Family Legacy
After one term in the State House,
"old pro" Gabe Leland is firmly entrenched
in his father's former district.
Harry Kirsbaum
Staff Writer
B
urton Leland remem-
bers canvassing for re-
election door-to-door
in his Detroit neighborhood in
the early 1980s, shlepping his
young son Gabe in a red wagon.
Now the kid has just been re-
elected to serve as state represen-
tative in Michigan's 10th District
— Dad's former district in west
Detroit — and Burton has been
elected to a seat on the Wayne
County Board of Commissioners.
Insurance redlining in his
Rosedale Park neighborhood
took Burton from a career in
social work into politics, and he
got involved with then-Detroit
City Council president, now U.S.
Sen. Carl Levin in 1978.
Burton, now married to
Roseanne for 35 years, lost his
first election as state representa-
tive in 1978; but he tried again,
won, and hasn't stopped winning.
Although Gabe grew up in
Lansing and attended East
Lansing public schools, he
spent a lot of time in Dad's dis-
trict, he said. "My constituents
really watched me grow up and
watched me mature. A lot of
them were satisfied when I ran
because they knew where I came
from and what kind of father I
had."
Two years ago, at 22, Gabe
came home from Ferris State
University in Big Rapids, where
he was working on a bachelor's
degree in public administration,
and told his dad he wanted to
enter politics.
"Of course, every father wants
his son to follow you in your
footsteps:' said Burton, who then
was running for his last term as
state senator in the 5th District
of Detroit in 2004.
Burton had built up some
12
November 16 • 2006
goodwill in Detroit after 24 years.
The self-described "white Jewish
boy in a 90 percent African
American district" obviously
knew what he was doing.
Burton told his son, "If you're
going to do it, it's gonna mean
you got to stick to the game plan;
you have to listen to your father.
You're not ready to make deci-
sions on your own; you're gonna
have to follow your dad and let
me run the campaign.
"Every moment that you're not
knocking on a door or writing a
thank-you note or raising a dime,
you're gonna have to give me a
complete accountability of your
time Burton said.
The message was clear: cam-
.paign hard or lose his father's
leadership skills on the stump.
On The Campaign Trail
Gabe had a bit of trouble with the
constant attention at first.
"Because I had been out of
the house for some time, it was
a little bit difficult:' he said. "I
have certain boundary issues
with my parents, like most kids. I
literally had to sleep in the same
house, and we had to co-exist for
three or four months, but it really
brought us close together"
They spent six or seven hours
a day knocking on doors in the
district. "I got a chance to meet
them and greet them and tell
them what I'm gonna do for
them. And a lot of them said,
`Look, I remember watching you
grow up; I think you're going
to have that same passion and
respect that your father did:"
Gabe beat nine candidates in
the 2004 Democratic primary to
easily defeat Republican Reuben
Myers by 90.7 percent in the gen-
eral election.
He handily won re-election
this year.
Burton, term-limited from his
iN
State Senate seat this year, won
the Wayne County Commission's
7th District race with 40.8 per-
cent of the vote against six oppo-
nents in the Aug. 8 primary and
96 percent against Republican
Torion Bridges in the general
election.
The 7th District represents
northwest Detroit, "about half the
size of my Senate seat, 150,000
people he said. "Obviously, it's
a couple of notches below the
Legislature, but it keeps me in
the game."
Gabe's first two years as state
rep was made much smoother
because of his father's knowl-
edge, he said.
"Everything we did went like
clockwork the last two years
because I had the ability to use
my dad's 25 years of experience,"
Gabe said. "All the things that -we
did out of our office were per-
fected by the years that my dad
spent doing the job."
Dad is proud of his son.
"He's very sincere. He's got a
lot of 1960s passion in his heart,"
said Burton, citing Gabe's work
cleaning up neighborhoods with
Blight Busters. "He's a social
worker in that respect because he
kind of watched me."
Gabe's also picked up "by
osmosis" the importance of treat-
ing your constituents like family.
"I told him you have two
families: You have your mom,
your dad, your brother [Zachary,
26, of Hollywood, Calif.] and
your grandma [Eileen Letvin,
82, of West Bloomfield]; but you
also have your constituents, too.
And you always have to be very
respectful and mindful of them.
You'd be nothing without them."
Gabe said he shares in some of
the same causes to rejuvenate the
city of Detroit, including increas-
ing regional transportation.
"I was on the transportation
Gabe Leland campaigns, circa 1984
Burton and Gabe on the House floor.
committee last term and really
got an understanding of the
issue," Gabe said. "I didn't get a
chance to pass the legislation
that I'd like to because we were
the minority party. The system
is very flawed, but now we're
in power — and we're going to
change that."
With one term under his belt,
Gabe "is going to have to really
perform the next two terms:'
Burton said. "They will have
some expectations on him. He'll
have the benefit of my experi-
ence. I will advise him if he
comes to me for consultation.
"My son is going to be the
chairman of something —
something. I've never been. With
term limits, he's like a statesman
now."
It's a very strange process with
three terms and you're out, said
Burton. "Your legislators are in
charge of $40 billion, and they
go from the mailroom to the
boardroom overnight. When they
realize how to spend your money,
they're gone, and then you get
another kindergarten class that
tries to do the same thing again."
Gabe is preparing for life after
politics. He transferred to Central
Michigan University because it's
closer to Metro Detroit events.
"It's important to me',' said the
west Detroit resident. "You gotta
have something to fall back on
other than your ass:'
Burton said his son is on his
own, but he'll be watching.
"At some point, like any parent,
there's the door, there's the world,
and you're on your own now',' he
said. "I will say I got a lot of folks
watching him. I got my spies out
there, and he knows it."
Another young Jewish
lawmaker in Detroit was
re-elected as state'repre-
sentative. Steve Tobocman,
a Democrat running in the
12th District of Detroit, beat
Otis Mathis in the primary
with 73 percent of the vote,
and easily won the general
election with 94 percent of
the vote against Republican
challenger Raymond Warner.