Thursday’s political round-up

June 15, 2006

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* The back-and-forth in New Jersey’s Senate race seems to have swung in the incumbent’s favor, at least for now. A new Quinnipiac poll shows Sen. [tag]Bob Menendez[/tag] (D) leading state Sen. [tag]Tom Kean[/tag], Jr. (R), 43% to 36%. The results are comparable to the results in April, when Menendez led, 40% to 34%.

* In Arizona, Sen. [tag]Jon Kyl[/tag] (R) has surged ahead of businessman [tag]Jim Pederson[/tag] (D) in the latest Rasmussen poll, which shows Kyl ahead, 52% to 35%. The results, however, seem to contradict several other recent polls, all of which showed Kyl’s lead narrowing considerably.

* In New York’s Senate race, former Yonkers Mayor [tag]John Spencer[/tag] (R) is scheduled to launch radio ads today that accuse the GOP establishment of failing to offer him the support he needs to beat Sen. [tag]Hillary Clinton[/tag]. In the ad, Spencer urges voters to donate to him instead of other Republican causes, saying, “Don’t send your checks to Washington. Get behind me.”

* Massachusetts gubernatorial hopeful [tag]Deval Patrick[/tag] (D) sent a video by email to thousands of supporters this week, which was interesting for two reasons. First, it was his most aggressive message yet, criticizing rival [tag]Chris Gabrieli[/tag] for setting a $15.36 million cap on his campaign spending. Second, as the Boston Globe explained, Patrick used an email message “to spread a detailed, letter-like message with the emotional appeal of a television commercial, but at almost no cost.”

* And in Michigan, Gov. [tag]Jennifer Granholm[/tag] (D) appears to be in real trouble this year, in large part to the state’s weak economy. According to the latest EPIC/MRA poll, Amway heir [tag]Dick DeVos[/tag] (R) has built a sizable lead over Granholm, ahead 48% to 40%. Granhom’s job rating has also slipped and now 59% of Michigan voters give her a negative rating. For what it’s worth, DeVos has been blanketing the airwaves with ads for a couple of months, while Granholm has barely started her own advertising campaign. Expect the race to go back and forth between now and the fall.

Jennifer Granholm inherited a dump of a state from Republican John Engler, and now she doesn’t have the money to fix it. While GM and Ford run themselves into the ground, Granholm’s best bet to bring jobs to the state is to woo Toyota. She spends all her time shifting the little available money from one place to the other, to the protests of whoever last had the money. Can’t clean up all the problems in the state without any money to do it with.

I suspect that a lot of people could run against her and have a chance of winning. Granholm’s best bet to make DeVos look like a bad guy is to note that DeVos’ company, Amway, has regularly chosen to outsource jobs than to try to keep them in Michigan. DeVos has gazillions of dollars, and will certainly use them to his advantage.

  • I don’t think Granolm’s lived up to the hype. Her term has been beset by an awful national economy and automotive situation beyond her control, and a Republican congress adept at blaming her for everything.

    I won’t be suprised one bit if Granholm loses. In fact, at this point I expect it.

    DeVos will run this state into the fucking ground if he wins, and then Michigan will be really screwed, but the voters here won’t realize until its too late (if they ever do).

  • I guess DeVos’ economic policy for Michigan will be to take all the formerly well-employed ex-auto workers and put them to work selling AmWay to each other?

    At least his excuse for being a scam artist is that it’s genetic.

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