09.18.2006: Its raining links! Also, Howard Dean webchat

I'm jacking this idea and format from Pohlitics. Zack, I hope you don't mind!

WZZM13: Survey USA: 7 weeks to go race for Governor remains a dead heat

New Survey USA out. Both Granholm and DeVos are steady at 47, with 2 percent undecided. Stabenow is still blowing Bouchard out of the water -- at this rate, he likely won't be rescued by Republicans at the national level. Gut feeling tells me that these are a lot more accurate than last week's numbers. More on this later.

USA Today: High stakes in governors' races

Covers many of the contested gubernatorial races this cycle, with MI-Gov being featured prominently.

Michigan Daily: Senate Dems rally on Diag

I was at this -- it was pretty cool. The "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" girl was there with a sign that read "Debbie Kills Babies." I've got pics and an interview, which I'll be posting up later. By far the best line was by Amos Williams, who spoke pretty briefly. While referring to Democratic women, I think he said that "they don't have hot flashes... they have power surges." That might not be a literal quote, though.

WK: MI House legalizes religious discrimination in adoption

I can't believe that Dems voted for this waste of time.

Finally, we have a couple articles on the importance of organization and field work in elections. This is a very critical topic that is too-often ignored. A MyDD post entitled "Fighting Only Half the Battle," emphasizes the need for more persuasion in GOTV efforts. The other, from U.S. News and World Report, discusses the MI GOP's use of microtargeting for MI-Gov and MI-Sen.

I have wished that Democrats would utilize this kind of "microtargeting" more extensively in the past, even if its just delivering messages targeted to particular regions in Michigan on the radio or whatever. Someone in downtown Saginaw is going to care about different kinds of things than someone in the UP, and delivering targeted messages to each region would be more effective than one generic radio spot in both places. We have a long way to go to collect the kind of demographic information and do the kind of targeting/persuasion/GOTV that the GOP does in Michigan and at the national level.

Don't be fooled by the way they're talking about Rhode Island, though. They don't have the resources to pull that kind of operation across the country.

Also, Clint over at Team Granholm's blog lets us know that Howard Dean will be dropping by the website for a webchat:

Tuesday evening, 9/19, Howard Dean will be taking questions LIVE on the Granholm campaign website. He will be taking questions on the G4G blog at 8:30PM. Feel free to submit questions in advance, or log on to the website tomorrow and post a question or comment. Governor Dean is coming to Michigan for the DNC Black Caucus’s African American Summit this weekend. Spread the word!

– Clint Wallace

Also, is Obama posturing himself to be the VP nominee?