WWMT Newschannel 3: Gubernatorial debate in Grand Rapids
Monday saw a Republican showdown in the race for the governor's office in Michigan.
As the finger-pointing, name-calling, and attack ads continue, three of the five candidates for governor faced off in Grand Rapids.
Representative Pete Hoekstra, businessman Rick Snyder, and State Senator Tom George held a debate on Monday night. Scheduling conflicts forced Attorney General Mike Cox and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard to pull out of the debate.
Those who organized Monday night's debate expressed disappointment that only three of the five Republican candidates made it to the event in Grand Rapids. One of those candidates said on Monday night that those who ducked the debate aren't fit to be governor.
Monday night's debate saw a lot of talk about cutting the size of government and changing the tax code.
“Value for money budgeting is gobbly-goo, you have to say where you're going to make the cuts,” said Tom George, attacking a tax proposal by fellow Republican Rick Snyder during one of a handful of memorable moments during the debate.
The debate will air on public television on Tuesday night.
In another interesting moment, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who's been publicly attacked by Attorney General Mike Cox, essentially sent Cox a message to keep attacking him because he says it's rallying his campaign and voters don't like negative attacks.
The general sense from those at Monday night's debate was that the campaign is going to be a hotly contested one, and one likely to have a small margin for victory.
“What we're doing is very clear,” said Rep. Hoekstra. “We're running a very positive campaign that talks about where Michigan's going to be under the Hoekstra governor, how we're going to unleash the power of 9.5 Michiganians.”
“I think when voters step back and look at the field,” said Sen. George, “they're going to ask themselves what does Michigan need and having somebody with legislative experience would make a difference, also my background is in healthcare, which has become that state's single biggest expense.”
“You start with the facts and when you lay out the facts to people quite often there's a common sense answer,” said Snyder. “Instead of arguing about the extremes let's go do some positive stuff and win together.”
There are still a few debates to go before the vote, including a key debate on Mackinaw Island.
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Posted: 5/25/2010