Michigan Politics

On the eve of the midterm election, I thought it would be interesting to comment on two of the races here in Michigan: The offices of Governor & Senator.

For the office of Governor we have the incumbent, Jennifer Granholm (D), and the challenger, Dick DeVos (R). Granholm's tenure as Governor has seen difficult times as the state's economy has suffered with the woes of the auto industry. DeVos is a multi-millionaire businessman who inherited a family fortune. Both have accused each other of losing jobs, and have taken credit for creating them as well. Damaging to Granholm (in my opinion) is repeated statements of giving her administration time to correct the state's economy, stating that she is "thrilled" at the economic plan's progress when it was tanking, and stating that we "will be blown away" in five years, implying that she needs another term to see the turnaround. DeVos has made some business decisions that cost Michigan jobs while running Amway, but seems to have not stepped on too many toes in that regard. The advantage seems to be DeVos, although there has been some serious mud thrown by both candidates.

For a seat in the US Senate we have the incumbent Debbie Stabinow (D) and the challenger, Mike Bouchard (R). Stabinow has been a fixture in the US Senate for a long time. Bouchard has been the Oakland County Sheriff for some time now. Plenty of accusations have been thrown out by both candidates, and plenty of promises. Unfortunately, I really haven't seen a whole lot from Stabinow that I agree with, but then again I'm not exactly thrilled about a politician using the Sheriff's office as a politcal stepping stone.

The polls show almost statistical dead heats for the above races - Granholm leads DeVos by 2%, and Stabinow leads Bouchard by 4%. In my own unscientific and unreliable poll, which consisted of looking at the number of political sign on people's lawns as I drive around Oakland County, I've come up with something slightly different.

In the race for governor, there seems to be more DeVos signs out than Granholm (approximately 60-65% vs 40-35%). In the race for the US Senate, there have been far more Bouchard signs in people's yards vs. just a handfull (10!!!) that I've seen. I only counted 1 yard per sign (in other words, multiple signs in one yard only counted as 1), but that's still a bunch. And no, the size of the sign did not count extra (remember, size doesn't always count!). It will be interesting to see if the sign poll accurately reflects the election results. Of course, milage may vary...