Voting last week for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, and for special elections for Congress in New York and the Legislature in Michigan, provide 2010 omens for both parties in Michigan, where hot races loom in all three categories. (Plus more from the Michigan political scene including another Levin in the wings.)

One or two northern Michigan races could be pivotal in the uphill quest of Democrats next year to seize control of the state Senate, now the only bastion of GOP power in the three branches of government in Lansing.

In a particularly fitting tribute to Michigan's 1969-82 and longest-serving governor, Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined last week in dedication of the 31-acre William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor, previously called Tri-Centennial State Park, along the Detroit River.

Apart from the always-tricky matter of balancing the budget, Job One for the next governor will be jobs: creating them in a state that for months has lead the nation in unemployment -- 15.3 percent at last count. Michigan governors have been thrashing around on the job-creation issue for decades, with mixed success. It's already the hot button issue in campaigning for the 2010 gubernatorial election that is just more than 11 months away.

Fifty years ago, partisan stalemate on the budget by Lansing lawmakers resulted in payless paydays for state employees and a black eye for the state. The national press noted a mock "Michigan on the Rocks" cocktail. Now " with Michigan on the economic rocks, leading states in jobless rates, and again plagued by stalemate in Lansing " a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeks to add a twist to that cocktail: payless paydays for lawmakers who fail to meet budget deadlines " as they did in 2007 and again last week.

University of Michigan football center Gerald R. Ford went on to Congress and the White House. Jim Bunning, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame who pitched a 1958 no-hitter for the Detroit Tigers, is Kentucky's junior senator. Now comes Jay Riemersma, of Zeeland, a former Academic All-Big Ten tight end at Michigan

Sen. Tom George, of Kalamazoo, has yet to generate the bucks and buzz of more prominent contenders for the 2010 Republican nomination for governor. But he has credentials and gumption.

Reflections on Sen. Ted Kennedy from a Michigan perspective.

Early in election campaigns -- before the position papers, debates and TV ads -- non-incumbent candidates strive to gain name recognition by speaking out on news of the day and, sometimes, performing publicity gigs. Consider actions last week by 2010 GOP gubernatorial contenders.

Pure Michigan ads to attract tourists was a smart move. Penal Michigan to house suspected terrorists would not be.

Today's focus is on cash for clunkers and cash for candidates.

In the 1970s, Bart Stupak was an Escanaba police officer and then a State Police trooper. Now, he's emerging as Capitol Hill's top food cop.

Rick Snyder, a successful Ann Arbor businessman but relatively obscure candidate, went on a two-peninsula, 26-city announcement tour last week that underscored he has the moxie, money and campaign operation to be taken seriously as a contender in what shapes up as Michigan's most competitive Republican gubernatorial primary in many decades.

As campaign 2010 heats up on several fronts, theres a sharp contrast in how Michigan chairmen of the two major parties currently approach the battle.

As campaign 2010 heats up on several fronts, theres a sharp contrast in how Michigan chairmen of the two major parties currently approach the battle.

Small groups of committed citizens can make big impacts. So it was last week when the 2,000-member Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, after nine years of legal battle that cost it about $1 million, thwarted a giant international company's attempt to increase its pumping of Michigan water for sale from a Mecosta County stream and lake.

In Pandoras Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, a timely and provocative new book just published by Michigan State University Press, there is no myth, but sobering realities about the ills unleashed by ocean ships that entered the lakes through the Seaway that is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

There was a notable development last week in early jockeying for the 2010 campaign to replace term-limited Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Popular Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, who got 56 percent in winning each of her two four-year terms, bowed out of her gubernatorial exploratory effort and made a surprise endorsement of Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard for the Republican nomination.

Organized labor suffers from declining membership and political influence. But it has a legacy of achievements in Michigan and continuing clout within the Democratic Party. Much of that can be attributed to a series of savvy presidents of the Michigan AFL-CIO dating back to the role that lusty and legendary CIO President Gus Scholle played in the 1948 election of G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams, who went on to serve an unprecedented six two-year terms.

U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, gave the presidents of General Motors and Chrysler a well-deserved earful on what their abrupt dumping of nearly 2,000 dealerships is doing to rural America.

Attorneys general and other law folks have had considerable success getting elected governor in Michigan.

It's likely that Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in the last year and a half of her final term, will yet again be in the Short List Tango -- the ritual of Washington worthies citing those who might be in line for a presidential appointment.

There is no darker cloud over Michigan politics than the stealth funding of the crazy-quilt process for electing justices to the Supreme Court.

The institution of political cartooning is a power to reckon with, as Michigan governors learned throughout 172 years of statehood.

The Bureau of History, including the state archives, was a part of the Department of State well before the Engler and Granholm administrations. Woe is a governor who rules that the state cannot afford to preserve its own archives.

The newspaper industry is among many with declining financial health these economically troubled days. But papers big and small have been recognized yet again for shining the bright light of public scrutiny on those who act in the shadows against the public interest.

The way politicians marked Earth Day last week was a far cry from when the annual celebration was started 39 years ago. These days, building turbines gets more hype than planting trees.

There has been profound change on one front just since Granholm won her second term in 2006 -- campaign technology. New media has candidates atwitter about multiple ways to reach out to voters who will pick her successor in 2010.

Now sprouting: Granholm's Gardens. As part of the Michigan Land Bank, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, without the flair of Pingree, has established the Garden for Growth Program, "making state-owned properties available to those wishing to create urban gardens. This has helped to increase access to fresh, healthy, affordable food for our citizens."

In recent decades, Democrats have had the largest number of serious contenders for open gubernatorial seats. The reverse shapes up for 2010. The GOP now is replete with full-steam-ahead contenders who have moved at various stages well ahead of "considering" status.

Nine-term U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland, a former businessman and long top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, this week joins the expanding list of those in serious early pursuit of nominations for the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Although no way a forecast of what is to come, there are some things worthy of note in a poll released March 13 by newsletter Inside Michigan Politics (IMP), which commissioned a poll of 600 registered voters conducted by Lansing-based Marketing Resource Group (MRG):

Yet another threat looms to landmark environmental protection legislation Michigan enacted decades ago to raves beyond our borders. The latest threat is that Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to abolish Michigan's 1979 Wetland Protection Act and transfer wetland conservation permitting and enforcement to the federal government.

Michigan was the Arsenal of Democracy in the mid-20th century. Gov. Jennifer Granholm strives to make it an arsenal of alternative energy in the early 21st century. "She wants Michigan to be the leader in every sector of energy," Stanley "Skip" Pruss, director of the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, said in a phone interview Friday.

The Granholm administration and environmentalists are euphoric about the $475 million that President Obama's tight budget includes for Great Lakes funding, and what Lisa Jackson, his Environmental Protection Agency boss, said last week about the lakes. But a word of caution: The Bush administration, including assorted EPA leaders, made undelivered great promises about the Great Lakes during economic times that were not as grim, and with deficits not as staggering, as those facing Obama.

The Republican brand has been in eclipse across the land. That certainly includes Michigan, where Republicans last year lost state and U.S. House seats and Supreme Court Chief Justice Cliff Taylor, and failed again to deliver the state for their presidential candidate, as they have every four years since 1988. But the Michigan GOP has a crowded and impressive field of 2010 gubernatorial prospects, joined last week by quietly effective and popular Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land.

Last week, two Michigan politicians trumpeted the need for transparency on the state and national fronts.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, not noted for bold strokes, had an array of them in her State of the State Address last week, including a call to reduce the number of departments from 18 to eight. With apologies to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, Democrat Granholm in her address was The Michigan Terminator.

Although it's been a mere three months since the 2008 election, the political trail already abounds with prospects for the 2010 gubernatorial election that is 21 months away. Term-limited Gov. Jennifer Granholm last year began more prominently sharing publicity ops with Lt. Gov. John Cherry, former Democratic leader in the state Senate who formed a committee to explore a run for governor. Ignore "explore." He's running.

In Washington last week, there was a historical presidential inauguration atop the nation's political ladder. In Michigan, assorted candidates from both parties are emerging as gubernatorial prospects to be atop the 2010 state ballot. Now consider an obscure local office that often looms large on sprawl and other front-burner issues but is low on Michigan's political ladder: county drain commissioner.

Northern Michigan's three congressmen will have key roles in the fate of the Obama administration's agenda on Capitol Hill. One, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, revealed Saturday that he recently discussed with ex-Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a longtime ally on Great Lakes issues and incoming White House chief of staff, ways to "shape" the new administration's agenda for the lakes.

In Michigan politics highlights last week, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm had a prominent role on the national scene and Republican Supreme Court Justice Betty Weaver had a pivotal one on the state scene. For the second time in his transition to the White House, President-elect Barack Obama enlisted Granholm for cheerleader gigs on national TV to tout his economic plans.

All four of northern Michigan's state senators hold party leadership positions this year, giving the north considerable legislative clout. But all are term-limited and can't run again next year.

Michigan, long reeling from huge job losses and other economic grief, now faces more loss of clout on Capitol Hill and possibly lower levels of federal funds because of accelerating population loss. Census Bureau estimates released last week show Michigan losing more people last year -- 5 percent of the population -- than any other state, continuing a three-year slump.

Kudos to the brothers Levin, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other Michigan politicians for successfully beating drums that helped produce the commendable action by President George W. Bush to extend a lifeline to the auto industry.

Among the states, Michigan has had its share of scandals under the Capitol dome. Most notably: A 1940s grand jury investigation into lobbyists buying off lawmakers resulting in more than 40 convictions and the murder of a senator who was about to testify.