The battle for Michigan
Posted: Thursday, January 10, 2008 9:19 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats, Republicans
The New York Times writes, “Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney sped to Michigan on Wednesday and turned their focus to the slowing economy as they headed toward the next showdown in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Mr. Romney dropped his television advertising in two other important battlegrounds, South Carolina and Florida, to focus his spending on Michigan in hopes of averting another major defeat. Mr. McCain, whose campaign until now has operated by necessity as a wide open but low-cost insurgency, adopted a carefully choreographed series of rallies as it scrambled to gather the money and the organization it needs to take advantage of his victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday.”
Romney’s decision to pull advertising from South Carolina and Florida and focus solely on Michigan is a sure sign that even his deep pockets have a bottom. More from the Times: "Romney held a national fund-raising call day on Wednesday in Boston, an event his aides said had been planned for some time. His campaign said it raised $1.5 million that it can use during the primaries and an additional $3.5 million it could use if Mr. Romney wins the nomination and runs in the general election."
This is kind of funny. When McCain's fortunes were at their lowest, he lost the support of one of his top Michigan supporters, Attorney General Mike Cox. Could Cox regret that decision now?
Meanwhile, "Top Michigan Democrats made another plea Wednesday to coax supporters of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Tuesday's Michigan primary, rather than staying home or crossing over to vote in the Republican contest. Obama, Edwards, and Bill Richardson yanked their names off the ballot here, leaving New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as the only leading contender for Democratic voters… Carl Levin and state Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said Michigan Dems can still have an indirect say in the nominating process if they check the ‘uncommitted’ box on the ballot. State law prohibits write-ins for candidates who have not authorized write-in campaigns; Obama, Edwards and Richardson have not."
This is a risky strategy for both Clinton and Obama. If Obama does make an effort to push uncommitted, then he risks making Clinton's victory in this state count. Of course, for Clinton, losing to uncommitted would be embarrassing. With no delegates at stake, seems like a worthless risk.
