Great Lakes Politics

Will Dems take power? The Grand Rapids Press published their analysis of the Dems chances of grabbing control of the Michigan Legislature recently. They felt that the Dems might pick up a seat or two in either chamber, but that the Republicans should still hold on to power in both chambers. The basic problem with that analysis is that they simply looked at how the district voted in the last election cycle. If both the Democrats and Republicans campaign the way they did before, there isn't much of a hope for change in legislative leadership. However, and this is the important part, there is still a strong anti-incumbent sentiment with many voters. They've seen Michigan wrestle with a lot of problems and they haven't seen folks on either side of the aisle come up with very many solutions. Based purely on an anecodotal level of evidence, I have to say that there is a strong enough sentiment of discontent within the populus that if the Dems put forward some specific viable plans and campaigned hard, they could win a few seats that are generally regarded as strongly Republican. Likewise, if the Republicans did the same thing, they could pick up a few strongly Democratic seats. The only questions is: does either party have the guts to do something like that? To go out their and campaign on something other than sound-bites and empty promises? To sit in one living room after another and tell the voters of Michigan what they want to do if elected and to face their toughest questions? I don't actually know the answer to that question, but I can dream of a world where the answer to all of those questions is a resounding "yes".

Posted by fnemecek at 05:54 PM | Permalink

The House Cafeteria will once again serve french fries on its menu as well as french toast for breakfast, according to a recent article in the Washington Post.  The architect behind this bold strategy is none other than Michigan's own Vernon J. Ehlers (R-3, Grand Rapids).

Most commentators argue that the change was because of the declining public support for President George W. Bush's desire to keep U.S. forces in Iraq throughout the foreseeable future.  Quite frankly, though, I'm fairly confident that Ehlers knew the whole thing was nonsense from day one and, now that he is chairing the House Administration Committee, he's finally in a position to do something about it.

Posted by fnemecek at 05:49 PM | Permalink

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos named Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson as his running mate this morning.  Johnson, 51, is a former GOP state lawmaker from Holly who served in the House of Representatives from 1999 through 2004.

Most of the commentators have focused on the fact that this choice should help DeVos, of Ada in western Michigan, balance out the ticket with a woman from the highly populated southeastern portion of the state.  However, I believe the most important fact in the selection of Johnson is that she doesn't have any political baggage that could hurt the DeVos campaign.

This, of course, stands in start constrast to some of the other prominent Republican women from southeastern Michigan whose names were floated around.

Yes, State Senator Nancy Cassis (R-15, Novi), I am talking about you.

You single-handedly blocked a blocked a legislative package that was put together by your Republican counterparts in the Michigan House to bring more major television and motion picture productions to Michigan - and did so not once, but twice.

In doing so, you cost the Great Lakes State more than $1 billion in investments and new jobs.

For what it's worth, Senator Cassis, we hope that your Democratic challenger this November, Ray Rackowski of Novi, makes you eat everyone of those lost jobs.

But I digress.

Congrats to Johnson on becoming Dick DeVos' running mate. 

Posted by fnemecek at 04:26 PM | Permalink

I was surfing the web this afternoon. I found some interesting background information on Republican gubernatorial nominee Dick DeVos and what he did before assuming the presidency of Amway.

It would appear that Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and her campaign are in for a considerable amount of trouble this November. http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/devosff.htm

Posted by fnemecek at 10:04 PM | Permalink