July 07, 2006
That Other Michigan Race...
The strong showing by Dick DeVos (R) against Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) belies the lack of traction GOPers are getting in the other major statewide race: the effort by Republicans to topple freshman Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D). Stabenow's job approval has hovered at or below 50% for a while, but her margins over the two Republicans remain strong.
Last month the NRSC created the ThanksDebbie.com website wherein Stabenow plays a game of whack-a-mole, hitting voters as they sarcastically thank her for certain votes. (The hardest line: "Thanks Debbie for sending my Social Security check to illegal immigrants.") The NRSC has purchased web ads for their attack site on Michigan news sites; they hope to get the elite to notice. The general frame they hope to create: Stabenow is an unaccomplished senator and doctrinaire liberal. NRSC spokesperson Brian Walton said the cmte built the site because there were so many issues "Stabenow has been completely ineffective on" and that she "hasn't done really much of anything since she's been there. You look at the variety of issues that Michiganders have been unhappy with...she really hasn't come through at all."
The presumptive GOP frontrunner, Oakland Co. Sheriff Michael Bouchard, brings his law enforcement credentials to battle over issues of federal management, homeland, and border security. But jobs and the economy, not homeland security and immigration, are the top concerns of MI voters. Congressional Quarterly asked him what his top priority would be in the Senate. Bouchard: "Jobs, jobs, and then the third one would be jobs. And then homeland security."
Rev. Keith Butler's compassionate conservatism is hard-nosed. As he says in his newest ad: "I believe government should help people. But only if they truly need it." Bouchard plans to begin TV advertising next week but he is not unfamiliar to metro Detroiters, having appeared in local TV stories in his roll as sheriff.
Stabenow, once considered one of the most vulnerable sitting Senators, hasn’t had to really campaign yet. Spokesperson Brent Colburn said his campaign has tinkered with its website but won’t expand it until there’s a GOP candidate. He gives the standard line: , “Senator Stabenow is focused on doing her job for the people of Michigan; we're sure the Republicans will have a very spirited primary."
Not for nothing, though, have Republican strategists noticed that Stabenow's position on the MI economy is like Granholm's: attack the federal gov't for not doing enough to help the auto industry and enforce trade deals that hurt MI workers and tout efforts to keep MI jobs from leaving the state. That song sounds flinty to voters today. Maybe it’s DeVos who’ll have coattails. [JUSTIN MILLER]
Posted at 02:37 PM
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