Granholm Pulls Ahead in Mich. Gov. Race

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is interviewed after the third debate with Republican challenger Dick DeVos at WXYZ-TV in Southfield, Mich., in a Monday, Oct. 16, 2006 file photo. Granholm has pulled ahead in her bid for re-election, going from a near-tie this summer to an 8- or 9-point lead over Republican businessman Dick DeVos, despite the sour Michigan economy and the fortune DeVos has spent on ads telling voters he will get the state working again. Standing behind the governor is her husband Dan Mulhern. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File) (Carlos Osorio - AP)

LANSING, Mich. -- With Detroit's auto industry closing factories and laying off workers in a desperate struggle to start making money again, the biggest turnaround story in Michigan could well be Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

The Democrat has pulled ahead in her bid for re-election, going from a near-tie this summer to an 8- or 9-point lead over Republican businessman Dick DeVos, despite the sour Michigan economy and the fortune DeVos has spent on ads telling voters he will get the state working again.

The tide began to turn in August, after the Michigan Democratic Party started running commercials promoting the governor's jobs plan and Granholm began pledging in her own ads to defend Michigan residents from high gasoline prices.

By early September, the Democrats were attacking some of DeVos' business practices at the family business he once led, direct marketer Amway Corp.

Even more voters began moving Granholm's way when it became known that DeVos opposed embryonic stem cell research and all abortions except those needed to save the mother's life, and that he would like to see schools teach intelligent design _ an alternative to evolution _ in science classes.

DeVos, who turns 51 on Saturday, has spent at least $16 million of his own money on the race, pouring a lot of it into a barrage of 28 ads so far, including one featuring auto industry wizard Lee Iacocca. Standing in empty factories and talking to workers worried about having to move out of state, DeVos has blamed the governor for the state's dismal economy.

"We cannot stand by and allow our jobs go elsewhere because the governor has not chosen to show leadership," he said during a debate this week.

Michigan's unemployment rate in August _ 7.1 percent _ was tied with Mississippi's for highest in the country, and economists do not expect the state to show any net job growth until late 2007 or 2008.

Although the governor lowered business taxes and launched a $2 billion plan to lure more high-tech businesses to Michigan, new jobs are being added slowly, and the auto industry has been beset by buyouts, plant closings and bankruptcies.

In a poll taken last week for the Detroit Free Press and a Detroit TV station, voters said they saw DeVos as more of a visionary but considered Granholm more trustworthy, brainy, charismatic and tuned into average Michigan residents. What's more, over half of the voters polled said DeVos is trying to buy the election.

"I just think, because he has money, he doesn't know what it's like to work and have a normal life," said Kim Bausick, a 29-year-old Lansing hairdresser with no health insurance. "I don't think he's approachable. I think he has ulterior motives for big business."

Democrats have run their own ads blaming DeVos for eliminating 1,400 Michigan jobs while he was president of Amway and its parent company. They note that Amway built a plant in China that employs thousands, striking a nerve with Michigan workers who have seen China take away many of the manufacturing jobs they once held.