10/08/2006

Election 2006

Race focuses on ailing economy

Campaign is the most expensive in state's history

DeVos

Granholm

LANSING (AP) — Regardless of who wins the 2006 governor's race, it will go down as one unlike any previous governor's race in Michigan's history.

For one thing, it's the most expensive. Ada businessman Dick DeVos continues to spend millions of dollars of his money on his campaign and TV ads, while Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm has raised millions for her campaign, although not as much as DeVos.

For another, the race essentially began in February, when DeVos, 50, began a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that essentially kicked off the general election season nearly six months before the August primary. Neither he nor Granholm, 47, had primary opponents.

Michigan voters, worried about their jobs as domestic auto manufacturers and suppliers shrink in the face of global competition, want a leader who will reassure them something is being done about the economy and jobs.

That has been the focus of the DeVos campaign, which has pounded the point in a statewide ad blitz that his background as a businessman — he spent a decade heading Amway Corp. and its parent company, Alticor Inc. — makes him the best person to turn around Michigan's ailing economy.

Granholm, meanwhile, has talked about the investment of more than $100 million in state startup dollars into high-tech and life science companies, the launch of new alternative energy sources such as biofuel plants, and new personal property tax credits that helped big manufacturers cut costs.

Banking on four years' experience as attorney general and some of the voter fatigue felt after 12 years of GOP Gov. John Engler, Granholm in 2002 beat GOP Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus by 4 percentage points, 51.4 percent to 47.4 percent, with three third-party candidates sharing the other 1.2 percent.

Polls in the DeVos-Granholm race have been a seesaw, but the margin between them remains tight. Four years ago, Granholm won voter-heavy Oakland County and did well among GOP women, two successes she hopes to repeat this election cycle.

DeVos also is working hard in Oakland County, has made forays into heavily Democratic Detroit and has campaigned in every one of Michigan's 83 counties at least twice.

He continually points out that Michigan's unemployment rate is tops in the nation and says he would improve Michigan's business tax climate by cutting regulations and replacing only part of the $1.9 billion brought in by the now-repealed Single Business Tax. He says the rest can be made up by cutting the waste out of state government.

Granholm says it would be irresponsible to cut millions more out of the state budget, which she says has been trimmed by $4 billion in the past four years. She says further cuts will hurt education, health care and public services such as police protection that are paid for with money the state gives local governments.

She wants to reduce the overall business tax rate and make it more reliant on profits. But she also wants businesses to pay the same share of state revenue they do now, and would end some tax exemptions and increase premium taxes on insurance companies to do that.

The two candidates differ on several social and cultural issues.

DeVos opposes abortion except to save the mother's life.

Granholm says she personally opposes abortion. But she has vetoed bills such as one that would have ended a late-term abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion because it didn't contain an exception to protect a woman's health. She is backed by EMILY's List, a national group that backs Democratic candidates who support abortion rights.

DeVos supports research on adult stem cells but opposes allowing embryonic stem cell research. Granholm supports both and has asked citizens to voice their support for easing restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in Michigan by signing an online petition.

Green Party candidate Douglas Campbell is making his second consecutive run for governor. The Ferndale engineer says his first act as governor, if elected, would be to pull the Michigan National Guard troops out of Iraq and urge President Bush to end the war there.

Two other third-party candidates are running. Bhagwan Dashairya of Westland is running on the U.S. Taxpayers ticket, while Gregory Creswell of Detroit is running as a Libertarian.