Granholm taking fire

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, once a rising star in the Democratic Party, is now fighting desperately to win re-election, even in a deep-blue Democratic stronghold state.

Part of Granholm's worries? She keeps having these little ethical problems, which have even led to the creation of a Granholm Ethics Blog. Heh!

Granholm's biggest problem is ... the economy, stupid!

Michigan continues to be one of the only states losing, not gaining, jobs. Unemployment stands at a painful 7.2 percent, compared to the national average of 4.7 percent. Granholm has won some business, but factory closings and layoffs dominate the headlines. ...

This month's poll puts DeVos at 46 percent to Granholm's 45 percent, with 9 percent undecided, a statistical dead heat.

Of course, the Democratic Party and its Big Labor allies are the chief culprits in Michigan's economic decline:

• With its "union shop" laws, Michigan drives away investment, so that new auto plants are being built in "right to work" states like Tennessee and Alabama instead.
  
• Democrats and Big Labor both support high taxes, thus Michigan, in desperate need of business investment, ranks #26 in the Tax Foundation's 2006 Business Tax Climate Index (full report in PDF format).
• Big Labor has saddled the automakers with onerous "legacy" costs (pensions and health insurance for retirees) that have nearly bankrupted General Motors, and have helped accelerate industrial disinvestment in Michigan.

The horrible reckoning now coming due for Granholm is the result of more than 50 years of wrong-headed moves by both Big Labor and Democratic officials. We cover a lot of this in our discussion of Detroit's problems, in Chapter 8 of DONKEY CONS.

-- McCAIN

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