Michigan chooses Snyder as new governor
Noah Pylvainen / THE STATE NEWS
Newly-elected Michigan Governor Rick Snyder celebrates his victory with his family and supporters Tuesday night at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit.
Michigan’s political scene saw a major shift as election results started rolling in Tuesday night. As poll information became solidified through the evening, it soon became evident that the national House of Representatives wasn’t the only place where the Republican Party saw its campaign work come to fruition. Results in Michigan mirrored that outcome.
Rick Snyder took home the big win for the GOP in the state this election day with 58 percent of the vote to Virg Bernero’s 40 percent. With results clearly cut relatively early in the night, gubernatorial hopeful Bernero gave his concession speech from the MGM Grand in downtown Detroit shortly after 10 p.m., triggering the first reason the Michigan republican voters had to celebrate over a governor’s election in over a decade (the last being John Engler’s election in 1998).
“This was about the idea of taking a vision, a plan, an attitude of action and building a fabulous team,” Snyder said in his speech on election night. “Now we’re at a milestone.”
For someone who was a total underdog at the beginning of the race and who has little political experience, being the governor elect is a milestone indeed. His plan to reinvent Michigan will hit the ground running, with the help of former rival Bernero. During the democrat’s concession speech, he said he was willing to work with the now governor elect on achieving parts of his 10-point plan, which includes ideas to work on not only jobs, but things like culture as well.
The night only got better for the conservative side of the fence after Bernero conceded. They held on to Jason Allen’s term-limited seat with Howard Walker in the 37th District. Greg MacMaster took over the 105th Michigan House of Representatives seat for another term-limited republican, Kevin Elsenheimer. They also gained ground the Democrats had before. Democrat Bart Stupak was replaced by republican Dan Benishek for a U.S. Congressional seat. Other big republican wins included Bill Schuette for attorney general and Ruth Johnson for secretary of state.
Overall, Michigan’s power shift included the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, three fourths of the senate and half the house are non-incumbants, the biggest shift of the Michigan political scene in nearly 20 years.
With these results, members of the GOP had plenty of reasons to celebrate Tuesday night. The Westin Book Cadillac hotel was packed with Snyder supporters to watch as the night played out and to celebrate the results. Music was periodically stopped to alert the partygoers of new republican victories and to cheer as positive results, like the election of Bob Young and Mary Beth Kelly to the Michigan Supreme Court, came in from the polls for the republicans.
Former Ann Arbor businessman Snyder had support from more than just the republicans, but some independants and democrats as well.
“Snyder is a businessman, not a career politician,” party attendee and engineer Dan Nickles said.
The self-proclaimed nerd and former CEO of Gateway took the stage with his family around 11 p.m. to formally accept his newest job.
“It is time to repair a broken culture, “ he said. “For us to be a great state, we need to start a belief in great items again.”
The future governor also promoted things like a positive attitude to help the state overcome its current issues that took center stage in the campaigns.
“It’s time to stop being negative and start being positive,” Snyder said. “It’s time to stop looking in the rearview mirror and look toward the future. It is time to stop being devisive and start being inclusive and win together as Michiganders.”
Dear Katie,
You Have reported one result incorrectly. Peters did not concede nor lose to Raczkowski. Raczkowski lost to Peters.
Im am glad that Snyder reached across the imaginary aisle and accepted Benero’s offer to help Michigan recover.
That is a true step in the right direction.
Also I firmly believe that if you fix Michigan’s economy then the rest of the countries economy will follow along once again.
The middle class sprang from Michigan auto factories (namely Ford) with the wages they were paying.
No other industry in this nations history can claim this.
Henry Ford built cars and middle class economies.
he knew that the people who built his cars should at least be able to buy one.
Wow, that’s a huge error. Peters is a freshman congressman in a district that had been Republican for over 20 years – hardly a “democrat-dominated” district. And the idea that a candidate who is leading in the vote would concede the seat to his opponent “spare the tension” is beyond bizarre. What was the source for that part of the story?
As a former Gateway employee, Rick Snyder is exactly what Michigan needs. Congratulations to an outstanding businessman who is driven with common sense, will work towards common goals of Michiganders, and in the end Michigan will again be a successful state.
Wow… I can’t believe he called us Michiganders in his quote. You’d think being from Michigan the fool would realize that “gander” was an insult to Lewis Cass.
I hope we haven’t elected a goose.
@Tia: Wow, that’s a stretch! Michigander is an insult? Maybe to you, but not to a lot of us.
@Tia: What planet do you live on? “Michigander” is the preferred and most often used nickname for Michigan residents. And Lewis Cass? 99.9999% of Michiganders probably think Lewis Cass was a pimp. I must be a fool because I don’t get the connection of “gander” to Mr. Cass. whatever. . . .
Now living in SW Florida; it’s interesting to hear on this site – what’s going on back home. Do you think this change of leadeship -and some things like what’s happening at Dow Chemical of Midland – will lead to positive changes in the States economy?
Michigander was used as an insult towards a previouse governer of Michigan by Aberham Lincoln. The reason behind it was because Lewis Cass wanted to make it a choice between the states they won back in the Mexican-American War to legalize slavery in those states. Abraham Lincoln called him a ‘Michigander’ ass if to say he was an idiot. Personally, I think he was an idiot,and I say this as a Michigander! Also, Abe Lincoln had a beard, enough said.
Dear Friends,
This article, having been written some time ago, just shows how people get off target and talk about something that is relatively unimportant.
Since this writing appeared, Governor Snyder has appointed many members to a team of advisors. To his credit, some I believe were democrats. However, giving many of these appointees pay raises from what the original position called for, flys in the face of tightening the budget and making sound decisions for that budget deficit.
This, to me is a very dangerous precedent, and smacks of what happens when republican businessmen or women get into elected office.
iam really concern about are promblem of world hunger and are food stamp program i started working at miejer 5 mo ago only to be shock to see 1,000 of dollar a week be put in the dumpster i hear how people are going hungry living week to week unable to buy grocery for there children and these copany are thowing away and if a employing is caught taking home they would be fired iam talking about food that has at least 5 to 7 days self life they do outdate the day they throw away but are still good the 5 to 7 days the day they out date the only mark down 20% i really feel there a huge promblem here and all that works there dosen,t understand at night when i am force to throw away i just hope that god understands and forgive but in my heart i feel if i can find the right people to help we can turn this around to save million of dollar for the tax papper i can,t stress this enough ,iam taking steak beef ,chicken ,bake goods,milk etc everything a large grocery store carry i have done the report for my dept and it has been 300 to 1000 a night in just my dept the deli i know your busy but i hope you have time to check in to this iam willing to help in any way but don,t know where to start and not loose my job janet harms