Tagged: Rick Santorum

Election Day is here

After weeks of counting down the days, Michigan's presidential primary has arrived. Polls open this morning at 7 a.m. and Michigan voters will find eleven Republicans on the GOP presidential ballot and President Obama, uncontested, on the Democratic ballot. Votes for President Obama won't really count in today's primary, as the state Democratic Party will hold a caucus on May 5th.

Campaign finale

Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul were the three major GOP candidates who spent the most time campaigning across the state over the past few days (if you're wondering where Newt Gingrich has been, you can read more about some political theories for his absence here). Here are just a few of the stories that came out of the candidates' campaign stops yesterday:

• Ron Paul speaks out against undeclared wars at campaign stop
• Santorum makes final campaign stops in Michigan
• Romney's last day on the campaign trail in Michigan

And, Michigan Radio's political analyst Jack Lessenberry; Lansing Bureau Chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network Rick Pluta and I have been keeping an eye on the race:

• Michigan gets some lovin' from the Republican presidential candidates
• Huh? A vote for Santorum is actually a vote for Gingrich?
• Should you vote tomorrow?
• Michigan primaries, fascinating and bizarre

Voter turnout

Election officials are, "expecting between 15 percent and 20 percent of the state's registered voters to cast ballots in the presidential primary election. About 21 percent of the state's registered voters participated in Michigan's 2008 presidential primary, when Republicans had a contested race but Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only major Democratic candidate on the ballot," the Associated Press reports.

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul spoke out against undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Federal Reserve system and the federal war on drugs to a packed auditorium at Michigan State University this afternoon.

"We still have enough freedom to wake this country up and change the direction, but it has to come from the people. It won’t come top down. It has to come from the people because government reflects the values of the people, so if that’s what you want and you speak and you do your job, Washington will change."

The Paul campaign says he has a good chance of picking up some delegates in Michigan’s primary tomorrow.

Paul says Michigan and other states should have the right to enact medical marijuana laws without worrying about interference from the federal government.

The Obama administration has taken a hands-off policy on enforcing drug laws against most medical marijuana users.

Rick Santorum is making his final campaign stops across southern Michigan today. He told a crowd of about 300 people in a small hotel ballroom in Lansing that the manufacturing industry needs to “explode” with new jobs again.

Santorum highlighted the disparity in employment levels between people with college degrees and those without, and says the solution is to create more jobs that don’t require a college degree.

"We need to see Michigan again full of people who want to work and creating job opportunities for people to get training and skills so they can get that entry-level job," said Santorum. "They can improve and upgrade their skills as they work in those jobs and move up the ladder and become a foreman and to go up maybe even into management someday. That’s the ladder of success.”

Santorum told his supporters that Michigan’s primary could be a "game changer" for the national primary season. He did not directly mention Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, but Santorum did refer to himself as the true conservative in the race, and the best candidate to beat President Obama in the general election this fall.

"To be attacked on television by someone who is not an authentic conservative by a Massachusetts governor – [laughter and applause] – is a joke. Michigan, you have an opportunity to stop the joke."