Detroit — After eight years of disastrous governance, it is only fitting that Gov. Jennifer Granholm — whom Bill Ballenger, the sage of Michigan politics, calls the worst governor in state history — could not even competently launch the campaign of her anointed successor, Lt. Gov. John Cherry.

Cherry’s abrupt withdrawal last week from the 2010 gubernatorial race has blown the Democratic race wide open. Dominated by Granholm’s narcissistic need for the limelight (she never gave Cherry a plum project) and scarred by her legacy (Michigan suffers the nation’s highest unemployment rate), Cherry pulled out due to lack of funds. Donors recognized a corpse when they saw one.

Suddenly, Michigan Democrats face a battle to retain the executive office of a key industrial swing state against a formidable Republican field.

Andy Dillon, the Democratic speaker of Michigan’s house of representatives, would be the obvious choice — he is ambitious and a successful businessman with access to money — but the party’s grassroots unions have had their pitchforks out after Dillon proposed a sensible plan to reform teachers’ health benefits, which are bankrupting the state budget. (Granholm threw him under the bus, thereby adding to a labor-hugging legacy that ignored the state’s long-term problems.)

The Democratic void has attracted Congressman Bart Stupak — the House health-care debate’s abortion speed bump. (The Left should not celebrate. Stupak says he won’t decide whether to run until after the final health-care vote). But Stupak is not a natural statewide candidate either, as he comes “from the wrong section of the state,” says Ballenger. That is, he hails from western Michigan, whose pro-gun, pro-life values are frowned upon in the urban metropolis of Detroit.

No wonder Stupak daydreams that “maybe there won’t be a primary. The best interest of the party would be to coalesce around a candidate.”

The party disarray has caught the attention of the White House, which is now reportedly meeting with potential candidates. The Detroit Free Press writes that Denise Ilitch, daughter of Little Caesar’s founder-owner Mike Ilitch, met on Tuesday with President Obama and other White House officials.

Other names reportedly in the dugout: DTE Energy CEO Tony Earley and Lansing mayor Virg Bernero. Ilitch’s access to cash, name recognition, and outsider’s distance from Granholm would make her an attractive candidate in a shortened race.

Regardless of whom the Democrats nominate, however, they will face a hostile state mood and a strong Republican field including high-profile figures such as Attorney General Mike Cox, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, and millionaire Gateway computer mogul Rick Snyder.

– Henry Payne is an editorial writer and cartoonist with the Detroit News.