The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 6, 1986 - Page 5
State Dems hold House,
GOP retains Senate
By MICHAEL LUSTIG
Daily news analysis
The coattails of Gov. James
Blanchard's landslide victory were
long, but not quite long enough to
help Democrats win a majority of
seats in the Michigan Senate.
Republicans retained control of
the Senate by a 20-18 margin, the
same as before the election. In the
House, however, Democrats picked
up seven seats, increasing their
margin to 64-46. One incumbent
Democrat was defeated in Tuesday's
elections, while five Republican
incumbents lost their House seats.
Thousands of voters across the
state and in Washtenaw County
apparently voted split tickets. In
Washtenaw County, Democrat
Blanchard won about 70 percent of
the votes cast, but voters seemed to
switch allegiances in choosing
Republican Rep. Carl Pursell over
challenger Dean Baker for the
Second District Congress seat.
MICHAEL TRAUGOTT of
the University's Center for Political
Studies says the outcome was a
combination of declining signif-
icance of party identification and
increasing use of personal, as
opposed to partisan, campaigns.
Dale Apley, the Republican
candidate for the 18th District state
Senate seat, had hoped people who
voted for Pursell would also vote
for him, but that was not the case.
While Pursell won almost half of
the votes cast in the county, Apley
only received 36 percent and lost to
incumbent Sen. Lana Pollack.
Had the Democrats won the
Senate, Pollack could have won
more than re-election. She could
have been in position to be a
committee head or vice-chair-
woman, but now the best that she
can hope for is to become minority
party chairwoman of a committee.
In any case, Pollack will now have
more influence in the Senate than
she did as a first-term senator.
State Rep. Perry Bullard was re-
elected as representative of the 53rd
District for the eighth time,
defeating challenger Vic Holtz by a
two-to-one margin. He has been
committed to helping the Uni-
versity since he was first elected in
1972 and will continue to do so. He
will also retain his position as
chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee.
Bullard's participation in a visit
to Ann Arbor's new sister city,
Juigalpa, Nicaragua, shows that he
is so confident of support from his
district he can even leave the
country during Election Day.
Because the overall make-up of
the Legislature is essentially
unchanged, the University's status
will probably remain the same.
Blanchard's large margin of victory
and the increased number of
Democrats in the House may
eventually benefit the University
because they may be more willing
to spend more money on the
University.
The Associated Press contributed
to this report.
What to do now?;
Losers fac,
By STEVE BLONDER
Next time. Those two words are
ringing in the ears of Republican
challengers Dale Apley, who hoped
to be a state senator, and Vic Holtz
who ran for state representative.
Apley summed up the thoughts
a losing candidate may have:
"Anybody who runs once always
wants to run again." Apley said he
hasn't decided which office to run
for next.
Holtz, however, said the Repub-
lican party has already asked him to s
challenge Rep. Perry Bullard's 53rd
district seat again in 1988.
"I AM COMMITTED to the I
Republican party. My campaign
people asked me tonight, 'When do
we meet again?"' Holtz said shortly !
after conceding the race to Bullard
Tuesday night.3
Holtz says he lost because of
several reasons. He feels he didn't
publicize Bullard's 15 percent
absentee rate. "At the very least,"
he said, "I intend to let all of the
people know of his voting record
over the next two years."
Holtz also said the low voter
turnout affected the outcome.of the
race. "Twelve thousand people
'e future
from my 53rd district who voted in
1984 did not come to the polls this
time. I think that they were the
wrong 12,000 people."
Apley attributes his defeat to
Pollack in the 18th district to
apathy among local Republicans
and his late entry into the race.
"I'M NOT SURE if a lot of
Republicans got out and voted
because the Republican numbers
just weren't there," he said.
Neither candidate feels that his
election attempt was worthless or a
failure. Both Holtz and Apley
emphasized the accomplishment of
many campaign goals.
Holtz said, "We did everything
that we wanted to do. Had I been
given another $5,000, I wouldn't
have done anything different except
for \maybe having a bigger party at
the end."
LSA sophomore Debbie Buch-
holtz, President of the College
Republicans, is now faced with the
task of "building up the College
Republican organization so that we
can help the Republican candidate
in next spring's local elections."
She expressed disappointment with
the way Republican candidates fared.
Daily Photo by JOHN MUNSON
William Lucas with his wife, Evelyn, beside him, addresses supporters after conceding the Michigan guber-
natorial election to incumbent James Blanchard. Blanchard beat Lucas by a 68 to 31 percent margin.
Ilanchard -defeats Lucas by
more than tWO-to-On
DETROIT (AP) - Democratic
ov. James Blanchard trounced
epublican challenger William
ucas to win re-election, winning
8 'percent of the vote Tuesday.
ucas who was trying to become
e nation's first black elected
,governor, won 31 percent.
That's the biggest victory
margin in a Michigan gubernatorial
race in almost 60 years.
With 99 percent of precincts
reporting, Blanchard had 1,624,285
votes, =Lucas had 747,159 and
Martin McLaughlin, the Worker's
Ieague gubernatorial candidate, had
,762.
"I think it's a classic case of
the governor running as a
Republican...and having the power
of incumbency as well," Lucas said
at a news conference yesterday in
downtown Detroit. "The Blanchard
policies were Republican policies."
Lucas, 58, said he would
omplete his term as Wayne
County executive, which ends this
ar, and then think about his
future.
"We have made absolutely no
Election res
alter Reago
L
plans at all," he said. "I have faith
that I will be able to do something
meaningful that will make a
contribution to society."
He said he was not embarrassed
by the margin of his loss, and that
the GOP shouldn't't be either.
Lucas, who switched parties last
year, did not rule out the another
run at political officer as a
Republican.
Blanchard, Michigan's first
Democratic governor to win
re-election in nearly three decades,
refused to call his victory a
mandate.
"I think it is still too early to
know what it all means, " he said.
"I hope it's an expression by people
all over this state that we've done a
good job and that we have the
potential to do even more in the
future."
Although Blanchard won easily,
the Republican-controlled state
Senate is bound to make his next
four years difficult.
Despite a few close races, the
GOP hung on to its 20-18 majority
in the Senate.
e margin
* In the state House, Democrats
gained seven seats to take a nine-
seat majority, 63-47.
Two long-serving Democratic
state officeholders, Attorney
General Frank Kelley and Secretary
of State Richard Austin, each
handily won re-election. Kelley beat
GOP challenger Robert Cleland 69
percent to 31 percent, and Austin
beat Republican Weldon Yeager, 70
percent to 29 percent.
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,
Incumbents re-elected
ults won't
n 's agenda
(Continued from Page 1)
"We can say it all in four words.
The Democrats are back," Kirk said.
"It was a dynamic victory, one that
shifts the momentum in our
direction as we prepare for the next
national election."
"We expanded our base in the
South and the West, which was
necessary following the 1984
election," he said.
P Democrats will hold a
comfortable 55-45 majority in the
new Senate, reversing the GOP
edge of 53-47 in the old 99th
Congress and giving them the
control they lost in 1980.
Democrats also won at least 258
House seats to 173 for the
Republicans, for an increase of at.
least five seats. That was far fewer
0 han historical standards would
ictate, a result that heartened
Republicans.
Four House races were still too
close to call long after the last
ballots were cast.
Republicans heralded their
impressive gains in governor's
Dems gain
dh WASHITNGfTON-The 19R6f
races. They captured 11 seats
currently held by Democrats,
including Texas, Florida and
Alabama for the first time since the
Reconstruciton, and now control 24
of 50 governorships.
"I think what we did in the
South and across the Sun Belt is
indicative that we're still in pretty
good shape," as the two parties
look toward 1988, said GOP
Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf.
Reagan said the results prove the
"political spectrum continues to
move our way," and sought to
disabuse Democrats of any ideas
that he would serve out his term
quietly as a lame duck.
"You can take it from me.
Washington ain't seen nothing
yet," he said in a variation of his
refrain from the 1984 re-election
campaign.
The president called the election
results "fairly good news" overall.
Reagan traveled over 25,000
miles in a bid to retain the
Republican majority in the Senate.
hope for '8
to U Board{
By JOHN DUNNING
Democratic incumbents swept
away their Republican opponents in
the race for the two available seats
on the University's Board of
Regents.
Incumbent Regents Paul Brown
(D-Petoskey) and James Waters (D-
Muskegon) joined Gov. James
Blanchard in his landslide victory
by holding onto their seats on the
Board of Regents for another eight
years..
Brown and Waters won the
election with a final vote of
1,184,726 and 1,081,584 respec-
tively. While Republican challen-
gers, Cynthia Hudgins of Ypsilanti
and Gary Frink of St. Claire,
received 817,223 and 796,339 votes
respectively.
FRINK SAID he was
somewhat discouraged by Tuesday's
results, but he plans on running
again in 1988.
In that year, Frink said, there
will probably be a strong Repub-
lican presidential candidate at the
top of the Republican ticket, so
straight-ticket voting should help
Republicans gain seats on the Board
of Regents.
Regent Thomas Roach (D-
Saline) emphasized that while
winners in regental elections tend to
belong to the same party as the
winner at the top of the ticket, that
doesn't guarantee that Republicans
will win the next Board of Regents'
election in two years. Nobody can
tell now the winning presidential
candidate in 1988 will be a
Democrat or a Republican.
The University regents meet
monthly on the second Thursday
and Friday of most months to
8 elections
rntzre'rl hv, T)Pmrmtc
LONG ISLAND
ICE TEAS
AND
FREE
PIZZA
ONLY AT
of Regents-
discuss administration proposals
and give the final stamp of approval
on all decisions.
A few of the controversial issues
the regents dealt with last year are
divestment from companies that do
business in South Africa, guide-
lines for classified research, the
University's policy on honorary
degrees, and the proposed code of
non-academic conduct.
The regents are elected for eight-
year terms. and serve staggered
terms with two regents up for re-
election every two years.
frenIt N i4 A
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home 4iWrrids .- vi
cmh (0es -uts - c
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