page_title: Jennifer Granholm
section_title: Second term: 2007–2011
hierarchical_section_title: Jennifer Granholm / Governor of Michigan / Second term: 2007–2011
caption_attribution_description: Jennifer Granholm
context_page_description: Jennifer Mulhern Granholm is a Canadian-American politician, lawyer, educator, author, and political commentator. A member of the Democratic Party, she was Attorney General of Michigan from 1999 to 2003 and the 47th Governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011. She was the first woman to serve as Michigan's governor. In January 2017, she was hired as a CNN political contributor.
  Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Granholm moved from Canada to California at age four. She graduated from San Carlos High School and briefly attempted an acting career, then held a variety of jobs before attending the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 and then a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She then clerked for Judge Damon Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1991 and in 1995 she was appointed to the Wayne County Corporation Counsel.
  Granholm ran for Attorney General of Michigan in 1998 to succeed 37-year Democratic incumbent Frank J. Kelley.
context_section_description: The 2006 elections saw a return to power by the Democrats in the Michigan State House of Representatives and the retention of Republican control over the Michigan Senate. The partisan division of power in Michigan's state government led to a showdown between Granholm and lawmakers over the FY 2008 state budget that resulted in a four-hour shutdown of nonessential state services in the early morning of October 1, 2007, until a budget was passed and signed. The budget cut services, froze state spending in areas such as the arts, increased the state income tax, and created a new set of service taxes on a variety of businesses, e.g., ski lifts and interior design and landscaping companies, to address a state budget shortfall. As a result of the controversial budget, some taxpayer and business advocates called for a recall campaign against Granholm and lawmakers who voted for the tax increases.
  The budget crisis eventually led Standard & Poor's to downgrade Michigan's credit rating from AA to AA-. Additionally, the crisis contributed to sinking approval ratings for Granholm, which went from 43 percent in August 2007 to a low of 32 percent in December 2007. She had one of the lowest approval ratings for any governor in the United States.
  In 2007 Granholm proposed and signed into law the No Worker Left Behind Act to provide two years of free training or community college for unemployed and displaced workers. Since its launch in August 2007, more than 130,000 people have enrolled in retraining. The program caps tuition assistance at $5000 per year for two years, or $10,000 per person, and covers retraining in high-demand occupations and emerging industries.
  The Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth reported back in October 2009 that 62,206 people had enrolled and that of the 34,355 who had completed training, 72% had found work or retained their positions and a further 18,000 were still in long-term or short-term training. 16% of all enrolments had withdrawn or failed to complete the training. As of July 2010, more than two years after the program was launched, 65,536 people were in training or involved in on-the-job training. Dropouts had been reduced to 13.1% of enrollments.
  Granholm delivered her sixth State of the State address on January 29, 2008. The speech focused mainly on creating jobs in Michigan through bringing alternative energy companies to Michigan. Through passing a renewable portfolio standard, which would require that 10 percent of Michigan's energy would come from renewable sources by 2015 and 25 percent by 2025, Granholm expected the alternative energy industry to emerge in Michigan. Since the passage of the standard, Mariah Power, Global Wind Systems, Cascade Swift Turbine, Great Lakes Turbine, and 38 other companies have announced new projects in Michigan. The solar and wind power industries now provide over 10,000 jobs in Michigan. As a result of Granholm's efforts, Michigan is now fourth in the nation in the number of jobs in the solar industry and first in the nation for clean energy patents.
  Granholm also called in the speech for an incentive package to offer tax breaks to filmmakers who shoot in Michigan and use local crews in production. A package of bills offering film industry incentives was approved by both houses of the Michigan legislature and signed into law by Granholm on April 7, 2008.
  Partly because of pressure from Granholm, Michigan's Democratic presidential primary was moved up to January 15, leading the Democratic National Committee to strip the Michigan Democratic Party of its delegates (Michigan historically had held its caucuses on February 9). Granholm has been named by some as a possible candidate for United States Attorney General. She was the policy chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
  On April 29, 2008, Granholm had emergency surgery to fix a bowel obstruction that stemmed from a 1993 accident. Because of the surgery, Granholm had to postpone a trip to Israel and Kuwait. She finally made the journey in November 2008 and signed a water technology partnership ag
caption: Granholm at a campaign event in November 2006
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