This news is all thanks to an incredible woman, candidate and governor who soundly defeated Amway Guy by a beautiful 14 point margin. Way to go Gov!
So why didn't Dick win, just for the record?
DeVos, whose wealth is estimated at more than $500 million, spent more than $35 million from his own pocket on the campaign, said Rich Robinson, a financial analyst with the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a nonprofit government watchdog group.
"(DeVos) has a record, and I don't think he was able to overcome that despite a heavily funded campaign," Robinson said. "He has a long record as an interest-group lobbyist, on all kinds of tax, but particularly inheritance."
Largely self-funded campaigns are not generally successful because they often reflect a narrow support base, Robinson said.
Despite record spending for a Michigan gubernatorial race, Robinson said DeVos lost to an incumbent who raised less than one-third of what he did.
Ouch!
But it wasn't just the money. And clearly, all that money did nothing to solicit good advice on his TV advertisements...MSU political campaigns expert Charles Atkin said DeVos made strategic mistakes in the way he executed his campaign.While DeVos started his campaign early and was able to garner name recognition, Atkin said the Republican candidate's advertising approach backfired.
"For a candidate like DeVos, positive ads would help him to be recognized. They help to identify that he has positive ideas and qualities," Atkin said.
"The proportion of positive ads and negative ads was very skewed," he added. "Candidates have to be very careful because (negative ads are) a risky form of persuasion. They wear out much faster."
In addition, DeVos appeared in many of the negative ads, which is uncommon for candidates, Atkin said.
No real surprise there either, but still, I think it helps to have what a lot of us have been saying for a while now echoed by an expert.
I really think Amway's image took a thumping itself in this election. What really caught my eye in this entire article is here
In a post-campaign twist, positive ads promoting Amway Corp. — the company DeVos used to run as CEO — began airing last Monday on WSYM-TV, FOX 47, Lansing, said Lyle Schulze, the station's general manager.
The ads will continue until Sunday and were paid for by Alticor Inc., the parent company of Amway.
The ads feature a medley of employees saying, "I am Amway." Throughout the campaign, Granholm accused DeVos of outsourcing Amway jobs to China when he ran the company.
The Associated Press reported the ads are the first that Amway has run in the United States in 20 years.
See Dick.
See Jen.
See them run.
Run, Dick, run!
Run, Jen, run!
See Jen win!
See Dick leave.
Bye, bye Dick!
6 comments:
Who's that with Dick?
It's Betsy.
See Dick and Betsy.
See Dick and Betsy leave.
Bye, bye Betsy.
Bye, bye Dick.
The DeVos money will be around to haunt us. They will continue to fund their nightmare agenda and candidates.
If they start screwing with the Legislature, I say we scream VERY LOUD about it. I know I'm going to, if I hear of it.
Just for the record- Alticor/Amway did say they were going to run the ads through November when they started. Gotta make it look good, ya know...
From The Blade...
Patrick! Thank you for giving me another reason to laugh today!
Check out the front page, you win the prize! :-D
Hope you'll stop by and comment more often!
Self-funded campaigns can be successful (see New Jersey, Minnesota, California, etc. for recent examples). It works when the rich take the populist slant and say, "I'm wealthy, so I can't be bought." Of course this line is crap and whenever I hear it, I want to ask, "So you're saying only rich people should be able to run our government?"
But it never works when the rich person appears to be looking for his friends. It seems like that's what happened in Michigan.
Excellent point, Mike. I'd also like to think that Michigan stood up and clearly said that Dick DeVos was too extreme for our tastes, but that maybe more wishing than actually the case.
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