man who promised to manage the state more competently than traditional politicians.
“We were an experiment in their philosophy of government,” said Jim Ananich, the state Senate minority leader, who lives in Flint and is a harsh critic of Snyder. “But unfortunately, it failed.”
Some who know Snyder well maintain a surprising optimism about him and the future, confident that he will not rest until he makes things right. Fred Davis, the GOP media strategist who said he created the nerd campaign theme, contends that the 57-year-old Snyder sees governing as a series of problems to be dissected and surmounted.
“He’s what you want to hire in an employee, but he’s not the politician you want slapping your back, shaking your hands and kissing your baby,” said Davis, who currently has no formal ties to Snyder. “He’s just focused on fixing that water problem. And he will fix it. And Flint, Mich., come hell or high water, will end up with the best water system in the world. That’s Rick.”
Snyder declined to be interviewed, but Jarrod Agen, Snyder’s chief of staff, said that when the governor appears before the U.S. House Oversight Committee, he will echo his State of the State address in January by apologizing again to the people of Flint and accepting responsibility for the catastrophe. No matter how sincere he seems, Snyder is likely to face harsh questioning.
