In a poll of students conducted 

by The Daily earlier this month, 
a 
majority 
said 
they 
were 

unfamiliar 
with 
Michigan’s 

gubernatorial 
candidates 
this 

year. The Daily talked to several 
major candidates to help provide 
a guide.

The poll was sent to 500 

students. Of the respondents, 
32 percent of students said they 
are most likely to vote for Abdul 
El-Sayed, while 48 percent of 
respondents 
said 
they 
were 

unsure whom they would vote for.

Over 72 percent of the students 

reported they were registered 
to vote in the state of Michigan 
and 70 percent said they are 
planning on voting in the 2018 
gubernatorial election.

Fifty-two percent of students 

said they were not familiar at 
all with the candidates, while 0 

percent said they were very 
familiar.

Of the respondents, 10 percent 

said they would vote for a political 
party different than the one they 
voted for in the 2016 presidential 
election, suggesting either they do 
not like the direction their party 
is going in or they expect different 
policies for local government. 

Meanwhile, 
74 
percent 
of 

students said they would vote for 
the same party as they did in the 
presidential election, while 16 
percent remained unsure.

Democratic 
candidate 

Gretchen Whitmer is currently 
the 
Democratic 
frontrunner, 

polling at 37 percent, tied to 
Republican 
frontrunner 
Bill 

Schuette, according to the Detroit 
Free Press in September.

According to campaign finance 

reports 
released 
Wednesday, 

Whitmer’s campaign holds $1.5 

million in bank balance, following 
$768,000 raised this quarter for 
a total of $2.3 million raised this 
election cycle.

Whitmer began her political 

career in Michigan’s Congress, 
serving for six years in the House 
of Representative and serving in 
the state Senate since. In 2010 she 
was chosen to be the state Senate 
democratic leader, making her 
the first female leader of a party 
caucus in the Senate. However, 
Whitmer said it isn’t her gender 
that sets her apart from other 

Talk of carbon dioxide in U.S. 

politics usually revolves around 
how to reduce its emission 
into the atmosphere. However, 
this narrative was rebuked by 
entrepreneur 
Bernard 
David, 

founder of the Global CO2 
Initiative, who spoke about how 
to turn carbon dioxide from an 
environmental liability into an 
asset at an event Wednesday 
afternoon 
sponsored 
by 
the 

Graham Sustainability Institute.

“It’s transforming CO2 into 

an asset, and CO2 is usually 
a negative,” said Engineering 
freshman 
Loren 
Mata, 
who 

attended the seminar as an 
elective requirement for one of 
her engineering classes.

David’s 
organization, 
the 

Global CO2 Initiative, hopes to 
make products out of carbon 
dioxide, which he estimates could 
be a $1 trillion business by 2030 if 
“all the stars align.”

“Climate change is one of the 

most complex challenges of our 
time. Left unaddressed, it will 
continue to cross geographic, 
social, and financial barriers 
— 
altering 
ecosystems 
and 

fundamentally changing life as we 
know it,” the initiative’s website 
reads.

David believes taking a business 

approach to tackling climate 
change with long-term solutions, 
like those advocated by the Global 
CO2 Initiative, will help mitigate 
environmental problems.

“In a free market economy, 

unless you can make a business 
case about something, it’s not 
going to work. People only care 
about doing the right thing for a 
certain amount of time,” David 
said.

Despite his current line of work, 

David’s path to the sustainability 
business was not intuitive. He did 
not have a science background 
and had worked as a businessman 
for years until he retired 17 years 

ago in his early 40s.

About that time, 9/11 happened. 

The attacks motivated his father-
in-law, an artist, to draw a 
timeline depicting the evolution 
of man. This led David to reflect 
on the vulnerability of humans in 
today’s world.

“I realized that we as a species 

want to be here for a while,” David 
said.

He realized humans embraced 

a 
short-term 
mindset, 
and 

he sought to find a long-term 
solution to climate change. While 
talking to research scientists 
at the California Institute of 
Technology, he realized that 
carbon dioxide, which composed 
82 percent of greenhouse gas 
emissions in the United States 
in 2015, could be turned into an 
asset.

Pitching his political platform, 

State 
Sen. 
Patrick 
Colbeck, 

gubernatorial 
candidate, 

R-Canton, spoke to members 
of the University of Michigan’s 
chapter of College Republicans 
on Wednesday at the Michigan 
Union.

The students in attendance 

gathered to question the second-
term 
state 
senator, 
who 
is 

known to be among the most 
conservative members of the 
chamber on issues ranging from 
Obamacare to road maintenance 
— in 2015, 56 percent of non-
federally funded roads were in 
poor condition, according to the 
Michigan Transportation Asset 
Management Council.

LSA senior Enrique Zalamea, 

president of College Republicans, 
said he invited Colbeck before 
frontrunner 
Bill 
Schuette 

because an internal straw poll 
of College Republicans indicated 
that he was the most popular 
of the Republican candidates. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, October 26, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 17
©2017 The Michigan Daily

NEWS......................... 2A

OPINION.....................4A

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B

SUDOKU..................... 2A

CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7A

Students largely undecided on
2018 state gubernatorial race

DESIGN BY NOAH SHERBIN

Among students polled, 48 percent said they were still unsure who they would vote for

COLIN BERESFORD & 

CARLY RYAN

Daily Staff Reporters

S P O O K Y

Colbeck
highlights
campaign 
promises 

GOVERNMENT

College Republicans host 
State Sen. to hear political 
platform, governor’s race

ISHI MORI

Daily Staff Reporter

JOHN YAEGER/Daily

Bernard David, Chairman of the Global CO2 Initiative, presents at the Graham Sustainability Institute’s “Transform-
ing CO2 from a Liability into an Asset” at Munger Graduate Residences Wednesday.

Businessman spouts carbon dioxide 
as an asset in talk on sustainability

Head of Global CO2 Initiative seeks to turn emissions into marketable products

ZAYNA SYED

For the Daily

Witches and goblins 

and Scooby Doo 

oh my!

Arts enters some spooky 
territory with this week’s 
Halloween themed B-Side

» Page 1B

Gretchen Whitmer
Abdul El-Sayed

Bill Schuette
Patrick Colbeck

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

In today’s contentious political 

climate, it can be difficult to find 
common ground with others of 
opposing viewpoints. To combat 
this, political science professor 
Arthur Lupia, created the class 
“Beyond Partisanship.”

“Beyond 
Partisanship” 

intends to find common ground 
on important issues like the 
opioid 
crisis, 
homelessness 

and housing security, among 
others. It addition, it hopes to 
push students to find tangible 
solutions to these problems.

When approached to create 

this undergraduate course, Lupia 
sought to encourage students to 
facilitate discussion with those 
of differing ideologies.

“The aim is to find issues on 

which 70 percent of Republicans 
and 70 percent of Democrats 
agree,” Lupia said. “We want to 
identify those problems, as well 
as real solutions, in both the 
private and public sectors, and 
bring them to the table.”

Professor
spearheads
course on 
dialogue

ACADEMICS

Political science class 
focuses on carving out 
common ground in policy

CORY ZAYANCE
Daiy Staff Reporter

See GUBERNATORIAL, Page 2A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

