With less than a week to go before voters head to the polls for local, state and congressional elections, candidates are making their final push to get voters on their side. In Michigan, voters will decide whether to re-elect Governor Rick Snyder or to hand the mitten over to Mark Schauer, his democratic challenger.
According to a recent Detroit News poll conducted from Oct. 22 to Oct. 24, Snyder was leading Schauer by only five percentage points.
“Schauer has run at best an OK campaign, but he really hasn’t given those voters who were energized to come out twice for Obama enough reason to come out for him,” said Dr. Edward Sidlow, a professor in Eastern Michigan University's Political Science Department. “Unless turnout is a huge surprise, Schauer is done.”
Some people are still holding out hope that Schauer will be victorious on Tuesday.
“Michigan stands in critical need of a governor that will identify with our state’s pressing needs, [like] school funding. Mark is the one who I believe can best deal with those needs,” EMU graduate student Bobby Curry said.
The political ramifications of losing the governor’s race for Snyder aren’t as great a threat to his political future as it is for Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Walker has been widely mentioned as a potential candidate for president in 2016. All polls conducted over the last month show Walker in a virtual tie with democrat, Mary Burke. Walker was leading Burke by just one percent in the latest CBS News/New York Times/YouGov poll.
According to Sidlow, Governor Walker’s “short term career could be made or broken on election day in Wisconsin. His race is terrifically important to his political future. If he can’t win Wisconsin , then I don’t think that national republicans, are going to continue to think about pursuing him as a presidential candidate because that’s too much baggage.”
Sidlow said there are about a half dozen gubernatorial races across the country that are toss-ups. Races that he sees as a particularly interesting are Florida, Texas, Kansas and Colorado.
It appears democrats will fare well in gubernatorial races, but face a very poor outlook in congressional races. Many political experts are predicting that the GOP will take control of the upper chamber of Congress and add to their majority in the House.
Sidlow counts himself among those experts who expect a Republican takeover of the Senate, but says he would not be shocked to find the Senate in a 50/50 state in which Joe Biden would the tie breaker. However, he doesn’t think that's as likely as a GOP takeover.
“I have a strong suspicion that Republican’s will take over. I will not be completely shock if its 50/50 and Joe Biden breaks the tie, that will assume that the Kansas independent [candidate] caucuses with the democrats. I will be a bit surprised if the democrats retain a majority,” said Sidlow.
Recent polls indicate that Democrats will hold on to both of Michigan’s Senate seats. Gary Peters was leading his Republican opponent Terri Lynn Land by 15 percent in the Detroit News poll conducted from Oct. 22 to Oct. 24.
“If Terri Lynn Land had a chance, the [Republican National Committee] would be in here throwing money and people around like nobody’s business - and they’re not here,” said Sidlow. “They’re spending their money elsewhere. That indicates to me that those polling numbers are pretty good.”
One thing is sure: Every vote will be important on Nov. 4 for many key races because of the very small statistical gap in polling.
“Ever since I became of age, I have always voted. Voting is an instrumental part of the democratic system. I believe that anyone that’s able, should take advantage,” EMU honors student Vanisha Dejonghe said.
