Less than 48 hours after polls closed locally, Senior Capital Correspondent Tim Skubick appeared before the Washtenaw Economic Club to provide his take on what had happened at the polls here in Michigan on Tuesday. [1,2]
Mr Skubick began by reporting that 64% of eligible voters had participated in this election, for a total 4.2 million ballots cast here. Turning to the gubernatorial race, he declaired the debates “awful — no content, no substance.” At no juncture in the race did Republican Bill Schuette ever have a lead, nor did he appear to take stock of this to make “a midpoint adjustment. [3]
“He made good points,” the speaker emphasized. “But never connected.
Gretchen Whitmer did connect. A four-word sentence helped get her elected: ‘Fix the damn roads.’ It was like the John Engler ‘nickel,’ the nickle he gave out to show voters how much his opponent’s property tax relief was worth. Whitmer had that this time. But on the west side of the state show she took word ‘damn’ out. It didn’t poll well. [4,5,6,7]
From a historical perspective, the current loss of twenty-six seats in the United States House of Representatives for Republican President Donald Trump compares to sixty-three for the first midterm of his predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama. As to the US Senate, no president has topped or even tied the 2018 gain of three seats since Democratic President John F Kennedy netted plus-four in 1962. [8]
Factoring all contests this week, then, Tim Skubick concluded that the frequently discussed “‘Blue Wave’ was really a tickle.”
Turning to the work of governing, he gave top marks to Governor-Elect Whitmer out-of-the-gate. “Yesterday, she did the right thing. She said, ‘I want to work with you, Republicans. She’s signaled plans to return to the ‘Quadrant System’ — every week, the governor sits down with two Democrats and two Republicans to work out issues. That shows she’s all-in. There’s a chance it might work. It’s the right signal to send.
During questioning, she said, ‘You don’t treat the legislature as your employees, because we are co-equal.’ Perfect answer. She was then asked, ‘Can you be like Engler, be a little tough?’ ‘I will use all leverage.’ Yes! Then she was asked, ‘Will you threaten?’ ‘Next question?’ — she didn’t answer.
She’ll be fun to cover.
What about a Pink Wave? By the numbers, Mr Skubick cited the “one-hundred-plus women elected to Congress, fifty-three to the Michigan Legislature. The previous high was thirty-seven: Twenty-six Democrats, sixteen Republicans. The state senate has been a good ole boys club for a long time. They had four women last session. It’ll be eleven this time, eight Democrats, three Republicans. And three women to the Michigan Supreme Court.” [9,10]
In terms of what this portends for the future, Mr Skubick said that this election was very much a matter of turnout among women and how they voted. Equally important, “Women don’t disagree with what Trump is doing. Rather, how he does it. They’re put off by his bombastic style.”
The Washtenaw Economic Club pegged attendance at 184 people for an hour-long presentation. This speaker never took the podium, instead opting to move about the room with a hand-held microphone in style reminiscent of The Phil Donahue Show in Dayton during the 1970s. [11]
At a few points his style slipped into shtick, undermining otherwise exceptionally thorough and detailed content. For example, when James Leonard of Ann Arbor Observer confronted him near the fifty-minute mark that a program billed as “How Mid-term Election Results Will Impact Washtenaw County” had not yet touched on anything specific to Washtenaw County, Tim Skubick responded by turning to face elsewhere in the audience, exclaiming, “Next question?” [12]
Beyond that, gave no further response to Mr Leonard.
At a later point, Mr Skubick was challenged on a formal remark he had made about senior citizens “still voting in larger numbers than young. Why? Because they fought for the right to vote.” Younger adults are “going through life looking at their phones,” he added, after borrowing a smartphone from one of the tables to demonstrate. Instagram in particular was identified by the audience as a substantive resource, only to be met with little more than an begrudging “may be.”
He closed by stating that political awareness is not a function of public school education. Rather, the most effective means moving the next generation of voters to become informed, participating voters happens when they are growing up — in the home, at the kitchen table.
References
- “Tim Skubick, anchor and producer of Off the Record” WKAR: Public Media from Michigan State University.
- Washtenaw Economic Club (home page).
- Bill Schuette, Lisa Postumus Lynes for Michigan (home page).
- Whitmer Gilchrist for Michigan (home page).
- “Fix the Damn Roads” Whitmer Gilchrist for Michigan.
- “John Engler” Ballotpedia.
- “Tim Skubick: Remember John Engler’s nickle? The Democrats are using it now” Tim Skubick (May 31, 2012) mLive.
- “Trump averts disaster: He is just the third president in 100 years to gain Senate seats in midterm election, but lose House seats” Jeffry Bartash (November 7, 2018) MarketWatch.
- “A Pink Wave: The Record Number Of Women Heading To Congress Include Fighters, Founders And First-Timers” Christina Vuleta (November 7, 2018) Forbes.
- “The ‘Pink Wave’ Was Always Blue” Alice B Lloyd (November 7, 2018) The Weekly Standard.
- “How Phil Donahue used Dayton audiences to pioneer the day-time talk show” Lisa Powell (November 21, 2017) Dayton Daily News.
- Ann Arbor Observer (home page).
