Ex-Gov. Blanchard endorses Whitmer, says Schuette is 'going negative'
LANSING Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette is likely spooked by a recent poll showing him deadlocked with Democratic candidate Gretchen Whitmer and is "going negative" as a result, former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard said today.
Blanchard endorsed Whitmer today in a letter to activists and community leaders, one day after Schuette, Michigan's attorney general, officially kicked off his campaign for governor at a barbecue and fund-raiser in Midland.
At the event at the Midland County Fairgrounds, Schuette raised the prospect of Michigan returning to the "lost decade" of much of the 2000s, when the country suffered from a lengthy recession that hit Michigan especially hard. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm was in office for much of that time, from 2003 through 2010.
"Jennifer Granholm's lieutenants want to take back control of our state," Schuette told several hundred people in attendance Tuesday, without naming Whitmer or any other Democratic candidate for governor.
Read more: http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/09/13/jim-blanchard-endorsement-whitmer-governor/660933001/