Reply #14: Skip Blanchard [View All]

[salin]

lost a race he should have won against a very marginally popular and unknown republican who had led the michigan senate... blanchard - running a "safe race"... stayed far, far away from Detroit during the campaign. The strategy was the view that (black) Detroit would "of course" vote for Blanchard - and being seen as too sympathetic to the needs of the city (which were great)... was seen to be "too controversial" for the rest of the state. As a result the oft dependable political activists of the city went completely dormant. Without the work, GOTV efforts and energy of Detroit democrats (specifically the African American community) - he (barely) lost the race to John Engler... who became a repub darling around the country and who was among the first GOP governors to start gutting the social safety net of the state (under the guise of "welfare reform" - but included programs far beyond welfare) ...

Blanchard ran an anemic race that had the an tragically awful strategy. Definitely NOT the guy we want to see take the reigns when we need a democratic reemergence/resurgence.