10/15/2006

DeVos running mate a self-styled reformer

County clerk is a 'commonsense conservative'

DETROIT (AP) — Ruth Johnson's early passion for environmental issues helped launch a political career now approaching its third decade.

The former state representative started in local politics in the early 1980s, when she worked with a 12-member citizen's group that fought a toxic waste disposal facility proposed for an abandoned gravel pit in northern Oakland County. She said the facility would have contaminated an underground aquifer used by residents.

The group helped persuade a state panel to reject the project, and Johnson eventually rode her experience with the group to a seat on the Oakland County Board of Commissioners.

"They spent over $7 million fighting my little teeny tiny township — at that time we had only 5,000 people in Groveland — and we won," Johnson recalls. "And it made me realize how much incredible ability one person has if they really work hard at something in our system. And when you get 12 people together, you can move a mountain."

Johnson, the Oakland County clerk, is running alongside west Michigan businessman Dick DeVos as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.

The 51-year-old from Holly made her name as a state legislator when she investigated allegations of financial abuse at Oakland Schools. Johnson, who served in the House from 1999 to 2004, was named chair of a House intermediate school district subcommittee in 2003, and her work resulted in a large package of laws subjecting intermediate school districts to increased oversight over contracts, travel and salaries.

Johnson, who calls herself a "commonsense conservative," said infusing accountability into education and government are two of her biggest priorities.

As a lawmaker, Johnson chaired the House Land Use and Environment Committee and authored a law encouraging the preservation of natural features by allowing developers to cluster development on smaller parcels.

As clerk of Michigan's second most populous county, Johnson points to accomplishments such as saving $2 million by renegotiating a computer service contract, slashing overtime and part-time staffing costs and expanding online services.

Johnson hasn't always been content to simply toe the Republican party line.

After new optical-scan machines generated a slew of problems in Oakland County during the May 2 election for local school districts and local millages, she wrote a letter asking Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to investigate new voting equipment. Johnson wrote that she believed the manufacturer should replace all the voting machines at no cost.

Johnson also ruffled feathers when she announced in 2004 she would challenge GOP incumbent G. William "Doc" Caddell for the county clerk position.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican who supported Caddell in that year's primary, called Johnson's decision "the nature of the business," and he credits Johnson for objecting to being given faulty voting equipment.

"She's feisty that way and she's I think doing a good job," he said.

Patterson, who supports DeVos, said Johnson helps balance the ticket in important ways: Unlike DeVos, she has prior legislative experience, and she's a woman from vote-rich southeast Michigan who holds a countywide office.

Patterson said Johnson could help reverse a recent trend in which Democrats at the top of the ticket have taken Oakland County.

"If she can deliver Oakland County for DeVos, that's a huge checkoff on his campaign strategy," he said.