Posted on 03/16/2014 4:29:54 PM PDT by Din Maker
Democrats are facing their toughest Michigan Senate fight in two decades.
A sour national political climate, a little-known candidate and big spending by conservative outside groups have given Republicans a real shot at winning an open seat and boosted their chances at seizing Senate control.
Republicans had all but written off the Democratic-leaning state last summer after they failed to recruit either Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) or Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) to run, leaving them with former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (R) as their nominee.
But President Obama’s dismal poll numbers, millions spent by conservative groups and Land’s high name recognition compared to Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) have given her a small lead in most recent public polling. Land is also building a big campaign warchest, and has $3.4 million to Peters’s $2.9 million. Michigan also behaves a lot more like a swing state in midterm elections than presidential years. “The race is close. It will be close. Off-year elections here are often close,” says Michigan-based pollster Ed Sarpolus.
Some Democrats are nervous.
“This is a national race. If we lose Michigan, it's over for us controlling the Senate,” said one Democrat involved in the race. “This race has become more competitive… We have to take this campaign to a different level now.”
Democrats also worry privately about infighting between the state’s unions, which Democrats rely on more in Michigan than anywhere else, and former Rep. Mark Schauer’s (D-Mich.) struggling gubernatorial campaign.
Most believe the race is still Peters’s to lose, however. No Republican has won a Senate race in Michigan since 1994, and Democrats think Land’s small edge in the polls is due mostly to her position as former statewide official. They say when both sides begin spending in earnest Peters will bounce back.
Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, has already spent $2 million blasting Peters for his ObamaCare support.
Those attacks went unanswered for two months until the pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC launched $450,000 worth of ads tying Land to the Koch brothers in late February. Democrats admit the ads hurt Peters some in the polls, and served as a wake-up call for donors and activists in the state.
“The Kochs beating up Gary was a big deal,” said the Michigan Democratic strategist. “This race is absolutely in a different place than it was before… For the first time people are saying 'this is going to be more work than we thought.’”
President Obama’s approval rating and ObamaCare’s early struggles are also taking a toll. Obama’s approval rating has hovered slightly above 40 percent in most polls in a state he won by 9 percentage points in 2012.
Peters recently replaced his campaign manager, bringing in Paul Tencher, a well-regarded Democratic tactician who helped Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) pull off his come-from-behind 2012 win.
Tencher, who’s leaving the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, acknowledged the high stakes.
“Michigan is an important state. It's a real middle-class place that Democrats fight for and is essential to our mission,” he told The Hill. “And keeping the majority is a very important thing, not only for Americans but for working-class people here in Michigan.”
Peters has been hitting Land for the Koch ads, attacking her for supporting a new Michigan law that bars insurance companies from covering abortion in most cases, and ripping her for opposing the auto bailout many in Michigan believe helped Michigan avoid major job losses.
Land’s campaign plans to rip Peters for his support of Obama’s priorities, including ObamaCare, climate change legislation and the stimulus.
“The number one thing in Michigan is jobs and the economy, and Congressman Peters's record is riddled with expensive, failed economic policies like the stimulus bill,” says Land spokeswoman Heather Swift. “Terri, as a mom and a small business owner, has the right ideas for Michigan families.
The race could hinge on how well Land presents herself when the race engages in earnest and she comes under closer scrutiny. She has kept a very low profile, mostly avoiding the press, and when she has talked publicly has committed minor gaffes.
“She misspeaks,” Sarpolus said. “For the last several months they have been hiding Terri Lynn Land, they haven't been putting her out there and letting her speak. She has a history of making misstatements.”
If we lose Michigan, it’s over for us controlling the Senate,” said one Democrat involved in the race.
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Fo sho Bucko!
They can SOIL their Diapers now, and keep Soiling them.
Which ones are the GOPe / Karl Rove candidates? Any Tea Party (real one) candidates among these three?
This completely explains why dingy reed is bashing the koch brothers on the senate floor! now I get it.
Terri Land has been tea party friendly.
same article posted earlier with a changed title.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3133761/posts
Anyone familiar with Terri Lynn Land, who apparently is going to be the GOP candidate? Is she any good, or just another establishment crony?
Our side needs to hammer them with the real story about Soros, Steyer, etc where the REAL money comes from.
Michigan Democrat Rep. Gary Peters threatens TV station licenses over Obamacare ad
Washington Examiner ^ | 2/22/14 | Charles Hoskinson / FR Posted on Sunday, February 23, 2014 by Libloather
While Julie Boonstra of Dexter, Mich., struggles to survive leukemia, she now also has to cope with being called a liar by Gary Peters, the Democrat who wants to be her next senator. And the campaign of Rep. Peters is also going after television stations airing ads in which her story is featured, threatening their licenses.
The ad by Americans for Prosperity features Boonstra talking about how her insurance was canceled under Obamacare and saying that Peters' decision to vote for the law "jeopardized my health." The ads are airing in Michigan as Peters seeks the Democratic nomination to replace Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who is not seeking re-election. (Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
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JUST A FRIENDLY SUGGESTION: Gary Peters should get
professional help---he appears to be having bouts of schizophrenia.
BACKSTORY Democrat Peters was once all gaga over Obamacare---dripping w/ pride b/c he had voted in lockstep with fellow Democrats to enact the "Big Effin' Deal" (as Joe Biden called it).
GO FIGURE Now Peters is toying with the First Amendment---
threatening TV station licenses over an ad that shows how much he likes Obamacare.
WATTA LUNKHEAD Peters is so dam unappreciative---heck, Joe Biden came to Detroit---Raising Money for Cong Gary Peters’ Senate Race. (Jonathan Oosting, “VP Joe Biden To Do Fundraiser For Gary Peters,” MLive, 1/15/14)
===================================================
BACKSTORY As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, Democrat candidate Obama advanced his signature healthcare plan---ultimately enacted, by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote, into the "Affordable Care Act."
QUOTING 2008 OBAMA: "No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.” Repeated over and over ---- with the promise that every American family would be saving $2500.00 on healthcare costs.
Significantly, Obamba NEVER corrected lock-stepping Democrats, all reading from the same Democrat talking points, all of them repeating the same Democrat promises---over and over again.
LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930-40's ERA EUROPE Obama And the Dems marched in lockstep.....the persistent Dumbocrat drumbeat ---- in obeisance to Obama ---- kept ringing reassuringly in our ears: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
==========================================
MEMO TO MICHIGAN VOTERS Rep Gary Peters Is a Loyal Lock-stepping Democrat ---he Voted With Obama 90 Percent Of The Time. FACT SOURCE (Democrat Rep. Gary Peters, Congressional Quarterly, Accessed 1/15/14)
PETERS' AYE VOTE FOR OBAMACARE Democrat Cong Gary Peters Voted To Pass ObamaCare. (H.R. 3590, Roll Call Vote #165, Passed 219-212: R 0-178; D 219-34, 3/21/10, Peters Voted Yea)
PETERS CELEBRATES OBAMACARE In March 2013, Democrat Cong Gary Peters Celebrated The Third Anniversary Of ObamaCare’s Passage and Highlighted How O/Care Is Helping Michiganders.
“Today Rep. Gary Peters marked Saturday as the 3rd anniversary of the Affordable Care Act becoming law by highlighting the many ways it’s helping families across Michigan. Democrat Peters criticized Lansing Republicans for refusing to partner in the state health care exchange marketplace.”
FACT SOURCE: Press Release, “Democrat Congressman Gary Peters Marks The 3rd Anniversary Of The Affordable Care Act--Highlighting How It’s Already Helping Michiganders,” Rep. Gary Peters, 3/22/13)
good luck with that, right? our side sucks :)
The blockbuster Jolly campaign ad referenced lock-stepping Dems saluting smartly to der leader.
Jolly lit into Sink's DNC-approved campaign promise to go to Washington to "fix" the train wreck Obamacare.
Jolly said the district needs a rep who will defend THEIR interests---not those of Obama.
Give 'ol Harry a comfortable chair---and tell him not to
worry about all those silly electrical switches laying around.
Harry'll just love his brand-new cardboard desk (some assembly required).....
Although I hear phone service isn't hooked up down there yet. Too bad.
It's not a "sour national political climate" when Republicans are in trouble.
Even the worst-case scenario for the GOP will be a good thing: now the Dems need to pump more money and resources into a “safe” race in a desperate attempt to create a firewall.
That means they’ll need to pull that money from somewhere else.
And this is looking to be a major advantage year for the GOP in fundraising.
Yeah, that is about all the Dems can come up with as a strategy.
When FR’s start posting these sundry primary races it would be good to know the filing and election dates of these elections. Also if they favor a candidate a link to their website...
Thank You
Go Michiganders. You can do this.
Really? That’s hard to believe given that the Democrat candidate’s main campaign tactic has been to attack a woman dying from leukemia along with the fascist tactic of threatening to revoke the licenses of any TV station that run political ads he doesn’t like.
This could be an interesting race.
http://www.terrybowmanforcongress.com/
Bowman is a pro RTW conservative UAW member running against John Dingell’s wife.
..........any pub is better than a Marxist I guess but this woman seems to be an ambidextrous government pay check grabber all her adult life and when she wasn’t doing that she was working for mom and dad.
This is NOT the steel spined Ted Cruz/Sarah Palin type we need in the Senate. I guess it’s too late but, in this candidacy, the pubs probably have thrown their saddle on an old broke down sway back hoss instead of a prancing thoroughbred like Cruz or Palin. I see nothing in Lynn’s background to suggest she will be a staunch conservative. Granted, I did not perform an exhaustive search but such information is not on Wiki.
And, OMG, she is no Sarah Palin in the looks department either. Just sayin!
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