IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - Last evening, Tim Skubick anchor and producer of “Off the Record” spoke to an audience at Gogebic Community college. Skubick’s Public T.V. show is a very well watched program in the U.P. as it is in the rest of the State of Michigan.

Much of his success is due to his tough and solid questioning of our political leaders, and through this questioning he hopes to make his viewers more knowledgeable voters. An interesting portion of Skubick’s talk focused on the voter’s choice to impose term limits on our politicians here in Michigan. While well intended, term limits have had an adverse effect on our state.

The discussion of course focused on the current gubernatorial campaign between Snyder and Bernero.

Regrettably, this according to Skubick may be the first race for Governor without a debate. Snyder is enjoying a large lead built up through the use of TV ads. He won his party’s nomination by spending millions on TV ads and a few town hall meetings and no debates or public questioning by the media. The reality was that all those voting for Snyder knew nothing more about him than what his TV ads suggested.

While claiming not to be a Politian, Snyder has surrounded himself with politicos who would like nothing more than to keep him in a cocoon until Election Day, away from debates and cross examination by the media.

Skubick stated that the candidates will meet today to discuss the debate issue. He predicts that Bernero will want three debates and that Snyder will say just one debate and as a result there will likely be no debate.

Skubick believes that in a democracy, where the candidates are competing for the State’s highest office that the voter’s should be entitled to at least one round questions and that we should not have to make our choice based on TV advertising.

Skubick described how the once vibrant press corps in Lansing is now just a memory. He discussed some the reasons why we no longer have political reporters such as him.
“Off the Record” can be seen on Michigan public television stations and has an audience of 100,000 viewers each week.

Skubick is the longest serving member of the state capitol press corps and covers the state capitol for a variety of other media outlets including 66 radio stations through the Michigan Radio Network. He writes a weekly political column for 22 statewide newspapers and is in high demand on the public speaking circuit around the state.