Michigan Primary

[dmmidmi]

Probably Dillon and Hoekstra--dumb and dumber.

I've seen Mike Bouchard/Terri Lynn Land signs all over, but I've yet to see one of their commercials...it almost seems like they weren't even trying.

Gotta love this, though: http://detnews.com/article/20100615/POLITICS02/6150402/Andy-Dillon-s--hire-Michigan-first--gov-ad-is-work-of-Chicago-firm

[dmmidmi]

I HOPE Mike Cox

Oh, me too. I hear he's hard on crime.

Since Mike Cox has become Michigan's AG, Detroit has been ranked near--or at--the top of CQ Press' list of Most Dangerous Cities in America. Yeah, real hard on crime.

[dmmidmi]

I HOPE Mike Cox

Oh, me too. I hear he's hard on crime.

Since Mike Cox has become Michigan's AG, Detroit has been ranked near--or at--the top of CQ Press' list of Most Dangerous Cities in America. Yeah, real hard on crime.

Wow, seriously?  What control does a state Attorney General have on violent crime in a city?  Not much.

Detroit was a violent hell hole long before Mike Cox was Attorney General.

Damn, Baltimore is violent, but I don't blame my moronic Atty General, Doug Gansler

I'm not blaming him for Detroit's crime rate. I'm addressing the fallacy that he's "hard on crime." He has had seven years to address underlying problems that exacerbate Detroit's growing crime rate (corruption in city council, the police department, etc.), but has instead decided to let them go.

Either way, I think the resurfacing Manoogian Mansion debacle will keep him from winning the nomination.

[dmmidmi]

Regarding my first post, I finally saw a Mike Bouchard commercial yesterday. However, it's probably too little too late: http://www.freep.com/article/20100729/NEWS15/100729056/1319/Snyder-holds-edge-in-tight-GOP-governors-race

[dmmidmi]

What on Earth?  Have you people been living in Michigan ever?  His ads have been all over the place, since at least this spring.  He made me all excited until I found out that this so-called "nerd" was a Republican.  Hmph!  Everyone knows no nerds can be Republicans

Well, I do suppose he would probably be best of all the Republican candidates.  He seems the least crazy.  I'm not looking forward to my introduction to voting in Michigan this fall.  I just hope the Democrats nominate someone decent, though I don't have any say in the matter unfortunately

He has been airing ads since the Super Bowl: http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/rick-snyder-in-super-bowl-ad-asks-voters-to-embrace-one-tough-nerd/

I've heard that he recently gave his campaign over $5 million...fundraising must be getting tough for him.

[dmmidmi]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2010/by_state/MI_Page_0803.html?SITE=MIDTFELN&SECTION=POLITICS

Geez...I would've bet the house that Hoekstra was going to win. Snyder put together a really good campaign, and I didn't think he stood a chance eight months ago.

[dmmidmi]

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/elections/Bernero-tops-Dillon-in-primary-race

Wow, that was early.

[dmmidmi]

I'm so pissed off right now - Snyder is a terrible candidate who will kill the Republican party.  If he wins - I'm gonna go crazy tonight.

No way. Though it's a little more difficult to determine exactly where he stands on the policy spectrum (due to the fact that he doesn't have a voting record), he has--by far--more room to expand on crossover support than either Pete Hoekstra or Mike Cox.

Hoekstra is an excellent fit for his Congressional District (I used to live there, and he remains popular)--he's Dutch and extremely conservative, just as his successor is going to be. However, MI-02 is hardly a microcosm of Michigan as a whole. And Mike Cox was trying to run to the right of him. What are the chances that either would have garnered much crossover support in the general?

If the Michigan Republican Party really wanted to give a hard-right conservative the nomination, they would have encouraged one or the other to sit this election out--so that conservative support wasn't split between the two.

By the way, it's interesting that Hoekstra barely won anything outside of his home district.

[dmmidmi]

My long-time Democratic friend texted me saying he voted for Snyder and will vote for him in November.

Maybe he'll prevail, but I think this'll be a repeat of 2006, with a businessman getting slammed by the things he did in his company.

Dick DeVos' campaign suffered from a couple of road bumps. First, 2006 was a very good year for Democrats across the country. The second was his not-so-mainstream social policy beliefs. It was a tight race for months, until he started talking about how he wanted creationism taught in schools. The third, of course, was Amway, which definitely hasn't gone without is share of criticism.

Honestly, DeVos ran a hideous campaign, illustrated by the fact that he had trouble winning a simple majority in his home county: http://miboecfr.nictusa.com/election/results/06GEN/02000000.html

 Thus far though, Snyder has run a very good campaign, in my opinion. He has been advertising heavily since February, he has built his name recognition, yet has avoided becoming old news. We'll see how Bernero's campaign uses Gateway in their attack ads.

[dmmidmi]

Well it looks like the nerd is our next governor. Bernero is a joke and everyone knows it. We all know how well he handled Lansing.

Really? You must not spend much time there. Old Town has been the focus of a lot of urban renewal projects, Common Ground continues to book hugely popular acts, and they've built new condos in the stadium district within the past five years. Downtown hasn't seen that much activity in a long time.

[dmmidmi]

The fact of the matter is that Bernero can't campaign to save his life.

I couldn't disagree more. The first time I met Virg was in 2002, when he was running for State Senate. Even then, he was more than happy to agree to come speak to a group of high schoolers, while his opponent sent in his PR representative. Virg is a very grassroots populist type, who loves knocking on doors, shaking hands, stumping, and hanging out with Lansing residents.

He went from almost zero name recognition outside of Mid-Michigan earlier this year to beating one of the most well-known politicians statewide by nearly 20 points in the primary. That typically doesn't happen when one "can't campaign to save their life."

[dmmidmi]

The fact of the matter is that Bernero can't campaign to save his life.

With just one exception (1990 GOP John Engler), Michigan has been like Virginia (since 1977) and New Jersey (since 1989): Since 1978, the state has been electing to the governor's mansion the opposition White House party [candidate]. If that trend holds, Republican Rick Snyder has the advantage to win the general and become the 48th governor of Michigan.

As for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Virg Bernero: For someone who "can't campaign to save his life," he's been effective at getting elected to the Michigan Senate and Michigan House of Representatives, prior to winning election in 2005 as mayor of the state's capitol, Lansing.

But don't let these facts get in your way.…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virg_Bernero#Political_career

There's a Difference between Campaigning and winning a General election in Lansing and winning statewide.  Let me ask, when was the last time he had a remotely competitive election?  According to Wikipedia, Lansing's last Mayor election wasn't even contested by the Republican party.

I know for a fact that the 2002 State Senate election was competitive (I was living there at the time) as far as State Senate races go. I'm sure there's very little information available on the Internet regarding the race, but I do remember the Lansing State Journal endorsing Paul DeWeese (his Republican opponent) over him.