Pete Tossing His Hat ???

Got this email from the Hoekstra camp.
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Major Hoekstra Announcement

Pete to Share His Plans for the Future

Hosted By Team Hoekstra

Please Join Pete, Diane, their family and the rest of Team Hoekstra for a special announcement on Monday, March 30th at 4:30pm at Herman Miller, Inc. in Holland, Michigan.

March 30, 2009 4:30pm -6:00pm
(Doors open at 4pm)

Herman Miller, Inc. (The Green House) Please Use the Visitor Entrance
10201 Adams St.
Holland, MI

There is no cost for this event and no tickets are required.

To help anticipate accommodations please
RSVP to Deb at 616-396-3354 or
deb.teamhoekstra@sbcglobal.net

Please feel free to share this invite with your family and friends
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What else could this be but an announcement of Pete throwing his hat formally into the ring. Pete's candidacy will give this state a much needed new direction. I think the voters are ready for this. I'm glad to see the waiting is over.

With the crowded field of good Republican candidates, Pete needs to hit the ground running and never stop. The primary alone will be exhausting. The quality of Republican contenders in the Primary alone is awesome.

Pete is a believer in Grass roots. He needs all the help we can give him. I’m going to the announcement in Holland Monday. I hope to see a bunch of you there too. I quote the last sentence. “Please feel free to share this invite with your family and friends.”

The only thing we as Republicans should work to avoid and that would be creating divisions within our party created in our campaigns during the Primary. Michigan is a tossup state; especially in a non Presidential year. There has always been roughly about one third of undecided voters. We need a unified Party, platform and set of candidates to attract those undecided voters.

In Michigan, at this point in time, for the sake of a Republican governorship; it would take a narrow small minded point of view to let the primary influence anyone to not vote. The stakes are too high.

My dream ticket would be Hoekstra/Brandon. ----- How's them apples??

What are Pete’s chances? Below is a link to the March 13th poll from Inside Michigan. Remember there are 19 months left.

-----link-----
http://www.mrgmi.com/MRG_IMP_Governor.pdf
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A quote from the article pretty much sums up the feeling that the race for the governorship of Michigan is up for grabs.

-----quote-----
“Michigan voters will see non-stop campaigning in the primaries and the general
Election. Anyone could win the GOP primary and then have a great opportunity to
recapture the Governor’s office,” said Bill Ballenger, Editor/Publisher of Inside Michigan Politics who released the poll results.
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The next quote from the article leaves a lot unsaid and those things are what will make the race interesting.

-----quote-----
The poll shows a tight race when testing a potential field of five GOP candidates whom
have either announced they are running or exploring a run for governor. The field was led
by Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson with 22% of the vote. Patterson’s lead
was a result of strong support (45%) in the Detroit Metro area.
In a close second place, west Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra had 17% of the vote.
Hoekstra was the leading vote getter in areas surrounding his Congressional District –
West Michigan (43%) and the Traverse City (35%). Attorney General Mike Cox (15%) is
also in the thick of the race and the leading candidate in the Flint/Saginaw/Bay city area
(25% and the Lansing area (25%). Support for Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land’s
(12%) is clearly being affected by Hoekstra’s strong showing in her hometown area of
Grand Rapids. Should Hoekstra decide not to throw his hat in the ring – the dynamics of
the race will change.
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Later on in the article they point out that there were 32% of undecided voters. That seems the as always crucial factor. Also the point that Pete was taking away from Terri Lynn’s vote totals was telling. The unsaid part was that she also was taking from Pete’s total. If either Terri or Pete were out of the race and their voters backed the other: either one of them may very well be put over the top in the poll.

This indeed will be an interesting and nerve wracking contest.

The key to the governorship will be if we can run against Cherry. I hope Cherry makes it through the Dems. Primary.

I had a brief talk with Jon DeWitte of Pete's staff and feel confident that they will be able to handle the size of the contest. Michigan is a huge state. They obviously have been setting up the apparatus for awhile now. I hope to get an interview with Pete after the announcement; but we’ll see. Either way I wish them the best.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

PS. Just a thought. If I were a candidate, I would jump right into the special 19th State Senate district seat election which is coming up this November. This seems like a win win all around for whoever takes the plunge. Even a loss would be hard to construe as bad for the gubernatorial candidate jumping in and backing Noffs. This special election could serve as a way to get the campaign off the ground and well oiled. I would see that candidate as someone willing to really act as a leader of the state party. This selfless effort would also go a long way towards healing any divisions that may come up in the primary.