Snyder looking at 2nd term, still has lots to do - WNEM TV 5

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN

AP Political Writer

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder isn't yet announcing his re-election bid, but he says there's still a lot he wants to accomplish that may spill into a second term.

The Republican governor told The Associated Press in a Friday interview that he has learned after a year and a half in office that "things don't happen overnight." He says that's where persistence pays off, one reason he's considering another run in 2014.

Snyder says he hopes people "are excited about what we've accomplished" and want to keep the same team in place through 2018.

The Ann Arbor venture capitalist won a five-way GOP primary in 2010 and the general election after spending nearly $6 million of his own money on the race. He took office Jan. 1, 2011.

Meanwhile, Snyder says the "mess in Washington" is holding back the nation's recovery, but he doesn't blame any single person for high jobless rates.

Snyder says that neither the nation's 8.3 percent unemployment rate for July nor Michigan's 8.6 percent rate for June are "good enough."

But he also points out that Michigan's rate is down from the 14.4 percent peak it hit in fall 2009. He says the national rate "really needs to come down."

He says Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican opponent Mitt Romney should spend more time talking about what they want to do "rather than spending time talking about why the other person has issues."

He says the nation's economy needs "common-sense solutions."

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.