That's not to say that only Dems have found gainful employment in the bureaucracy.  Laura Toy and Mike Goschka are two Republicans who are no longer in the Senate but still draw a paycheck from the tax payers.  But the GOP list pales in comparison with the Dems.

And many of these Dem losers (no pun intended) are making more cake now than they would have had they won their elections, often well over $80K (Toy and Goschka are at $65K).

Andy Levin, Carl Williams, Alexander Lipsey, Julie Dennis, Bob Emerson, Rich Brown, Mike Murphy, Chris Kolb and Bill McConico are all former candidates or members of the legislature and are well taken care of right now (though McConico only makes $35,000 working for freshman Rep. Bert "What's a Driver's License" Johnson).

Mark Slavens, another unsuccessful candidate, is also in the mix for a judicial appointment.

Add now to the mix Leo Lalonde, Democrat contributor, Democrat National Committee newsletter consultant and a former staff spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

While we hear constant bellyaching (all justified, mind you) from the Governor and her spokesmen and friends at the Capitol about a budget crunch, any hope or expectation of a promised hiring freeze seems to have gone out the window.  Lalonde is now working as a recruiter for health care workers for the state.  No word on what experience (if any) he has recruiting health care workers.  

Even more egregious is that this particular friend of the administration got to bypass Civil Service guidelines.  The job, you see, was never posted.  So now, instead of working as an at-will political employee he's got a cushy job that's officially classified.  He's there for the long haul.

Of course this begs the question... if folks in Lansing are aware of this one example how many more examples are out there waiting to be discovered?  If the long list of former legislative candidates is any indication there's plenty of cronyism to go around.