Everybody wants to talk about national politics. It’s a fact of life. And it’s especially true on a campus of politically-inclined college students, many of whom actively worked to elect the current group in Washington.

The questions on everyone’s minds are big ones. Will Congress pass a health care reform bill that exempts certain states and Democratic constituents from paying for it? Will the U.S. Treasury bail out more banks? (And then, paradoxically, tax them without any regard for what each bank has already paid back, as Obama suggested last week?)

I will admit to being just as concerned as you, Daily readers, about the fate of the country. But a passion for national political developments doesn’t translate into an ability to shape them. Unless you live in Massachusetts and will be voting in the special election today to fill the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat, you probably won’t have much of an effect on national health care legislation.

But there are important political developments happening right here in Michigan, too. And unlike the nation as a whole, the state’s issues are ones that Michigan residents have considerably more power to resolve. Case in point: the 2010 gubernatorial election, which is shaping up to be the most wide-open contest in Michigan politics in decades. So in addition to complaining about Sarah Palin, Ben Nelson and NBC’s executives, I encourage students to become aggressively involved in the governor’s race.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, here’s a recap.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is legally barred from running for re-election again. This is a fortunate turn of events, as this once rising star in the Democratic Party has overseen a complete collapse of both the state economy and her public approval rating over the last few years.

Until this month, the presumptive Democratic front-runner was Lieutenant Gov. John Cherry. But on Jan. 5, he announced that he wouldn’t be a candidate, citing inadequate fundraising. I’m not too disappointed that he’s out, although I’m bummed that I’ll never get to use the great smear campaign slogan I came up with all by myself: “Higher taxes with a Cherry on top” (brilliant, I know).

Cherry’s exit raises questions. Will House Speaker Andy Dillon enter the race? He’s got name recognition, but his capitulation to Republican demands not to raise taxes frustrated many liberals, while his talk of reforming public employee health care benefits won’t win him many labor endorsements. In other words, he’ll face a tough Democratic primary but could run on an increasingly centrist record in the general election, which might be just what the Democrats need to win this year.

Among the other possible names is one of the University’s own – Regent Denise Ilitch (D–Bingham Farms). She gets points in my book for voting against the tuition increase in June, one of the only non-unanimous Board of Regents budget votes in the last few years. On the other hand, her policy positions are a mystery and, according to contribution databases Money.com and OpenSecrets, she’s given a lot of money to Republicans over the years, which isn’t exactly the popular thing to do if you’re a Democrat.

The Republican side has been more heated, with a sort of three-sided battle going on between Attorney General Mike Cox, U.S. Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R–Holland) and Oakland County Sherriff Mike Bouchard. While the end result can’t be guaranteed, the scale is tipping in favor of Cox, who has raised an impressive $1.8 million.

Cox has some good ideas for the state, like cutting the economically crippling Michigan Business Tax in half. But he has some baggage, too — it’s been alleged that he mishandled the investigation into former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s wild party in the fall of 2002. But Hoekstra has posted some controversial Twitter updates and Bouchard performed worse than expected in his 2008 campaign against U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D–Mich.), so they’ve all got issues.

Am I openly rooting for the Republicans? You bet. I often despise their party, but eight years of Democratic rule hasn’t reversed, stopped or even slowed the state’s economic decline. The Michigan business climate was ranked 49th among states by Forbes.com last year, and that’s not going to improve unless business taxes are reduced. It seems like a Republican — Cox, perhaps — may be the only one willing to do that.

Feel free to disagree with my assessment, but please care about this election in some way or another. We may worry about airport security, hate on Wall Street and take sides in Jay Leno vs. Conan O’Brien (I’m with Coco), but when it comes to Michigan, there’s more at stake for us — and more control in our hands.

Robert Soave was the Daily's editorial page editor in 2009. He can be reached at rsoave@umich.edu.