Mark Totten, photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog
Yesterday I reported on new polling numbers show great gains by Michigan Democrats. Another new poll out this morning by Detroit News-WDIV (Local 4) confirms those numbers. (Cross-tabs are HERE.)
The race for Attorney General continues to be surprisingly competitive and shows how weak a candidate Bill Schuette is.
Schuette started his career in public office nearly 30 years ago when he was elected to Congress in November of 1984. Since then, he’s been the Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, a state Senator, a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals, and our state’s Attorney General. Despite this, his favorable rating is an abysmal 17.2%. And, after spending $1.3 million on his reelection bid and a 12-to-1 cash advantage as the incumbent, Schuette remains in a statistical tie with Democrat Mark Totten at 39.7-37.7% among likely voters (margin of error is 4%.) Among definite voters, the gap is a mere 2.3%. And, after three decades in office, his name recognition is still only 60%.
In other words, considering that he is tied against a candidate with only 23.7% name recognition, Schuette is in trouble.
Other interesting results from the same poll:
- Democrat Mark Schauer is only 1.8 points behind Gov. Rick Snyder in the race for governor, another statistical dead heat. Voters believe Schauer will do a better job solving our state’s education problems by a huge 12-point margin.
- Despite being outspent by a 2-to-1 margin, Gary Peters has widened the gap in his race against failed candidate Terri Lynn Land to a full 10.5 points, his biggest lead yet.
- For Secretary of State, incumbent Republican Ruth Johnson has a 6.4% lead over newcomer Godfrey Dillard. However, among definite voters, the lead is trimmed to only 4.1%.
- Voters are clearly decided on the issue of adding protections for the LGBT community to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act by an overwhelming 56-point margin (74.1-17.6%.) 60.4% of respondents strongly favor this move and the results hold true across all demographic groups surveyed.
- When asked how passage of Right to Work in Michigan affected their vote, Mark Schauer comes out on top by ten percentage points.
All of this shows that Democrats in Michigan are making great gains among the electorate and, if they can get their message out to voters over the next two months, they have a good chance of winning most, if not all, of the statewide races.
We’re in the final stretch folks. Make sure you’re doing all you can to get out the vote. We can’t allow complacency to hand this election over to Republicans. As Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson says repeatedly, “If Michigan Democrats vote, Michigan Democrats WIN!”
You can volunteer to help by clicking HERE.
