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 […]

A couple of weeks ago, I reported that Richard Baird, Gov. Snyder’s top confidant and “Transformational Manager”, had threatened to sue both Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan AFL-CIO President Karla Swift. Baird, who has a history of bullying, is now demanding a retraction of an op-ed penned by Swift and published in a number of Gannet newspapers across […]

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 […]

Politics have many unofficial rules and philosophies that have been followed for years. Pundits of all political persuasions sometimes use these “excuses” to strengthen their point of view, or to protect their party’s candidate and to justify inconvenient truth(s). One such inconvenient truth is that incumbents for office, like Governor, for example, don’t need to debate their opponent. The conventional […]

Yesterday, Gov. Rick Snyder participated in a one-hour call-in show on Michigan Radio. The show was hosted by the incomparable Rick Pluta who did an excellent job of selecting questions from the Michigan Radio Facebook page, Twitter, emails, and actual phone calls. When Gov. Snyder tried to weasel out of answering a question, Pluta did a good job of pushing […]

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going out twice a week to knock doors for Pam Byrnes, the Democrat running to unseat Tim Walberg, the current Congressman for Michigan’s 7th District. Last week, while speaking to one woman, I asked her, “Can we count on your support for our Democratic candidates this year?” Her response was, “Of course. I’m […]

In June of last year, I was contacted by someone who works for the state government who told me a few things about Richard Baird, the man who shared office space and a phone number with Gov. Rick Snyder but, at the time, was paid off the books by the so-called NERD fund which was funded by secret financial contributors. […]

Yesterday I wrote about Gov. Snyder’s new campaign ad called “Numbers” in which he crows about being an accountant and whines about not getting credit for “laying the groundwork” for Michigan’s mythical recovery. In that video, Snyder appears in a t-shirt in front of a hilly, tree-lined road in perfect condition talking about “the Road to Recovery”, a sharp contrast […]

Governor Snyder’s reelection campaign released a new ad today that is about as puzzling as his previous ads. He has abandoned his frogman suit and creepy leering at the camera, instead appearing in a t-shirt. He starts the ad by telling us that he’s an accountant as if that should give us comfort when it comes to his political and […]

Gotta love a headline like this: “Schauer edges ahead of Snyder, 45% to 43%, in new governor race poll”. Mark Schauer is one of the most patient, methodical politicians I’ve ever seen. In my interview with him last fall, we had this exchange: Eclectablog: One of the things that I’m hearing from folks on my blog and elsewhere online is […]

If you go to Rick Snyder’s Facebook page, you’ll see a picture of him smiling smugly under the banner “Michigan’s Comeback Kid”. Putting aside the fact that “comeback kid” actually refers to a person who has come back from some personal trauma, something our Governor has not done, the suggestion that Michigan is somehow roaring back to economic prosperity under […]