Michigan Governor elections 1950-2002
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  Michigan Governor elections 1950-2002
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Author Topic: Michigan Governor elections 1950-2002  (Read 12977 times)
Dave from Michigan
9iron768
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« on: December 26, 2005, 04:04:00 PM »
« edited: December 26, 2005, 04:16:17 PM by 9iron »

 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

                       
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nini2287
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« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2005, 04:57:19 PM »

Nice table.  What happened to Blanchard between 1986-1990?
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Q
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« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2005, 05:12:45 PM »

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.
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Dave from Michigan
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« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2005, 08:10:37 PM »

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
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nini2287
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2005, 08:24:55 PM »

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.
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Dave from Michigan
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« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2005, 10:29:44 PM »

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)
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nini2287
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2005, 11:05:51 PM »

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%?
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Dave from Michigan
9iron768
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« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2005, 11:53:04 PM »

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
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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2012, 01:26:57 PM »

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?
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hopper
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« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2012, 12:46:46 PM »

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.

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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2018, 04:10:29 PM »

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.
His GOP opponent, William Lucas, was Black (and anti-abortion). Lucas was only the second Black major party nominee for Governor (the first was Tom Bradley, D-CA, in 1982). Blanchard overwhelmingly defeated Lucas, 68.1% - 31.4%. Blanchard carried Macomb (which had just voted 2-1 Reagan and narrowly voted for Jack Lousma (R) over Carl Levin for Senate in 1984) 68.0-31.5. Blanchard also carried normally Republican Allegan, Hillsdale, Missaukee, Lapeer, Livingston, and Sanilac Counties. The only county Lucas won was Ottawa, a bastion of GOP and Christian Reformed Church loyalty, which Lucas won 55-45.

BTW, in 1974, Milliken (R) won with 1,356,865 votes (51.07%) to Levin's 1,242,247 (46.75%).
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Bojack Horseman
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« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2018, 05:51:15 PM »
« Edited: August 02, 2018, 05:55:31 PM by Wolverine22 »

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.

A spiteful Coleman Young refused to turn out the Detroit machine because of a feud with Blanchard. Combine this with very low turnout and the fact that it’s hard for a governor to win a third consecutive term, Engler won in a perfect storm. I’m glad I wasn’t alive/politically aware during Engler’s reign of terror. Blanchard was one of the best and most successful governors in Michigan’s history and he was replaced with one of the worst governors we’ve ever had.

Engler’s dismantling of the state mental health system and fiscal irresponsibility still have lasting effects on our state 15 years after he left office. Engler left Granholm a massive budget mess to clean up, and Snyder will be leaving Whitmer/El-Sayed with two public health crises and a budget balanced with smoke and mirrors to clean up.
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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2018, 09:57:20 PM »

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.

A spiteful Coleman Young refused to turn out the Detroit machine because of a feud with Blanchard. Combine this with very low turnout and the fact that it’s hard for a governor to win a third consecutive term, Engler won in a perfect storm. I’m glad I wasn’t alive/politically aware during Engler’s reign of terror. Blanchard was one of the best and most successful governors in Michigan’s history and he was replaced with one of the worst governors we’ve ever had.

Engler’s dismantling of the state mental health system and fiscal irresponsibility still have lasting effects on our state 15 years after he left office. Engler left Granholm a massive budget mess to clean up, and Snyder will be leaving Whitmer/El-Sayed with two public health crises and a budget balanced with smoke and mirrors to clean up.
Plus, Blanchard's dumping Martha Griffiths from the ticket and replacing her with Olivia Maynard, plus his divorce (his ex wrote a book "Till Politics Do Us Part") helped do him in, perhaps with women voters. The gender gap, according to polls, was somewhat smaller than usual that year.

I think Engler won for all these reasons, plus he energized the anti-abortion vote more than Headlee in 1982 (during a recession) or Lucas in 1986.

It was the first statewide election to my knowledge in which the GOP candidate did better in Macomb than Oakland, and the Dem candidate did better in Oakland than Macomb (in both cases by tiny amounts).

Exit polls showed all under-40 age groups voted for Engler, while all 40+ age groups voted for Blanchard.
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