Virg Bernero, Rick Snyder square off on jobs, education in only debate of gubernatorial race

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Bringing jobs back to Michigan remained a key focus Sunday for the state’s gubernatorial candidates amid the race’s first and only debate.

Democrat Virg Bernero and Republican Rick Snyder faced off after spending most of the post-primary season sparring on whether or not their debate would occur.

Snyder was kept on the defensive at the start as Bernero immediately accused sending jobs overseas with the creation of a company, Discera.

“Here’s some disturbing news,” Bernero said in his opening statement. ”Another of Mr. Snyder’s companies has created jobs in China.”

Bernero, Lansing mayor, trails Snyder by 20 points, according to an EPIC/MRA poll released Sunday, and had an advantage in the debate, said Maxine Berman, Griffin Endowed Chair.

“That’s why Snyder didn’t want to do more debates,” she said.

The debate, hosted by the Center for Michigan in Wixom, was moderated by Nolan Finley, editorial page editor of the Detroit News and Stephen Henderson, editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press.

The candidates were given three rebuttals as part of the debate rules and Snyder used the first to refute this claim. He said Discera’s operations are based in Ann Arbor and San Jose, Calif.

The debate was a draw, said Bill Ballenger, former Griffin Endowed Chair and editor of Inside Michigan Politics.

Ballenger added nobody was a clear winner unless the Discera issue has residual follow up. Snyder, an Ann Arbor businessman, handled himself well during the confrontation, he said.

“If that gets legs and becomes an issue, that may affect Snyder,” Ballenger said. “But nothing that happened tonight will give either of them points.”

Snyder said while the Michigan Promise was “noble,” he would rather focus on need-based assistance.

“Higher education is one of the great assets of our state,” he said. “A lot that we need to get to this is the issue of efficiency … We need to help kids with the biggest need, create an environment of success and give them opportunity to get a great education.”

Bernero countered and said he wants to put more money into higher education and eliminate a portion of the corrections budget by focusing on the “front end.” This means getting education for people with mental health problems and addiction issues he said.

“I intend to restore the Michigan Promise, arm our prisoners with education, put more money in education and convince universities to keep tuition costs down,” Bernero said.

Berman said she is concerned about money in the state — the next governor will face a big deficit and when people run for governor, they do not discuss potential budget cuts.

Ballenger said Bernero had a tougher challenge in the debate because he needed to change the dynamic of the race, be aggressive and avoid being obnoxious because of his polling disadvantage.

“In that sense, he did a good job,” Ballenger said. “Is that enough to change 10 or 20 percent of the electorate? I don’t think it was.”

Berman said the debate was interesting, engaging and went by very quickly.

“The pace was very good, but it’s unfortunate there won’t be more than a one minute answer because you can’t go into enormous detail in that time,” Berman said.