Michigan Governor elections 1950-2002

[Dave from Michigan]

 year   rep                                                          dem
1950    Kelly               933,998        49.6%       Williams    935,152      49.7%
1952    Alger            1,423,275        49.6%      Williams   1,431,893    49.9%
1954   Leonard          963,300         44%          Williams   1,216308    55.6%
1956   Cobo             1,376,376        45.1%      Williams    1,666,689   54.6%
1958   Bagwell         1,078,089        46.6%      Williams    1,225,533   53%
1960   Bagwell         1,602,022        49.2%      Swainson  1,643,634   50.4%
1962   Romney         1,420,086       51.3%       Swainson  1,339,513   48.4%
1964   Romney         1,764,355       55.8%       Staebler    1,381,442   43.7%
1966   Romney1        1,490,430       60.5%       Ferency     963,383      39.1%
1970   Milliken          1,339,047       50.4%       S. Levin2    1,294,638   48.7%
1974   Milliken  3           winner                          S.  Levin 
1978   Milliken          1,628,485       56.7%       Fitzgerald  1,237,256   43.1%
1982   Headlee        1,369,582       45%          Blanchard   1,561,291   51.3%
1986   Lucas               753,647       31.4%       Blanchard   1,632138    68.1%
1990   Engler            1,276,134      49.7%       Blanchard   1,258,539   49%
1994   Engler            1,899,101      61.4%       Wolpe         1,188,438   38.4%

1 Governor term changed to 4 years
2  Sander Levin not Carl
3  Apparently I lost the 1974 election results, but  Milliken won

                       

[nini2287]

Nice table.  What happened to Blanchard between 1986-1990?

[Q]

Nice table.  What happened to Blanchard between 1986-1990?

That's exactly what I was thinking.  The only candidate to win in a landslide in this entire chart didn't get re-elected.

[Dave from Michigan]

It's even more weirder that than it appears, and still doesn't make sense.  Basically what happened (lets go back 7 years) was in 1983 then Governor Blanchard passed a 38% tax increase,  this caused a huge outrage and 2 democratic state senators were recalled (Oakland county I believe) they were replaced with republicans which gave the republicans control.  Apparently then state senator Engler was partially behind the recall, and was made majority leader, blocking Blanchard's agenda.  Also the results don't show the Lt. Governor candidate but Engler was the Lt. governor nominee in 86.  Now why Blachard did so well, I don't believe Lucas was considered a good candidate also the economy was good and wasn't 86 a good year for democrats (took back the U.S. Senate).  In 1990 things were different a  sour ecomony plus Engler hitting Blachard on taxes (property taxes were quite high).  Also it was a ugly campaign, Engler did well in the debates and according to some there was discontentment among voters.  Also a Detroit did not show up in large numbers, a fact the democrats never forget around elections now.

I hope this helps a little I will look for more info
the source for the 1990 election is

//www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/pdfs/elections.pdf

scroll to the bottom of the page for the 1990 election

[nini2287]

Interesting anyalsis and link 9iron.  Lucas must have been an absolutely horrible candidate to get slaughtered in 1986 despite the good economy given the tax increase and recall.

[Dave from Michigan]

Also I found out  Lucas switched parties, he was a democrat in 1970s and 80's which pissed off a lot of people (He was wayne county executive then).  Also he ran for Wayne county sheriff  a few years ago (as a republican) and got crushed (kind of he got 30% which is more than Bush got)

[nini2287]

Also I found out  Lucas switched parties, he was a democrat in 1970s and 80's which pissed off a lot of people (He was wayne county executive then).  Also he ran for Wayne county sheriff  a few years ago (as a republican) and got crushed (kind of he got 30% which is more than Bush got)

Getting more than what Bush got isn't saying very much.  Didn't he only get 6%?

[Dave from Michigan]

Also I found out  Lucas switched parties, he was a democrat in 1970s and 80's which pissed off a lot of people (He was wayne county executive then).  Also he ran for Wayne county sheriff  a few years ago (as a republican) and got crushed (kind of he got 30% which is more than Bush got)

Getting more than what Bush got isn't saying very much.  Didn't he only get 6%?

in Detroit,  he got 29% in wayne county

[mathstatman]

In 1974, Milliken won over Sander Levin by 51.1% to 46.8%. I read somewhere that Levin supported school vouchers that year. Can anyone verify this?

[hopper]

I used to know a family that moved from MI to NJ in the late 80's. I went to school with one of the kids in the family at that time before they moved to a neighboring town in NJ.  Now I know why they moved from MI to NJ: because of Blanchards tax hike I guess and high property taxes. Keep in mind the public sector unions were not as big then in NJ as they are now.

How did Blanchard get 68% in 1986 after that big of a tax hike anyway? NJ dumped Florio in 1993 because of a tax hike.