A Teleconference With Mike Bouchard, The Republican Candidate For The Senate In Michigan

A month and a half ago, few people thought the Senate race in Michigan would be competitive. Mike Bouchard and Keith Butler were going head to head in a primary battle and both of them were polling 12-15 points behind Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow.

But then, Bouchard won the primary, picked up a lot of momentum, and next thing you know, he was running roughly 6 points back, give or take the margin of error.

Well, earlier tonight, I had an opportunity to get in on a teleconference with Bouchard and I was looking forward to seeing how he came across.

My first impression? Bouchard seems to be charismatic, energetic, and as tough as you’d expect a sheriff to be. He also had no problem pulling out the brass knuckles to use on Stabenow.

At one point he said he was going to, “pound her in the nose with reality.” He also accused her of being a “jellyfish” who talked in “Washingtonspeak.” He made a good case for that, by the way.

He pointed out that he supports the House position on illegal immigration — while Stabenow voted for giving Social Security to illegals, but against making English America’s official language.

He talked about how Stabenow is killing jobs in Washington and voted for the “Bridge to Nowhere” twice, while he’s a fiscal conservative.

He noted that Stabenow is for trial lawyers, while he’s for tort reform.

Also, in response to a question, he made it clear that he respected the President, but didn’t agree with his approach on illegal immigration and spending.

In his best line of the teleconference, Bouchard talked about how ridiculous it would be to set a date to withdraw from Iraq. He said something like (This isn’t a quote):

People say we’re going to pull out on such and such a date. I’d say, what’s that based on? Did you just pull that date out of thin air? If I had a hostage situation, I would never go up to my men and say rush hour is at 5, so this situation has to be taken care of by 4:49. You just can’t put your men in the field in that position.

As far as the horse race aspect of the race went, he noted that he has gotten a lot of Democratic votes as Sheriff. In fact, he said he got 100,000 more votes in his county than Bush did in 2004.

He also noted that the party was united in Michigan and that they have all gotten together to handle the ground game — which sounds incredibly impressive by the way. Get this, he said that they’ve already done more voter contacts than were done in the presidential campaign and noted that DeVos, who’s running for Governor, will fund the biggest ground games in the history of the state.

Put it all together and not only do I think Bouchard is definitely capable of knocking off Stabenow, I think that this one could turn into one of our best pick up opportunities in the Senate before it’s over.

Share this!

Enjoy reading? Share it with your friends!