George F. Will says she owns “a musical name,” and that’s not all Terri Lynn Land has going for her. As she runs for the Senate in Michigan this fall, she may have the forces of history on her side. Since the presidency of Richard Milhous Nixon — a less musical name — Republicans have prevailed only once in the Wolverine State’s Senate contests, but it happened in a year a lot like 2014.
The victory came in 1994, when the retirement of a Democratic senator had opened a seat, a lackluster Democratic congressman tried to fill it, a Republican governor ran for reelection, and an unpopular Democrat sat in the White House. “These are exactly the same conditions we see today,” says Bill Ballenger, a former Republican state legislator who publishes Inside Michigan Politics, a widely read newsletter.
Comments