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MARQUETTE -- The person who succeeds Governor Granholm in Lansing will not be decided for another 14 months, but one Republican hopeful was in Marquette Friday introducing his newly announced running mate.  

Oakland County Sherriff Mike Bouchard and his running mate, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, fielded community questions at Latitude restaurant.

"I want to fix Lansing.  Michigan isn't broken; Lansing is.  The people are incredibly hard working, we've got a great infrastructure, the beauty is second-to-none--the U.P. is a prime example of that--a work ethic second-to-none.  We've got to create an environment that's driven out of Lansing to let people succeed in the business world and get good quality jobs," said Bouchard.

Both Bouchard and Land agree that the U.P. is important to Michigan's future.

"The folks in the U.P. are very important to Michigan.  The economy up here--whether it's the mines or whether it's tourism or agriculture--we need to have that be successful in the U.P. to help the whole state of Michigan.  So we're going to campaign up here.  I've been up here a lot, and I look forward to spending more time up here," said Land.

Local Chair of the Republican Party, Dan Adamini, is excited to see what the Bouchard/Land ticket can do.

"I was absolutely thrilled to see that Terri Lynn Land is running with Mr. Bouchard.  Although we've got a lot of good candidates in this race, and I, myself haven't really decided where my loyalties lie," said Adamini.

This campaign stop in the U.P. is part of their "Fix Lansing, Get Michigan Back to Work" tour.

Bouchard is in the early stages of a campaign against five other Republican candidates.  Governor Granholm has reached her term limit, so there will be a race for the Democratic ticket as well.