Liberals hate the pick, too. To them, it’s an empty overture. Snyder can claim bipartisanship, but only by tapping the most Republican Democrat in the state of Michigan. This guy could only pass budgets in the state House by teaming up with the entire Republican caucus, for crying out loud!.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero's 2010 gubernatorial bid officially ended Tuesday night, but those who've followed Bernero's political career say it's unlikely that his political career has suffered any long-term damage, let alone ended."Past is prologue," as Bernero likes to say. And if that's the case with Bernero, he'll be back in the political arena soon, even though he ended up losing 59 percent to 39 percent to Republican Rick Snyder, with 76 percent of the vote counted.

Snyder, a Battle Creek native, didn’t have much support from GOP activists in the primary. No Right to Life. No chamber. Few elected officials. He dug into his healthy bank account for $6 million. Bought some slick TV ads from Hollywood. Created the loveable nerd schtick.

The 2010 secretary of state’s race has turned into a referendum on the Democratic nominee, a 33-year-old election attorney whom Democrats frame as a champion for voters’ rights. A Wayne State University professor, she wrote a book on being secretary of state and numerous articles on the elections process.

Historically, attorney general campaigns in Michigan have revolved around law enforcement.The 2010 match-up between Democratic Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton and former appellate judge Bill Schuette is not an exception. Both have taken pains to puff up their law enforcement credentials while thrashing the others’.

In split cases, the vocal Young tends to side with hospitals, insurance companies and businesses at the expense of consumers, patients and accident victims on the argument that he’s interpreting the law as written, without adding meaning to the text. The decisions, his supporters argue, end up meaning lower costs for products.

The following are the major-party candidates seeking posts on the State Board of Education and the state’s three elected university boards.

There’s no same-sex marriage, stem-cell research and affirmative action. No out-ofstate financier is throwing a medical marijuana-like initiative into the mix. Nobody has any money, and those who do realize that most people do not and they’re not interested in talking about anything but jobs and the economy.

Rep. Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, and Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, are facing their toughest general election challenges to date from a pair of fiscal conservatives with local government experience. In Eaton County, Democrats are holding onto hopes they can steal an open seat that has trended away from Republicans the last two election cycles.

It’s not that the svelte 32-year-old pulled off a marathon. Or that she finished with a respectable time. It’s that as a statewide political candidate, Benson found the time to train for this race. And not just this race. Benson has completed 11 marathons in five years, including the Boston Marathon.