I’ve been hearing from Lance Enderle in Michigan 8 and it remains a weird situation. Republican Mike Rogers might well have been involved in the curious case of the non-running Democratic candidate that Lance finally replaced. The GOP is strangely inert, no ground game visible, while angry UAW members and retirees are working like their lives depend on winning this election.
The area looks like a neutron bomb hit thanks to the crash of 2008 and the attendant changes in the auto industry. People are mad and they’re looking for someone to take it out on; Mike Rogers just might be the lucky winner.
If we want this seat, and I assume we do, we’re going to need to roll a Facebook ad campaign in this final week to help the district residents recognize Lance’s name.
We’re new this cycle and we’ve had the tough meat - Bottorff’s primary challenge against Barron Hill in Indiana 9, Saltonstall’s primary challenge against Stupak in Michigan 1, David Cozad against an entrenched and odious Republican named Joe Barton. Each campaign has its temperament, its back channel jokes, its hopes and dreams.
Of all of the Vin Diesel adventure movie scenes Michigan 8 takes the prize. Lance ought to be running a write in while Rogers skates to victory, but thanks to a few meddling kids and a dog named Dude he is on the ballot, the UAW is bringing a fierce ground game, and we’re upending the couch cushions looking for enough to run a Facebook ad flight this last week.
I’m not gonna grovel, I’m not gonna beg, it is what it is. I've made NO cash donations myself this cycle, but I'm giving quite a lot of my time, and Lance's campaign is one of the benefactors. Someone, somewhere, has got to shake about $500 loose just for Facebook or we watch this one slip through our fingers. ActBlue. Starting at $903, push it to $1,403.
If not for your country, your kin, or your kids ... do it for Dude.