MI-Gov, MIRSNews: Snyder in the lead

[dmmidmi]

Junky, but even if you unskew this it looks like Snyder is recovering. You could even argue for Tilt R now.

This is, by far, the most reasonable and accurate post in this thread. Snyder's current ad blitz might be helping, but my guess (without seeing any polling to confirm this) is that Medicaid expansion and his handling of the Detroit bankruptcy process will significantly help his re-election chances.

It certainly won't be the economy, because the unemployment rate has gone essentially unchanged for nearly two years. And while most polls showed support/opposition for Right to Work in Michigan to be pretty close, its effects largely haven't been felt yet: http://www.freep.com/article/20130901/BUSINESS06/309010025/.

Coupled with Mark Schauer's virtually non-existent campaign, and absolutely no threat of a primary challenger from the right (so they've threatened to go after Lt. Gov. Brian Calley--illustrating how pathetic the Tea Party is in Michigan), and it seems like Snyder is going to be in really good shape for re-election next year.

[dmmidmi]

My question in all of this is why is Rick Snyder running ahead of Terri Land. Is Mark Schauer That bad of a candidate?

Snyder gets an awful lot of front-page headlines, so it's easy to have an opinion of him. Furthermore, he's likely to receive a lot of crossover support, due to his position on Medicaid expansion, the bridge, and a few other things.

And this is certainly my guess (so take it with a grain of salt), but I imagine that when people are polled about the Senate race, they're essentially being asked "Do you plan on voting for the Democrat from Metro Detroit, or the Republican from Grand Rapids?" Neither campaign has really started, and neither candidate has done anything to show that they'll stray far from their respective party's platform.