The Michigan Conservative Dossier

Michigan’s DeVos Weathers Granholm Counterattack
Thursday, September 28, 2006
By Thomas Bray

With the help of $15 million or so in advertising, much of it fueled by his personal fortune, Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos is in a statistical dead heat with incumbent Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in the polls.
Success for DeVos, however, may depend on keeping the spotlight on Granholm’s economic record — or lack of it. She remains personally popular with a substantial majority of Michigan voters. But her re-elect numbers are running below 50 percent, reflecting a widespread feeling that she hasn’t achieved much of consequence despite the state’s dire circumstances.
Last week DeVos went off-message, asserting to an Associated Press reporter asserting that local school boards should be allowed to order that “intelligent design” be taught in the classroom. That might shore up his conservative, western Michigan base, but it could provide grist for opponents eager to portray any Republican as some sort of religious nut who caters to right-wing extremists.
The good news for DeVos is that Granholm’s effort to play the class warfare card appears to have flopped. Early Democratic TV ads and Granholm speeches hammered the fact that under DeVos’s leadership, his Alticor Corp., the huge direct sales outfit formerly known as Amway, cut about 1,000 jobs in hard-pressed Michigan while pouring hundreds of millions of investment dollars into China.
The Detroit automakers have been doing much the same thing — and in far bigger numbers — for years. Yet Granholm hasn’t criticized them, as local commentators have noted. And Alticor, unlike the car companies, is still turning a profit, placing it in a position to create new jobs in the future. DeVos managed to enlist Lee Iacocca, one of the most popular figures in Michigan business history — and a man who has been closely associated with Democrats in the past — to make just that point in a devastating new TV ad.
Meanwhile the DeVos campaign continues to stress the need for fundamental change in the Michigan economic climate, starting with elimination of the state’s detested Single Business Tax. Granholm crows about her success in bringing a Google office to Ann Arbor and several Japanese auto operations to other areas of Michigan. But the number of jobs she claims to have “created” is a drop in the bucket compared to the 100,000 or so jobs Michigan has lost since she took office in 2002.
Likewise her proposals to pour more money into education have aroused little enthusiasm — perhaps because during her tenure Michigan’s K-12 system has continued to deliver mediocre results at best while costing taxpayers far more per teacher than in other states. As if to reinforce the image of a labor movement with its head in the sand, the Detroit teachers recently went on strike to demand higher pay even as students were fleeing the city in droves — some 30,000 students in just the last year, according to official statistics.
DeVos could still blow the opportunity he has created for himself. But the Granholm campaign has seemed lackluster at best. Meanwhile, local GOP activists are muttering about a Vice President DeVos in 2008 and national Republicans are excited by the prospect of a reenergized state party that could help the GOP reclaim the Michigan electoral vote in 2008 after three straight losses to Democratic presidential candidates.
In short, the Michigan GOP seems both unified and motivated to achieve the once-unthinkable, the defeat of an incumbent not so long ago hailed as a Democratic superstar.

First lady raises funds for DeVos – News

84th House: John Hunt (R) www.johnhuntforstaterep.org
Terry Brown (D) no website found

Note: Mirsnews says that the Dems could potentially pick up this seat. We don’t understand why they don’t have a website up.

94th House: Ken Horn (R) www.friendsofkenhorn.com
Bob Blaine (D) no website found

Note: A conservative Democrat could potentially win this seat

95th House: Joel Wilson (R) www.joelwilson2006.org
Andy Coulouris (D) www.votecoulouris.com (currently down)

Note: Andy Coulouris’ website is currently down. We think it may be on purpose.

96th House: Eric Schaefer (R) No website found
Rep Jeff Mayes (D) No website found

Note: Both are young candidates and Schaefer works with computers for a living. Mayes reads campaign filings, so we know he is also computer literate.

97th House: Rep Tim Moore (R) No website found
Dave Schwab (D) www.daveschwab.net

Note: This district leans Democrat. Moore had a website up last time, but this time around he does not.

31st Senate: Zachary Nuncio (R) No website found
Sen Jim Barcia (D) No website found

Note: Barcia’s inactiveness is fueling gossip that he plans to step down within two years of his releection. Mayes vs Begick?

32nd Senate: Rep Roger Kahn (R) No website found
Rep Carl Williams (D) www.carlwilliamsforsenate.com

Note: Kahn apparently has a website registered, but when you go to it, it redirects you to google.com. We think that if one can spend $1/4 million dollars one would get up a website in a timely fashion.

5th District Congress: Rep Dale Kildee www.kildeeforcongress.org
Eric Klammer www.klammerforcongress.com

In sumamtion, it is the year of our Lord 2006. Get up a damn website!

Congressman Dale Kildee (D-Flint) recently turned 77 years old. Kildee has been in the Congress since 1976 and a state legislator for 10 yrs before that.
Now, people who don’t follow politics would say “Wow, he has a lot of experience.” I would say “this old codger needs to retire and go golfing.” Although his retirement would not mean a pickup for Republicans because the district is hopelessly apart of Flint.

After Kildee retires, his relation Dan Kildee is expected to run. We suspect that the socialists at the UAW hall won’t have a problem with this.

We here at bconservatives recommend that Congressman Kildee retire and enjoy what is left of the rest of his life. But if not, remember Grandpa Dale’s slogan “Vote for me, I’m Still Alive!”

Details set for 3 Granholm-DeVos debates

LANSING, Mich. — Gubernatorial candidates Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos said Tuesday that they have agreed to hold three live, hourlong, televised debates in October and appear jointly at a Detroit Economic Club luncheon.
The first debate will be held at 8 p.m. Monday and broadcast live from WKAR-TV in East Lansing on public television and Fox television stations that choose to carry it.
The second debate will be held at 8 p.m. Oct. 10 at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and broadcast on WDIV-TV in Detroit while being available to all NBC stations plus WOTV-TV in Battle Creek. The third will be held at 8 p.m. Oct. 16 at WXYZ-TV in Southfield and made available to ABC and CBS stations statewide.
The Economic Club appearance will be at an Oct. 12 luncheon co-sponsored by the Michigan Chronicle. Each candidate will speak for 15 minutes.
The debates will differ in format, with a studio audience allowed to ask prescreened questions during the second half of the final debate. Two WXYZ news anchors will question the candidates in the first half.
Tim Skubick of Michigan Public Television and Charlie Cain of The Detroit News will question the candidates during the first debate, which won’t include a studio audience.
The Grand Rapids debate will include questions from a panel of three journalists and include a studio audience made up each candidate’s family members, campaign staff members or party chairmen. The audience will not ask questions.
TV and radio stations broadcasting the debates will not carry any political ads concerning DeVos or Granholm for 30 minutes before and after the debates.
Neither candidate will be allowed to bring any books, notes, correspondence, news articles, photographs or any props into the debate, although each will be provided with note paper or index cards and pens and pencils on the podiums.
The campaigns of Democratic incumbent Granholm and GOP challenger DeVos released news of the debates in separate, identically worded news releases.
The campaigns said they received many debate invitations but agreed on the WKAR, WOOD and WXYZ debates because they would receive the largest possible viewing audiences.
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EDITOR’S NOTE _ Kathy Barks Hoffman heads the Lansing AP bureau and has covered Michigan politics since 1986.
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DeVos campaign: http://www.devosforgovernor.com
Granholm campaign: http://www.granholmforgov.com
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney plans to visit Michigan next week to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard and meet with members of the National Guard.
Cheney will attend an afternoon rally on Monday with members of the Michigan National Guard at the Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming.
He then will join Bouchard for a private fundraising reception in East Grand Rapids to collect money for the Oakland County sheriff’s campaign against Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Stabenow has led Bouchard in polling and fundraising, but Republicans contend the race will tighten as the campaign nears Election Day.
First lady Laura Bush also is expected to visit the state next week. She will headline a fundraising reception on Thursday for Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos in Oakland County’s Bloomfield Hills. DeVos is challenging Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich.

DailyKos and Michigan Liberal are up in arms about an AP story in which Dick DeVos supports “local control” for studies on the origin of the earth. They take this article to mean that he is in favor of intelligent design.

Below is the DeVos campaigns official stance on the issue:

“I’ve always believed that our children should be provided with more knowledge, not less. Lots of intelligent people can disagree about the origins of life. In the end, I believe in our system of local control. Local school boards should have the opportunity to offer evolution and intelligent design in their curriculums.“

One must wonder whether the libs take issue with local control or that DeVos has a belief in God that isn’t completely separated from his personal life.

Schwarz Wants Probe Of Club For Growth

Soon-to-be ex-U.S. Rep. John SCHWARZ (R-Battle Creek) said he is “quite certain” that the lobby group that engineered his recent defeat has broken federal election laws and should be investigated by the courts or the Federal Elections Commission. “It has to be proven, but it’s only a matter of time” before it is, the moderate Republican moderate suggested. Schwarz was beaten by challenger Tim WALBERG (R-Tipton) for the 7th Congressional District GOP nomination and Club For Growth (CFG), a Washington, D.C.-based anti-tax and spending group, is generally credited for providing the money and other resources to send Schwarz to the showers. Commenting on how the outside group played the game, not including possible violations of the campaign reform act, Schwarz said, “Do I think it’s wrong? Yes. Do I think it’s immoral? Yes. Do I think it’s unethical? Yes. Do I think it’s illegal? No.” What may be illegal, according to Schwarz, was the “coordination” between the CFG and political action committees and other organizations involved in the contest. He said the kind of alleged cooperation between 527 groups amounted to illegal activity. “I’m quite certain they’ve done it,” he argued. Schwarz said he believes it was unethical for this outside group with outside dollars to come into his district and say, “We’re going to buy this congressional seat.” Schwarz added that only 7 percent of the Republicans in his district voted and only 17 percent of the registered voters bothered to participate. He said that made the primary a prime target for CFG to defeat him. He said without that help, Walberg would have lost. (Contributed by Senior Capital Correspondent Tim SKUBICK.)

GOP Tries To Pin Stabenow With Foreclosures
The Michigan Republican Party (MRP) held a press conference in Royal Oak this afternoon in which party officials tried to pin the fact Michigan accounts for 6.3 percent of U.S. foreclosures on the “failed policies” of Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM and U.S. Sen. Debbie STABENOW (D-Lansing). Senate GOP candidate John PAPPAGEORGE of Troy in the battleground 13th District joined MRP Chair Saul ANUZIS at the event, which emphasized “Michigan’s need for new policies to turn the state’s economy in the right direction.”
Bouchard Gets Farm Bureau Nod
The Michigan Farm Bureau endorsed today Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike BOUCHARD. Announcing the endorsement today, the Bouchard campaign noted that U.S. Sen. Debbie STABENOW (D-Lansing) voted against eliminating the estate tax 13 times, which is a large issue with farmers.
Land, Sabaugh To Debate Oct. 20
Secretary of State Terri Lynn LAND and Democratic Secretary of State candidate Carmella SABAUGH have agreed to a joint appearance with Tim SKUBICK on Oct. 20 in Lansing. In accepting the Oct. 20 date, Sabaugh also asked for five other debate dates. Land campaign spokesman Matt GOLDEN, said the campaign is reviewing Land’s
scheduling options for the next several weeks.
Stabenow Lead Back To Double Digits
A Survey USA poll released today shows of 749 likely voters, U.S. Sen. Debbie STABENOW (D-Lansing) opening up a 54-to-41 percent lead over Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike BOUCHARD. Three percent voted for third-party candidates and another 2 percent were undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 3.6 percent.Stabenow held a 51-to-42 percent lead over Bouchard in Survey USA’s Aug. 22 poll.

College Dems, Republicans gear up for election season – Campus Life