Mark Totten, photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog
A new poll out by PPP has some terrific news for Democrats. Mark Schauer is still in a statistical dead heat with Governor Rick Snyder, down just a single point – 42-43%. Snyder is under water with respect to his favorability with 51% of those polled holding viewing him unfavorably compared with just 43% that give him a “favorable” rating. Considering that he’s been in his job for nearly four years, this is a clear indication that he’s in deep trouble. Schauer, in contrast, is clearly getting his name out there. His name recognition has soared to 68% compared with just 51% a couple of months ago. He has a net +2% on his favorability.
Terri Lynn Land, despite the millions of dollars being spent on her behalf by conservative and corporatist groups, not to mention her own millions, continues to slide off the charts into oblivion. Gary Peters now has a 7% lead.
But, the big news from this poll, in my opinion, is the 36-36% tie between incumbent Attorney General Bill Schuette and Democrat Mark Totten. Schuette’s extreme conservative positions and the fact that he’s spending millions of our tax dollars to defend our state’s unconstitutional and bigoted ban on same sex marriage is clearly taking its toll. For someone with his name recognition in our state and as an incumbent, that 36% number has to have him terrified. It’s a clear indication that he is completely beatable by Totten who is one of the hardest working statewide candidates in Michigan.
Finally, although he’s a relative newcomer to the statewide ballot, Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Godfrey Dillard is putting up impressive numbers against incumbent Republican Ruth Johnson. Johnson has only a tiny 3% lead over Dillard which is within the 3.7% margin of error in this poll.
Other interesting results from the poll:
- Respondents would repeal Michigan’s anti-worker Right to Work law by a 12-point margin – 46-38%.
- Respondents positively HATE Gov. Snyder’s tax on the pensions of seniors by a whopping 74-17%.
- Voters support Medicaid expansion by a full 24 points, 50-26%, much to the chagrin of Republicans who so vociferously opposed it.
- Democrats lead the generic legislative ballot 48 to 41%.
- Voters support raising the minimum wage by a huge 58-34% magin.
This is all excellent news for Democrats. All they have to do is run on their values and continue to support the issues they’ve been supporting all along. The voters, very clearly, agree with them.
Game on, people. Now it’s up to us to get out the vote.
