Here's an article about Dillon, who I just learned about and wrote a check to today. My goodness, does the Democratic party need people like this!

Dillon hopes to win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the Aug. 3 primary without the support of the AFL-CIO, the state's largest federation of labor unions, traditional stalwarts of the Democratic Party. He curries little favor with the state's Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm.

The former Detroit Steel Co. president and investment banker bucked up against the powerful Michigan Education Association to push through unpopular reforms.

He vows next to reform pensions for state employees. And he wants to merge all state, county and municipal employees into one health care system -- an idea unpopular with many of the state's 400,000 public workers.

"Most Democrats accuse him of being a closet Republican," Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics, said. "I think it's amazing that in all the polls so far he's been ahead almost the entire way.

"If he wins the nomination, his philosophy and approach to governance will give him crossover appeal to some independent voters and even Republicans that few Democratic nominees have had in the last half century."

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