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August 4

Primary results

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May 12

Total Number: 3

To Watch:
Proposal A: Basic Rights
A proposed constitutional amendment to change the word "handicapped" to "disabled" in one section of the State Constitution.

Proposal B: Assisted Suicide
Would legalize the prescription of a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill, competent, informed adults to commit suicide.

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PARTY CONTROL

Governor: Republican
U.S. Senate: 1 Democrat, 1 Republican
U.S. House of Representatives: 10 Democrats, 6 Republicans
State Senate: 15 Democrats, 22 Republicans, 1 vacant seat
State House of Representatives: 58 Democrats, 52 Republicans

Senate: All 38 seats up
House: All 110 seats up

None

State Projected Voting Age Population: 7,072,000 (1996)
Registered Voters: (10/96) 6,677,079

18

Clinton won in 1996; Clinton in 1992; Bush in 1988; Reagan in 1984; Reagan in 1980; Ford in 1976; Nixon in 1972; Humphrey in 1968; Johnson in 1964; Kennedy in 1960.

LAST TIME VOTED DEMOCRATIC FOR PRESIDENT: 1996

PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IN 1996:

Clinton 52%
Dole 39%
Perot 9%

PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IN 1992:

Clinton 44%
Bush 36%
Perot 19%

PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IN 1988:

Bush 54%
Dukakis 46%

PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IN 1984:

Reagan 59%
Mondale 40%

PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IN 1980:

Reagan 49%
Carter 43%
Anderson 7%

1992:

• President
• Other Issues

1994:

• Senate
• Governor
• Other Issues

1996:

• President
• Senate
• Other Issues

Historical voter turnout as a percentage of the voting age population 1996-1960

Population: 9,594,000 (1996) (% of voting age population)

White: 84.9%
African American: 12.8%
Asian: 1.0%
Native American: 0.5%
Other/Undeclared: 0.8%

Persons of Hispanic origin account for 1.8% of the voting population (from 1990 Census)

State Capital: Lansing
State Nickname: Great Lakes State, Wolverine State

From the Great Depression to the oil-price shock of 1979, Michigan more often than not has voted Democratic. Though the loss of some 160,000 auto-production jobs in the early 1980s gave the GOP an opening -- it picked up two congressional seats in 1994 -- Clinton trounced Dole in 1996 and Bush in 1992. Michigan has been a bellwether state in presidential elections, choosing the winner in the last 10 elections, and in the 1992, 1988 and 1984 elections, Michigan has been within 1 percent of the winning national percentage. Macomb County is still home to Reagan Democrats, Catholic, blue-collar and ethnic voters. In the 1998 election Michigan voters will still be feeling the pain from the massive General Motors strike that began in the early summer. Led since 1990 by Republican Gov. John Engler, who relentlessly kept his campaign promise to reform welfare, the political question now, according to the 1998 "Almanac of American Politics," is whether Engler's Republicans will continue to surge or whether Michigan Democrats can develop the centrist "New Democrat" stance that served Clinton so well in the 1990s.

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