Posted on 07/29/2006 9:41:00 PM PDT by quantim
LANSING -- Democratic incumbent Jennifer Granholm raised $3.3 million in the first half of 2006. Republican challenger Dick DeVos nearly matched that in a single day when, on June 19, he wrote a $3 million check to his campaign.
In 12 months, DeVos has poured nearly $13 million of his own money into a gubernatorial campaign that has blanketed Michigan TV channels with ads since February. That's $2 million more than Granholm has collected in more than three and a half years of aggressive fundraising since she took office.
So far this year, according to campaign finance reports filed Friday, DeVos has outspent Granholm more than 10-1, or nearly $15 million compared with $1.3 million.
Neither has opposition in their parties' August primaries.
The reports show what Granholm is up against: a candidate for whom money apparently won't be an object.
Including his own contributions, the DeVos campaign raised $15.7 million in 2006; $17.5 million total. He has spent more than $2 million per month on average, much of it on TV ads DeVos feels have been vital in boosting his familiarity with voters. Campaign finance watchdogs estimate he now is spending about $650,000 a week on ads.
Granholm raised $3.3 million this year in itemized contributions, $10.7 million since the election cycle started in 2003. She reported having $7.2 million in the bank. Granholm has yet to air a single TV ad. On her behalf, the Michigan Democratic Party has spent more than $2.5 million on ads.
Granholm is expected to rely heavily on the party and Democratic interest groups after Labor Day.
Although the former Amway executive has provided 78 percent of the money spent by his campaign, DeVos stressed in a statement, "this campaign has broad support from all over" Michigan, with 18,765 individual contributors.
Granholm's report makes clear she is serious about husbanding her resources until the fall, despite some Democratic grumbling she has been slow to respond to DeVos' spending. For months, most polling has the candidates in a statistical tie; about 10 percent of those surveyed were undecided.
DeVos aides cite a $2 million radio and TV economic development campaign that launched last month and footage of the Google Inc. announcement as incumbent resources.
While DeVos wants this campaign to be about the economy, the Granholm campaign is using the filing to assert DeVos is out to buy the governor's office.
"It's clear the voters of Michigan will recognize that this is an election, not an auction," DeWitt said. In its appeals for money, the Granholm campaign has warned supporters the DeVos campaign intends to spend in excess of $60 million.
Rich Robinson, director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said that's the big unknown for a gubernatorial contest that will break all state records for spending. The only question, he said, is by how much.
"This is completely new territory," he said.
You just don`t get it. Once the voters can understand that the Rats realllllly care about them, well, its all over.
I think DeVos has a good chance of winning. Granholm is a terrible governor and people know this. The state has the highest unemployment in the country and young people are the chief exports.
I've seen some of Granholm's ads. She seems to be running against President Bush in them, as she blames him for the state's problems. She claims she's got a plan and has been working on it since she wes elected in '02. She just needed this "training" term to figure out what to do.
With a Republican House and Senate, Grandholm isn't able to do much damage...She's pretty much a lame duck...
Devos is a billionaire globalist...His big pitch so far is to retrain everyone ( probably in Spanish and Chinese languages)...
Neither one seem to have anything to offer to the working middle class...
>>In 12 months, DeVos has poured nearly $13 million of his own money into a gubernatorial campaign<<
His slogan should be "Are we not men, we are DeVos."
I don't think there's anything wrong per se with a rich person running and winning, but what you describe does add to the (true) sense that government is completely out of touch with the average person.
FWIW, these are my Governor race predictions with 100 days to go until Election Day. At this point I think Granholm, who has trailed in 8 of the last 10 polls, is easily the most endangered Dem. Without a major change in the dynamics of the Michigan campaigns, I think only a major Dem wave might keep Granholm in office.
Safe Democratic
Arizona
New Hampshire
New Mexico
New York (R)*
Tennessee
Wyoming
Likely Democratic
Illinois
Kansas
Massachusetts (R)*
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Lean Democratic
Alaska (R)
Arkansas (R)*
Iowa*
Maryland (R)
Ohio (R)*
Wisconsin
Toss Up
Colorado (R)*
Maine (D)
Minnesota (R)
Oregon (D)
Rhode Island (R)
Lean Republican
California
Georgia
Florida*
Michigan (D)
Nevada*
Likely Republican
Alabama
South Carolina
Texas
Vermont
Safe Republican
Connecticut
Hawaii
Idaho*
Nebraska
South Dakota
If you sleep with dogs in the barn, you are going to bring fleas into the house.
If she wins we'll be seeing more of the same for the next decade, long after he's out of office. If she loses, the Dems won't be able to resist and will keep that up until it loses them the White House in 2008.
I'm still here and so are a lot of recent grads from college and high school. It can be damn hard to try and get a job out of state.
Granholm's love of high business taxes have left me and a lot of coworkers and friends stuck making a little over minimum wage while we have experience and college degrees.
On a personal note, I have to be VERY careful on what I say in front of my mom. She is a public school teacher and thinks the world is coming to an end is she and her coworkers don't get their 2% pay hike. They don't get that the business that pays them (the state) is losing money and that they already have nice jobs. I remember an ad where Devos was talking about how so many people need a good job, and my mom sniping how teachers need to be paid fairly. I bit my tongue so hard that I thought it was going to bleed.
I heard years ago that they set up shop in China...Don't know about Mexico... I know at one time they got kicked out of Canada...
This is a bedrock conservative, urban myths about amway notwithstanding.
A lot of politics is perception,not reality;I wonder if it is a good thing to outspend the opposition by such a huge margin,especially using your own money.Voters resist the candidate buying the office for himself.
I take it the asterisks mean an open seat (no incumbent)?
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