Courtesy photo
Attorney General Bill Schuette and former State Sen. Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer will face off in the general election for Michigan governor.
A recent poll suggested the gap between the two leading candidates for Michigan's next governor could be narrowing, but two new polls now indicate that could have been an anomaly.
Last week, a Detroit Free Press poll found Democrat Gretchen Whitmer would get 46 percent of the vote to Republican Bill Schuette's 41 percent — a significant tightening in a race in which numerous polls had given Whitmer a comfortable edge for months.
But it looks like Whitmer's back to out-polling Schuette. A Detroit News/WDIV poll released Monday found Whitmer leading 50 to Schuette's 37.5. And a poll from Emerson College released Sunday found Whitmer leading 52 to 41.
Furthermore, the Emerson poll found Whitmer leading 57 percent to 36 percent among women, though it found Schuette narrowly leading with males 47 percent to 46 percent.
It would appear that the big controversy over Whitmer running mate Garlin Gilchrist's blighted Detroit property failed to move the needle for those polled. Meanwhile, there's plenty of reasons for voters to be unenthused about Schuette based on his track record as attorney general...which might explain why his Detroit campaign office is starting to look like a blighted property.
It's also worth noting both polls were conducted mere days after it was revealed that authorities intercepted pipe bombs mailed to prominent national Democrats.
The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 6.
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