The Detroit River International Crossing, better known as DRIC, has been a hot topic this campaign season. To recap it for those who haven't been following, the the DRIC is a proposed second bridge across the Detroit River that every organization, on both sides of the border, agrees is needed to continue the economic gains that international trade brings the region. Estimates show that Michigan stands to gain 10,000 jobs and billions of dollars in economic growth from the project, and Canada has even offered to pay nearly $600 million of Michigan's costs for building the roads that would ultimately connect the new bridge to existing highways.
So what's holding it up? Politics, of course, and behind those politics is Matty Moroun, owner of the existing Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.
The Detroit Free Press has a nice summary today (read here) of Moroun's influence this election season, and probably not coincidentally, you just have to follow the money to find out who supports DRIC, and who doesn't.
As the Free Press mentions, Moroun and his family have donated more than $110,000 to various Michigan candidates this campaign season. In the Governor's race, not surprisingly, those who have taken money from Moroun have publicly opposed the DRIC project, while those who haven't taken money from Moroun are for it. Republicans Mike Cox and Pete Hoekstra, for example, received total contributions of $13,600 each.
Mike Bouchard, the most outspoken critic of the DRIC project, got even more money from the Morouns:
The candidate who is most aligned with Moroun's position, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, has gotten more. On top of the $10,200 he received on the last day of 2009, the Bouchard Victory Fund received $13,000 in May. And Capitol Affairs PAC, which is run by former Bouchard staffer and lobbyist Robert Kennedy, has received $35,000 from the Morouns since the middle of May.
Unfortunately for Democrats, the money doesn't stop at the party line. While Andy Dillon, an outspoken supporter of the DRIC project, received no money from Moroun or his family, his opponent, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, did.
The Morouns also gave two $3,400 contributions to Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor. His rival, House Speaker Andy Dillon, didn't receive a donation. Dillon supports DRIC; Bernero opposes it.
While Bernero has spent the better part of the campaign trying to portray himself as the "true Democrat" in this race, this certainly seems like a chink in that armor as Bernero has aligned himself with Republicans in opposing this much needed project.
The legislation to authorize the DRIC project is still being tied up in the Republican controlled state Senate, and without it, those 10,000 jobs and billions of dollars in investment may go elsewhere. While the Senate Democrats have thus far kept up the pressure on the Republicans to take action on it, if any of there members break party ranks, as Bernero has done, it could spell disaster for the project's prospects, and for Michigan.
It's time that Michigan Democrats ask Virg Bernero why he's willing to put politics over jobs and economic progress.