From the archives: Crim enjoys race hoopla, politics


Thousands know Bobby Crim for the event bearing his name. Many remember him for his political career. In 1998, Journal staff writer Christofer Machniak caught up with Bobby Crim for an update on the man who founded the first Crim event, the Bobby Crim 10-Mile Race for Special Olympics.

Here is the story that was first published in The Flint Journal on Aug. 16, 1998.

Twenty years ago, Bobby Crim's life was chugging like a piston in constant motion. Highly energetic, the speaker of the state House poured endless hours into intense, pressure-packed politics and such projects as a road race in Flint to benefit the Special Olympics.

These days, Crim - whose event later grew into the Crim Festival of Races - prefers a simpler life, sitting on his tree-shaded deck overlooking the Looking Glass River, reading mystery novels and pondering the works of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Jefferson.

``I run, I bike, I read, I travel - I walk my dog,'' said Crim, 66, a Democrat who represented the Davison area for one term in the mid-1960s and then from 1972 to 1982, when he became one of the most powerful people in state government.

``Every now and then, somebody asks me a question, `Would you run for office if ...?' I said, `I wouldn't run for office for anything, so forget it.'

``I've been offered all kinds of jobs. I don't want a job. I was fortunate enough to make enough money to last me the rest of my life and live very comfortably and I'm enjoying it. I enjoy my three sons and my six grandkids. ... The world is good. I'm pleased.''

It was Crim's family - his children are from a previous marriage - that lured him and his wife, Marsha, back to Michigan last year after spending three years on an island along the Gulf Coast in Florida.

The couple's mailing address is Grand Ledge, but their home is closer to Wacousta, a semi-rural spot northwest of Lansing in southern Clinton County.

Built into a riverbank dotted with foliage, the home that he has owned since 1981 appears modest in size from the street but is spacious enough inside for an indoor pool, attached garage and a sauna.

From these comfortable surroundings, Crim said Saturday's running of the Crim road race has become a stronger source of community pride to Flint since it started in 1977.

``It's always been important to the community, but I think it has become maybe more important because it's one of the few positive aspects,'' he said.

``You couldn't envision the community adopting it like it did. In the first five years I nurtured it along, but the community is responsible for the success of the race and where it is today, not me.''

For Crim Executive Director Anne Gault, Bobby Crim is the one who is indispensable to the event and the one who provided the race's vision.

``Bobby is a very special person to us - he's the founder, a man with vision,'' she said. ``I don't think he'd miss a Crim, and I'm not sure we'd want him to.

``I think Bobby has always seen this as a community-involved race, and I think he's seen himself as part of that. We mostly do it because it makes this community feel proud.'' Humble beginning

For almost a decade, he was considered the most powerful Democrat in the state and was rumored as a candidate for governor several times.

Crim never did run for that office; after leaving the House, he became co-founder of one of the most successful lobbying businesses in the state until he retired just under 10 years ago.

Known for his angry outbursts while speaker, Crim was described by reporters as a loner, mercurial and volatile.

A man of humble beginnings, Crim said he grew up on a farm in southern Missouri as the illegitimate son of a sharecropper's daughter. He first became interested in politics after seeing President Truman on the campaign trail, according to Flint Journal files.

Leaving home after graduating from high school, Crim traveled across the Midwest, working in various industries.

When he came to Flint, he said, he worked at Buick and served in the Navy. He became a political science teacher after receiving a degree from the school that eventually became the University of Michigan-Flint.

Crim said he became interested in running for office after taking his students to a Davison City Council meeting and learning of a vacancy.

In the early 1960s, he served in a variety of city government positions before being elected to the state House in 1964, but he failed to hold his seat in 1966, losing to Republican James F. Smith by 157 votes.

During the next few years, he worked for the Genesee Intermediate School District, served on the old Genesee County Board of Supervisors and was the county board coordinator, a paid administrative post.

He gained an important friend and mentor in former House Speaker William Ryan, D-Detroit, for whom he served as an aide. Crim was returned to the House in 1972 and became the first Democratic speaker to hail from outside the Detroit area in 1975.

His relative youth and habits drew attention as well. At 42, he was considered young for the post, and he was known for practicing yoga, and staying in shape by doing 300 sit-ups and 150 push-ups and running several miles a day.

As speaker, Crim kept wayward Democrats in line and worked well with then-Gov. William G. Milliken, according to news reports.

It was a time, unlike now, when Democrats were in charge of much of Lansing and had a fair amount of influence with the moderate Republican Milliken. Dems in disarray

``I'm glad he's back,'' said former U.S. Sen. Donald W. Riegle, of Crim's return to Michigan. ``It's a big bonus for the state of Michigan. Bobby was an exceptional leader and still is. We're lucky he's from our community.''

Riegle, a Flint native, said he, Crim and former-Gov. James J. Blanchard need to be ready to provide leadership to the Democratic Party after the Nov. 3 election. Crim agreed.

``(The party is) really disjointed,'' Crim said. ``The old cliche, `I don't belong to any organized group, I'm a Democrat,' is true now. We don't have a rallying point. It's very easy now as a Democrat to be distraught and distressed because things are different than they were 10 to 15 years ago.''

That was before the Democrats' power began to ebb in state government, beginning in the early 1980s with the loss of the state Senate, which the GOP has been in firm control of since.

The elections of Gov. John M. Engler and Secretary of State Candice S. Miller in the 1990s furthered a Democratic retreat that reached a crisis point after the party lost control of the state House in 1994. The Democrats took back the House in 1996.

Crim said the party's grass-roots strength has paralleled this decline. He said it has all but vanished, and someone must step in to revitalize party communication at the local level.

``Right after this is over, I think old-line people have to get together and start talking and bring in new people as well,'' he said. ``I don't know what the party is. I don't know who the party is.

``There's the fight to control the skeleton. The union controls the skeleton, but unless there is some meat on it, it doesn't matter.''

Despite his comments critical of the party and his endorsement of Doug Ross in the gubernatorial primary, Crim supports Democratic nominee Geoffrey N. Fieger against Engler.

He said Fieger must tone down his personal attacks on Engler and become more educated on the issues to have a legitimate chance to win in November.

``He's probably one of the brightest guys that has gotten into politics recently, and the only thing about him is he's too flamboyant,'' Crim said.

``If I'm John Engler, I'm going to try to trap him into making all kinds of personal, nasty, crude remarks about me. I'm also going to try to trap him into making mistakes that'll make him look like an amateur and say, `Is this the guy you want to be governor?' ''

Although he said he has retired, Crim has been politically active in recent years. In 1997, he tried to get Riegle to run for governor.

The year before, he campaigned door to door with state Rep. Rose Bogardus, D-Davison, who beat GOP incumbent Sandra J. Hill of Montrose Township and now represents part of his old district.

``Anytime you get somebody with the name like Bobby Crim, it's a big asset,'' Bogardus said. ``He's one of the best-known Democrats in the county. He knows people.''

Crim said he plans to help Bogardus in her re-election bid against Hill this fall and is talking with other local Democrats to see if they want his help.

Door-to-door campaigning - not radio, newspaper and television advertising - is what politics should be about, he said.

He said media corporations and incumbent candidates are forces too entrenched to be able to pass meaningful campaign finance reform.

He said there should be a $25,000 cap on spending in state House races where donations are limited to $50 a person, and $10,000 of the funds should be provided by taxpayers.

``After awhile, you become a little cynical about the situation because you understand the solution - and you're not the only one who understands the solution - but nobody is trying to take it on and if (anyone does) they are a voice in the wilderness, so to speak,'' he said.

``The chance of doing the obvious - what's needed - it's very small.''

The opinions are blunt and strong - just like when he was a power in Lansing. But the extent of his clout nowadays is uncertain.

And so is whether he wants to exercise influence.

``He (could be) a presence behind the scenes,'' said Bill Ballenger, editor and publisher of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics.

``I think he's enough of a politician to keep his hand in. ... I'm sure if Geoff Fieger called him up for advice, he'd like to give it.''

If Crim remains only an interested observer of politics, that would be fine with him. He said he is satisfied with visiting his family and exercising.

He said he still runs 30 to 40 miles a week to stay in shape and competes in several races other than the Crim.

``My regrets are small,'' he said. ``The things I've enjoyed are large, and if I get hit by a meteorite tomorrow, I've lived a good life. I've enjoyed it really.''