Elections Blog

Hi Everyone,

On Wednesday I returned from my deployment by the RGA to Michigan. While the outcome was less than desired the experience was one that I will not soon forget. It was so nice to meet with Michigan voters, and talk to them either on the phone, when I went to their houses, or when they stopped by our Muskegon Victory Center. For the most part the people I spoke with were very cordial and inviting. My team members were very cool to work with, and we had a lot of fun. I was able to meet Saul Anuzis (Chairman of the MI GOP), Congressman Pete Hoekstra (MI-2), and other local GOP officials and candidates.

Much to my surprise I made the front cover of The Muskegon Chronicle on Election Day. It was above the fold and everything. I knew they were taking pictures, but I couldn’t have dreamed that I’d hit the front cover.

While I am very saddened by the results of Tuesday, I see much promise for the future. We’re down, but we’re definitely not out, and Governor Romney is the future and that future is very bright.

All the best to each and every one of you who peruse this site!

Ann Marie Curling

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http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061011/dew011.html?.v=71 Looks like Governor Romney is really stepping up his Michigan appearances. Here’s another one scheduled for November 9th, 2006.

DETROIT, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ — Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will discuss his state’s landmark approach to the health-care crisis and how a similar plan might work in Michigan at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2006 Small Business Conference on Nov. 9 at the Ford Conference & Event Center in Dearborn.

Ann Marie

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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061010/UPDATE/610100435&SearchID=73259484739026
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Romney visited Detroit today to speak to New Detroit.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the keynote speaker at today’s luncheon, said Metro Detroiters and others across the nation are up to the task. Romney’s father George Romney is a former Michigan governor and a co-founder of New Detroit.

“America will always solve the problems it faces if it owns up to them,” he said. “You can work as I will on the answers.”

Ann Marie

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http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17172565&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6 It looks like Governor Romney had himself a good ole time in Midland Michigan yesterday…

Here’s the story…

Stuart Frohm, Midland Daily News
09/09/2006

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got laughs here Friday with stories about “some fond memories of this area.”

Later he told approximately 200 Midland County Republicans he’s optimistic about future U.S. responses to national challenges.

Romney, who has been in Iraq and Afghanistan and praised U.S. troops, said, “Thank heaven we have a president who recognizes the extent of the threat” from jihadists.

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The Michigan native, 59, is a possible Republican presidential candidate. He was the keynote speaker at the county party’s $45-a-person fundraising luncheon at the Holiday Inn of Midland.

A Mount Pleasant memory

Romney said that he and his mother, Lenore, were seated on the stand in Mount Pleasant behind his father, Michigan Gov. George Romney, when the elder Romney spoke. It was his father’s first fourth of July as governor.

“It’s really good to be here in Mount Clemens today,” George Romney told the Mount Pleasant crowd, prompting “Oooh” in that audience.

“And my mother said ‘Pleasant, George, Pleasant.’ He said, ‘Yes, it’s very pleasant.”

The Saginaw County Fair

Mitt Romney also said that when he was 19, a woman about 25 years old told him he ruined her day. She explained that he looked much better on TV earlier that day than when they met at the Saginaw County Fair.

“People tell it straight” in midMichigan, Romney added.

Lots of aspirin

Before entering the luncheon room, Romney told Mike Hayes of The Dow Chemical Co. that early in his father’s service as governor, someone from former aspirin-maker Dow “gave him a bottle of aspirin this big.” Mitt Romney put one hand perhaps two feet above the other.

“It’s more than a bit like coming home,” Romney later told the Midland audience. “This is where I was raised for the first 18, 19 years of my life — Michigan that is,” said Romney — who added that he had dated a girl in Bay City.

Tougher competition

Aggressive investment in technology and in education are needed if the United States is to succeed in business competition with Asians — tougher competition “than we’ve ever known before,” Romney said.

U.S. companies spend more on tort claims than on research and development, he said.

Also, he said, the U.S. must dramatically reduce its use of energy — particularly oil. And, “we’re spending too much money,” with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid taking “an unsustainable portion of our net worth.”

“Fortunately,” Romney said, President George W. Bush has been “excruciatingly honest” about need for both more investment in technology and Social Security reform and has fought for both.

On economic development, Romney linked his optimism to U.S. beliefs in education, opportunity, hard work, value of human life, risk taking and freedom — and also to family being the foundation of U.S. society.

Holder of Harvard degrees in business and law, Romney headed the organizing committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He called that Olympic experience “the thrill of a lifetime.”

Audience members laughed after Romney said that one of his five sons told him the brothers agreed that — after seeing him finish in sixth in family athletic competition — being named to head the Olympic committee was the only way he’d make the front page of a U.S. national newspaper’s sports section.

©Midland Daily News 2006

I get a real kick out of the Mt. Clemens/Pleasant joke. Having lived in Michigan for my first eighteen years, it’s areas that I’m very familiar with.

Ann Marie

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http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/09/michigans_mojo_this_needs_a_ne.html Remember this article in the Weekly Standard?

Well, the standoff is intesifying as detailed by Chris Cillizza in today’s peice at The Fix. At one point Cillizza wrote:

. . . the two men are head and shoulders above their rivals for the nomination in terms of recruiting top fundraisers and building organizations in the state.

Also listed are the financial “whales” that Romney, McCain and Frist have lined up thusfar. Romney has as many (19) as both of them combined.

Jeff

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I’m still recovering from my quick trip to Michigan, but I figured I’d post the picture from the event of Alex Prasad from Michiganders for Romney, his friends (who have agreed to blog at Michiganders for Romney), and myself.

Alex is the one wearing the yellow shirt with tie

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http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/08/romneys_michiga.html Wow! Look at “this” list of support! Mitt Romney just about owns Michigan!

Kevin

Addendum by Jeff:

Kevin, you just beat me to this one!

THIS IS HUGE NEWS! A big “show of strength” by Romney. On that list are SEVEN of the Bush Rangers and/or Pioneers (looks like Cillizza will have to update his list . . . Romney was already leading on that list, but now it just looks like he’s pulling away from everybody else.

There are 13 CEO types on that list . . . a clear sign of Romney’s appeal to fellow CEO/management types.

Hotline On Call says of this announcement:
The release of these names is a shot across the frontrunner’s bow of Sen. John McCain, who has the support of Michigan’s two national committee members, among others. It’s also a signal to the media, in Michigan and nationally. And to Republican donors. And to uncommitted activists in other states. And to those pesky National Journal insiders who keep ranking McCain ahead of their guy. And even to the White House.

Add to Del.icio.us

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http://breakingnews.redstate.com/blogs/saul_anuzis/2006/aug/18/mi_morning_update_another_levin_romney_back_gopac_need_more_bloggers From Saul Anuzis, the outstanding Michigan GOP Chair, on RedState: Governor Mitt Romney will be hosting a Pizza and Politics evening for all the grassroots activists who show up at the State Convention Friday evening. The Romney crew will be set up in the “East Entrance” of the Rock Financial Showplace from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Governor Romney will personally be there to meet and talk with delegates.

As head of the Republican Governors Association, Governor Romney is very committed to helping Michigan Republicans do all they can to elect Dick DeVos as Michigan’s next Governor. Once again, we are thankful for his continued help!Have fun, Michiganders for Romney, at the Convention!

Dave

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