Post by Moses on Oct 27, 2005 13:45:36 GMT -5
Thursday, October 27, 2005
'Cabal' tries to lure Bouchard into Senate race
By George Weeks / The Detroit News
The Rev. Keith Butler, front-runner for the 2006 Republican nomination to oppose Sen. Debbie Stabenow, is perplexed that what he calls "a small but very powerful cabal" in the party is trying to recruit Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard to run against him.
Considering his fundraising and other successes, he said Wednesday, "it is befuddling to me ... kind of mystifying" why Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and some others would seek to lure Bouchard into the race.
A few hours before Butler called out of the blue with his lament, one of his supporters, Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, told me: "Elizabeth Dole is begging (Bouchard) every week" to run and met with him in Washington last week.
Said Yob: "I hear he's getting in. It will be an interesting wrinkle."
Bouchard told me late Wednesday he has been getting "nothing but positive feedback" and will make a decision whether to challenge Butler "in the next five or six days."
Butler's campaign hasn't yet caught fire among voters. An Oct. 19-25 poll of 600 likely voters (margin of error plus-minus 4 percentage points) released Wednesday by EPIC/MRA had Stabenow leading Butler 52-26 percent, and the Rev. Jerry Zandstra, on leave from a Grand Rapids religious think tank, 50-20.
Butler notes that in earlier match-ups with Stabenow, Bouchard also trailed by double digits.
"If Bouchard gets in, it's going to be a very tough race for Keith Butler," says EPIC/MRA pollster Ed Sarpolus.
It's not difficult to see what's behind this upheaval.
President Bush's plunging job approval ratings and other Republican woes have prompted inevitable chatter by assorted national political strategists and commentators that the GOP grip on Congress could be in jeopardy.
CNN's Bill Schneider, citing a new poll indicating that 55 percent of Americans would vote for someone who opposes Bush, said Wednesday the president's second-term blues are "a bit of a burden" for candidates who support him. In Michigan, Yob said, "it's going to hurt us" if Bush's dismal poll numbers carry over into the 2006 election.
The election is a year away, and there's some justice in the GOP spin that Bush's numbers could improve depending on developments in Iraq, the economic rebound and lower gas prices.
In releasing his firm's October poll, EPIC/MRA's Sarpolus said 61 percent of likely Michigan voters disapproved of the job Bush is doing; only 38 percent approved. Sarpolus says a "quite overwhelming" aspect of the poll was that 39 percent of those surveyed blamed Bush for Michigan's economic woes, while 24 percent blamed Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Fourteen percent blamed both; another 14 percent blamed neither.
In EPIC/MRA's October poll, Granholm had a 53-30 percent lead over businessman Dick DeVos, the GOP nominee-in waiting, compared with 50-30 in September and 56-36 in August. Those numbers don't distress the Michigan GOP. Its spokesman, Nate Bailey, acknowledges that voters "are upset over leadership."
The fight will be over whether to blame it on the White House or the statehouse.
Reach George Weeks at (517) 371-3660 or gweeks07@aol.com.
'Cabal' tries to lure Bouchard into Senate race
By George Weeks / The Detroit News
The Rev. Keith Butler, front-runner for the 2006 Republican nomination to oppose Sen. Debbie Stabenow, is perplexed that what he calls "a small but very powerful cabal" in the party is trying to recruit Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard to run against him.
Considering his fundraising and other successes, he said Wednesday, "it is befuddling to me ... kind of mystifying" why Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and some others would seek to lure Bouchard into the race.
A few hours before Butler called out of the blue with his lament, one of his supporters, Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, told me: "Elizabeth Dole is begging (Bouchard) every week" to run and met with him in Washington last week.
Said Yob: "I hear he's getting in. It will be an interesting wrinkle."
Bouchard told me late Wednesday he has been getting "nothing but positive feedback" and will make a decision whether to challenge Butler "in the next five or six days."
Butler's campaign hasn't yet caught fire among voters. An Oct. 19-25 poll of 600 likely voters (margin of error plus-minus 4 percentage points) released Wednesday by EPIC/MRA had Stabenow leading Butler 52-26 percent, and the Rev. Jerry Zandstra, on leave from a Grand Rapids religious think tank, 50-20.
Butler notes that in earlier match-ups with Stabenow, Bouchard also trailed by double digits.
"If Bouchard gets in, it's going to be a very tough race for Keith Butler," says EPIC/MRA pollster Ed Sarpolus.
It's not difficult to see what's behind this upheaval.
President Bush's plunging job approval ratings and other Republican woes have prompted inevitable chatter by assorted national political strategists and commentators that the GOP grip on Congress could be in jeopardy.
CNN's Bill Schneider, citing a new poll indicating that 55 percent of Americans would vote for someone who opposes Bush, said Wednesday the president's second-term blues are "a bit of a burden" for candidates who support him. In Michigan, Yob said, "it's going to hurt us" if Bush's dismal poll numbers carry over into the 2006 election.
The election is a year away, and there's some justice in the GOP spin that Bush's numbers could improve depending on developments in Iraq, the economic rebound and lower gas prices.
In releasing his firm's October poll, EPIC/MRA's Sarpolus said 61 percent of likely Michigan voters disapproved of the job Bush is doing; only 38 percent approved. Sarpolus says a "quite overwhelming" aspect of the poll was that 39 percent of those surveyed blamed Bush for Michigan's economic woes, while 24 percent blamed Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Fourteen percent blamed both; another 14 percent blamed neither.
In EPIC/MRA's October poll, Granholm had a 53-30 percent lead over businessman Dick DeVos, the GOP nominee-in waiting, compared with 50-30 in September and 56-36 in August. Those numbers don't distress the Michigan GOP. Its spokesman, Nate Bailey, acknowledges that voters "are upset over leadership."
The fight will be over whether to blame it on the White House or the statehouse.
Reach George Weeks at (517) 371-3660 or gweeks07@aol.com.