Tuesday’s results should come as a surprise to no one. Republicans firmly are in the driver’s seat in Michigan. If one is a Democrat, Tuesday’s result probably stung more than a little, but really it should be an anger tempered by inevitability. The bad economy had “backlash” written all over it.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that the economy is the issue at hand. It was easy for moderate voters to move toward governor-elect Rick Snyder and other Republicans because the issues on the table were not social issues. Snyder didn’t play up the traditional family values that would have played very well in a good economy.
Instead he took the political-outsider, job-creation route.
People are concerned about their jobs — or lack thereof — and the futures of their children. Furthermore, they are tired of politicians fighting with each other and getting nothing done. And so, it is not unreasonable to see why it makes sense to vote Republican en masse.
In doing so, some individuals were casualties of affiliation. MSU Board of Trustees member Colleen McNamara was one such casualty. As a Democratic incumbent running during a time when people crave change, the odds were against her.
By Wednesday morning, McNamara and fellow Democrat Dennis Denno had lost to Republicans Brian Breslin and Mitch Lyons.
In 2008, the same thing happened to incumbent Republican Trustee Scott Romney. Romney was appointed to the board in 2000, ran for re-election that same year and was voted in for his first full term on the board in January 2001.
He was ousted when public opinion turned against Republicans.
When things go south for one party, some individuals who probably are deserving of their positions — though perhaps not adept at marketing themselves — get caught in the wash.
That might be the lesson any party can take away from a landslide election: Don’t get too caught up in the hype. Republicans were elected to fix the economy, and, it is inferred, transition the state economy so it is competitive.
Don’t stray from that initiative. There is a reason the social issues were taken off the table: We have bigger fish to fry. The priorities lie with the budget, job market and government bureaucracy.
Snyder was elected as a moderate. Now is not the time to get away from that.
Everyone honestly wants to believe lieutenant governor-elect and state Rep. Brian Calley, R-Portland, when he says,
“We’re going to throw aside class warfare, racial and ethnic divides, and yes, even Republican and Democrat. We need 10 million people pulling in the same direction.”
We’ve heard that before. And it came from people who made it sound even better. The point now is results — which Snyder has said he is all about.
The voters gave him what they thought would help him get the job done.
Now he has to deliver.
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