NEWS

Remarks on a cliffhanger of an election

Economic club hosts post-election discussion

“A lot of people are scared,” Tim Skubick, Senior Capitol Correspondent said, “but for Washtenaw County, life will go on.”

By Jenelle Franklin
Editor

Washtenaw County was one of only eight counties in the state of Michigan that had a Democratic majority vote. The rest of the 83 counties reported a Republican majority.

Tim Skubick, Senior Capitol Correspondent and Michigan Public Television news anchor spoke at Washtenaw Economic Club luncheon held in the ML building two days after the election. His remarks were detailing the, post election.

Skubick’s remarks come after what he said was, “the most divisive, nasty, ugly, personal election I have ever seen.”

Voters who went to the polls on Nov. 8, were Donald Trump supporters Skubick pointed out, not directly saying that Hillary Clinton had lost support toward the end of the election, but Skubick mentioned scandals had an effect on her final voter turnout numbers.

“In the democratic party, there were 230,000 people who voted four years ago that were ‘out playing golf’ on election day this year who didn’t vote,” Skubick said.

When you couple that with the 150,000 Republicans who showed up this year that hadn’t voted last election there was “a 382,000 vote shift in our state,” Skubick said, “It was all about turnout.”

Other projected blue states voted against the Democrats, “Wisconsin hasn’t voted red since 1984,” Skubick said.

When tallied, Clinton had gotten, “27,000 votes less than President Obama (in 2008),” Skubick said.

Skubick made his second appearance at the Washtenaw Economic Club, two days after the election, he asked for audience participation and shared anecdotes of his election coverage as he witnessed Donald Trump succeed in gaining his spot in the White House.

“Young people asked how this could be, and I tried to explain the electoral college and it was a waste of time,” Skubick said.

The Washtenaw Economic Club, founded in 1998, refocused as a WCC program in 2010. President Rose Bellanca welcomed Skubick with warm remarks.

He kept his speech on his schedule, he started promptly and after a fact-filled question and answer session, Skubick ended ahead of schedule.