It was the best reminder that one million Michigan Democrats didn’t vote in 2010. It was the worst reminder that one million Democrats didn’t vote in 2010.
With nothing like a GOP wave approaching Michigan, the party’s two headline state-wide candidates — Rick Snyder and Terri Lynn Land — have retreated into campaign styles that illustrate why that millions of dollars from outside groups probably won’t be enough to buoy either of them to victory in November.
The national political press is asking “Where is Terri Lynn Land?”
Since her fledgling attempts to communicate on her own behalf briefly led the scientific community to believe in spontaneous combustion, Land has made rare public appearances, avoided debates and dodged questions from the press, relying entirely on a barrage of attack ads targeting her opponent Gary Peters.
This strategy of hiding behind a chyron and voice-overs also helps her avoid any questions about her failings as Secretary of State, while trying — with Mitt “Let’s Go Bankrupt!” Romney at her side — to obscure her opposition to the successful rescue of the auto industry.
Her efforts have left her trailing by an average of 6 points in the polls.
Meanwhile, Rick Snyder’s campaign has become increasingly insular, insulting and ineffective — much like his governance.
The man who brought Michigan from the fifth worst unemployment rate in the nation to the fifth worst unemployment rate in the nation is holding supporter-dominated town halls crafted to feel like rallies for people who enjoy watching a CEO pop up softballs.
There’s a good reason the governor doesn’t want to speak to undecided Michiganders — they consider his “accomplishments” massive failures.
“Voters say by a 48/36 margin that they would vote to repeal the right to work law if it was on the ballot,” PPP Polls noted after its most recent poll. “And they oppose the increase in pension taxes that’s been highlighted in early campaign ads by a 74/17 spread.”
What do they like? Medicaid expansion — an Obama policy that the governor embraced only after his dream of seeing Mitt Romney repeal the Affordable Care Act die. And unlike the far-right’s anti-union legislation, which sailed into law in just days, the roll-out of expansion was delayed — costing the state millions.
As Mark Schaeur campaigns vigorously throughout the state, Snyder’s aloofness reminds voters that his agenda has always aimed over the heads over voters. He strives to satiate big business with a corporate-friendly agenda that had stripped workers of union protections they enjoyed for generations. And somehow, he promised, it would trickle down — eventually.
But all that’s trickled down is his lead in the polls.
[Photo by the Savages.]
