Transcript
WZZM 5:30pm
WZZM Newsreader #1 – Last night’s hour long open format gave each candidate an opportunity to speak out about what they thought was important.
WZZM Newsreader #2 – But some experts say how they get that message out is perhaps even more imperative to their chances in November. WZZM 13’s Keith Baldi is here now with more on that.
Reporter – Lee and Juliet, style and presentation do make a difference and the overall perception of how the candidates are handling themselves matters too. But some say playing it safe also helps.
Reporter – One hour, a lot of topics and talking and the first chance for Michigan voters to really get an idea about where challenger Dick DeVos and Governor Jennifer Granholm stand, and who they present themselves. The results, political science professor and campaign expert Erika King says were not earth shattering.
Erika King – Both sides should be pretty content with how their candidates performed.
Reporter – King says the candidates have one thing in mind in a debate like this. Stay on message. That may be playing it safe, but if they don’t King says they may risk derailing months of work.
Erika King – It’s important for candidates to stick to those talking points, partly because if they veer off and start saying something completely different than what they’ve said before, or will say later, that becomes the story. And you don’t want that to happen.
Reporter – In terms of style, King says the Governor showed one of her strengths, public speaking.
King – Granholm is the more polished performer and I think it showed last night.
Reporter – But that is not a surprise to King, Granholm, or DeVos.
Granholm – I really look at it as the camera is over there and I’m talking to the citizens who have put me here, and not to, and this is not some high falluting exercise.
DeVos – Public speaking is a great gift and the governor is a great public speaker. But the question of being governor is far more than speaking, it’s about results.
Reporter – The candidates will need to get results by swaying undecided voters, a job professor King says is not done yet.
King – I don’t think on the basis of this first debate that all the undecided people have moved into either camp.
Reporter – Getting people to have a better opinion of a candidate following the debate is certainly important. Our exclusive WZZM 13 Survey USA News poll found 37 percent of people had a more favorable view of the Governor after watching last night, 23 percent had a more favorable opinion of Dick DeVos. Lee and Juliet.
Newsreader #1 – Keith, thank you. We want to hear from you our viewers.
Newsreader #2 – Tell us who won last nights debate. That’s the poll 13 question on our website. To cast your vote go to wzzm13.com, scroll down to the table of contents on the bottom of the page and click on the poll 13 link. And while you’re on our website, take a moment to download a podcast of last night’s debate. You can find a link to it in last night’s section on our homepage, wzzm13.com.
Total Time: 2 minutes, 43 seconds
WZZM 6pm
Newsreader #1 – Good evening everyone, I’m Juliet Dragos.
Newsreader #2 – And Im Lee VanAmeyde. Republicans call it a cheap political shot, Democrats call it proof Dick DeVos is unfit to be governor.
Newsreader #1 – At issue, allegations of abuse at an assisted care facility Dick DeVos once invested in. WZZM 13’s Peter Ross has more in this Vote 2006 report.
Reporter – It was a major surprise to surface in last night’s debate and the fallout from it is continuing tonight. It was the big surprise of the night.
Granholm – Let me give you one example of an issue I think he is staying away from and I think citizens ought to know about.
Reporter – The Govern said that DeVos should have disclosed that he once invested almost 200 million dollars in the Alterra nursing home company.
Granholm – Because you didn’t want people to know about the allegations of sexual and physical abuse of seniors that were in that center, that chain.
DeVos – It was a very very unfortunate set of circumstances and my holdings as a public shareholder with no interest beyond just being a public shareholder. When I became aware of it I became very saddened to.
Reporter – DeVos says he had less than one percent interest in the company, state Democrats claim he had control of the board.
Mark Brewer (MI Democratic Party Chair) – So it’s simply not believable that he didn’t know and if he didn’t know, he should have. It simply makes him unfit to be governor of this state.
Reporter – Cathy Recco’s mother once lived in the Ohio assisted living home where it s alleged an elderly male Alzheimer’s patient raped six fellow female patients. She was brought to Lansing today by the state Democratic Party.
Cathy Recco – His profits were built upon the most innocent of America’s elderly.
Saul Anuzis – Look, I think this is a cheap political shot.
Reporter – State Republican Chairman Saul Anuzis sat through the Democrats news conference.
Anuzis – They’re misleading the public, they’re trying to play games with the facts and make it look worse than it really is. The reality is he was a passive investor.
Reporter – Now late this afternoon DeVos called his own news conference in Detroit where he said under Governor Granholm, the state of Michigan has invested in two companies documented to, quoting here, engaged in the abuse and neglect of patients under their care. The candidates debate again a week from tonight in Grand Rapids, Juliet.
Total time: 2 minutes, 2 seconds
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