- James Blanchard
Infobox Governor
name= James "Jim" Blanchardcaption=rfu-c|
2007-07-04
order= 45th
office= Governor of Michigan
term_start=January 1 1983
term_end=January 1 1991
lieutenant=Martha Wright Griffiths
predecessor=William Milliken
successor=John Engler
birth_date=birth date and age|1942|08|08
birth_place=Detroit, Michigan
death_date=
death_place=
spouse=Paula Blanchard (divorced)Janet Blanchard
profession=Lawyer
party=Democrat
religion=Unitarian
footnotes=James Johnston Blanchard (b.
August 8 1942 ,Detroit, Michigan ) is apolitician from theU.S. state ofMichigan . A Democrat, Blanchard has served in theUnited States House of Representatives , asGovernor of Michigan , and asUnited States Ambassador to Canada .Blanchard attended the public schools in Ferndale. He received a B.A. from
Michigan State University in 1964 and an MBA from the same school in 1965. He received a J.D. from theUniversity of Minnesota Law School in 1968 and was admitted to the Michigan bar in the same year. He commenced practice in Lansing and served as legal advisor to theMichigan Secretary of State , 1968-1969. He was AssistantAttorney General of Michigan , 1969-1974, administrative assistant to the attorney general, 1970-1971, and assistant deputy attorney general, 1971-1972. In 1974 he joined the law firm of Beer and Boltz, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.Blanchard was elected as a Democrat to the
United States House of Representatives from Michigan's 18th District for the Ninety-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving fromJanuary 3 ,1975 toJanuary 3 ,1983 . During that time, despite being a relatively junior member of Congress, he was responsible for legislation providing federal loan guarantees for Chrysler Corporation which saved the company from a likely bankruptcy. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1982 but was elected Governor of Michigan, defeating RepublicanRichard Headlee , a Farmington Hills insurance company executive. [cite news|author=Associated Press |title=Richard Headlee, anti-tax advocate, dead at age 74|publisher=The Macomb Daily|date=2004-11-10|url=http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/111004/sta_headlee001.shtml|accessdate=2006-10-12] Blanchard served two terms as governor (1983-1991) until his defeat by Republican state senatorJohn Engler in 1990.Blanchard became embroiled in a bitter partisan dispute over an appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court. On
December 9 ,1982 , outgoing Republican GovernorWilliam Milliken appointedDorothy Comstock Riley to theMichigan Supreme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of JusticeBlair Moody onNovember 26 .Since Milliken was leaving office in less than a month, the governor-elect Blanchard argued he should have made the appointment to replace Moody rather than Milliken. Further complicating the matter, Riley had run for election to the Supreme Court in the 1982 general election and had been defeated. In February 1983, the other Supreme Court Justices voted 4-2 to remove Riley from the court. Blanchard replaced her with
U.S. District Court JudgePatricia Boyle . However, Riley won election to the Supreme Court in 1984.After losing the gubernatorial election to John Engler in 1990, he became
Of Counsel to theSouthfield, Michigan law firm of Kramer Mellen.President
Bill Clinton appointed himAmbassador toCanada , a position he held from 1993 to 1996. In 2002 Blanchard again ran for governor but lost his primary bid toJennifer Granholm .As of 2004 , he is a partner in theWashington D.C. law firm of DLA Piper U.S. and resides in Pleasant Ridge. He serves on the Advisory Board [http://www.politicslaw.org/board.html] of theInstitute for Law and Politics at theUniversity of Minnesota Law School .As Governor of Michigan, Blanchard played a role in
Michael Moore 's 1989 film, "Roger & Me " regarding the plant closures in Flint.References
Notes
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