The media is making a lot of hay out of recent polls that show DeVos inching in front of Granholm but still firmly within the polls margin of error- meaning we went from a statistical dead heat to... a statistical dead heat. It makes for splashy headlines but doesn't tell us much about the race itself.
What we do know about the race is that DeVos has been on the air for several weeks and has managed to convince the majority of people who aren't undecided that he's a jobs provider. Meanwhile, Granholm has been forced to save her money (since she's not a billion-heir to the scAmway fortune) and has been the subject of a continuous assault from DeVos, Sikkema and DeRoche as well as the state media which will do anything to make a close race and force both candidates to spend lots of money buying ads from them (please, can we get publican campaign financing already?). The pundits are desperately urging Granholm to go on the air and begin the campaign, ignoring history by forgetting that they said the very thing to the Stabenow campaign which held it's fire until late in the season and ended up taking out the much more well-financed incumbent Senator Spencer Abraham.
Now, you'd think DeVos would be a good spot, coming from behind, pulling ahead and with lots of money left in his Scrooge McDuck vault somewhere in Ada and in the pockets of his rich contributors who will surely benefit from another round or two or three of tax cuts) . But when you look at the polls a bit closer than the 5-second sound byte you see something that doesn't bode well for the DeVos campaign.
As pointed out here the West Michigan native DeVos actually trails Granholm by 15 points on his home turf of Kent County - a heavily Republican area which has been the receipient of millions in largesse from the personal fortunes of the DeVos and Amway families as well as having been the beneficiary of state spending due to the West Michigan mafia's control over the coffers in Lansing over the last decade of Republican rule. Meanwhile, DeVos' high polling numbers come from the areas where he isn't really known outside of a recent blitz of slick campaign ads that have yet to receive a proper response from the other side and manage to avoid taking stances on any of the tough issues that will surely come to the fore before November. Now, it's fully possible that Granholm waits too long and lets DeVos convince voters he's a better alternative but it seems more likely to me that once the Granholms campaign informs the public of DeVos' actual stances on the issues the people of Michigan will get to see a clearer portrait of a man who is disliked even by those who have most benefited from his family's fortune. Let's not forget that in 2000 Dick Posthumus got 60% of the Kent County vote and Bush got 59% in the county in his presidential races. Once again, I don't think the playing field looks good for DeVos in the long term. If DeVos can't win on his home turf he doesn't stand a chance to beat Governor Granholm.
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8 comments:
wah wah wah ... why must you and the Granholm campaign always lead anything you say about DeVos by "He's a multibillionaire..." I would much rather have a billionaire control the state money than someone who requires and has been on the public dole their whole life. He runs a successful business which requires leadership, financial prowess, etc. More of the same gives us more of the same.....
Well it gets mentioned that he's a billionaire because he is. I guess you must have a problem with facts. If he was on unemployment we'd mention that. It just so happens that he inherited the family fortune and "led" the company his daddy and Jay Van Andel created. If he doesn't like the truth he could have donated his money to charity instead of using it to try to buy his way into politics and he could have actually made his own way in life instead of being Michigan's answer to George W. Bush and following Daddy's footsteps.
As far as being a brilliant leader, he pretty much fumbled the ball and was forced out from the many stories I've read on his term at the head of Alticor/Amway or whatever they call themselves to make people forget their a pyrami- excuse me, "multi-level marketing" scheme. If DeVos wants to run on his leadership of the company he's going to have to defend his record as a jobs destroyer in Michigan while adding jobs in China. If DeVos wants to be a leader, then maybe he can start by telling us where he's going to lead us instead of hiding behind slogans than mean nothing and false promises. It's easy to attack Granholm, but if what Lansing is doing is not working we need to look at the party in control of most of state government for over a decade- the Republican Party. His wife was state chair of that party and he's a major player in it so if their policies aren't working he should look in the mirror. It's not working- and he wants more of the same. No thanks.
GR Press listed 87th candidates tonight.....Brian Reynolds name was not on the list???
He did file. Apparently a correct is coming. GR Press screwed up.
In typical MI GOP fashion, Saul Anuzis has attacked the Governor's personal efforts to bring jobs to Michigan. Michigan is getting hit hard by Bush tax and trade policies and is suffering from over a decade of Republican leadership. If you haven't seen it, the Governor started a 'jobs diary' on her website to let people keep track of her hard work to bring jobs back home. Of course, Saul Anuzis immediately launched an attack on her without the facts to back it up. Check it out and respond: http://www.granholmforgov.com/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage2
Let's talk facts.
1. Michigan continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates of the whole country.
2. Policies such as the SBT, higher minimum wages and higher taxes and fees contribute to this.
3. The states economy has been largly dependent on the Automobile industry which are beholden to UNIONS the great promotors of mediocrity.
4. Republicans lack backbone on these issues, but the Gov. is against the tax breaks, for the unions and for higher minimum wage.
5. Successfull business, even personal finance require discipline, leadership and planning - ask richard hatch....
6. Outsourcing jobs to China is not always a bad thing. Many companies, reducing manufacturing jobs here will increase and expand higher paying upper level jobs. People who only produce 5.15 oops I mean 6.95...no ooops again 7.40 an hour should not be getting paid $20/hr. This causes inflation and deflates my higher paying job.
Hey Anonymous, get your facts straight! Michigan's "high" unemployment rate is still pretty low historically- the problem is not unemplyment but underemployment (workers having to go with part time and low wage jobs due to outsourcing and other forces). I suppose you agree with Slick Dick's wife that the problem is workers making too much money. Well, remember how Michigan was made great? Guys like Henry Ford (maybe you've heard of him) thought workers should get paid enough to actually buy the products they made. Not anymore! Now they have to shop at Wal-Mart and buy Chinese products while wondering why their plants are being shuttered. Wake up!
And the REPUBLICANS just raised the minimum wage so you can shut it about that issue! The Governor wants to fix the SBT but unlike Sikkema, DeVos and DeRoche actually wants to be responsible in doing so. I wish she'd come out with an alternative but we know what the GOP would do- no matter what it wouldn't be good enough and they'd just sit on their arses and attack her plan like they've done for the last four years.
Actually, a higher minium wage trickles up as low income people can afford to buy more goods and services which actually causes your wage to go up since companies start doing more business and can afford to pay more. Check your facts. History doesn't lie. Raises in minimum wage HELP higher paid workers. Unions have been the best thing to happen for higher wage workers- if somebody can get paid a living wage for a menial task then someone with more skills automatically gets a raise- it's part of that supply and demand you guys are always going on about. Spouting Rush Limbaugh talking points doesn't cut it... but it's nice to know that since you "got yours" you could give a crap about everybody else! Typical ReThuglican!!
Michigan's tax burden is actually about middle of the pack among the 50 states. Does the SBT need reform? Sure, I can buy that. Taxing a business' payroll would dampen hiring (because you can't budget just for wages and, hopefully, benefits, but you need to factor in the extra SBT as well).
But I'd like to ask, where were the offsets in the Michigan Republicans' plan to kill the SBT? The state is required to run a balanced budget. Michigan Republicans can't simply print money like their counterparts in DC do.
Anyway, taxes aren't the only reason businesses decided to locate or not locate in a place. The other problem the state has is it tends to have higher energy costs, a side effect of being on the end of the transmission lines (forced on it by geography). Dow Chemical for months now has been saying it's being hurt by higher energy costs. I live out West now, and Montana and Wyoming (both with Democratic governors, both with expanding economies - and in Wyoming's case booming so much they're recruiting workers from Michigan to fill their labor shortage) are jumping on next-gen energy projects. In both states they're pursuing coal gasification technologies. Montana is also encouraging wind farms. What is Michigan doing about energy? Next to nothing, because the state's politicians (of both parties, to be fair) keep thinking the auto industry is going to come back. It isn't. Those days are over. But Michigan's geographical disadvantage can be turned into an advantage if it were to encourage development of wave-generated energy (which is already being pursued vigorously in Denmark, for example, but to my knowledge is barely a blip in the US). That's the sort of next-gen economy the state needs to be focused on.
As for point 6 listed by anonymous above, tell me how an unskilled laborer is going to get one of these new "upper level jobs." Congratulations: you've just eradicated the middle class and made this a two-tier society like some 3rd World banana republic.
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