Lansing Poll: Stabenow better known than her GOP rivals Republican candidate Pete Hoekstra is courting tea partiers

By Kathy Barks Hoffman AP Political Writer LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow is better known than her Republican rivals but is fighting a negative job rating as she heads into her 2012 re-election bid, according to a poll released Monday. The EPIC-MRA poll shows 40 percent of 600 likely voters polled statewide gave her a job rating of "excellent" or "pretty good," while 28 percent ranked the job she was doing as "just fair" and 24 percent of voters said she was doing a poor job. Eight percent were undecided. Half queried for the Oct. 1-4 poll had a favorable opinion of Stabenow, while 36 percent had an unfavorable opinion and 11 percent were undecided. In an Aug. 13-16 EPIC-MRA poll, 47 percent said they had a favorable opinion of the two-term senator from Lansing, while 38 percent had an unfavorable view and 13 percent were undecided. The poll didn't include any head-to-head matchups with her Republican rivals, but it did include favorability ratings for two of them, former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Detroit charter schools executive Clark Durant. Despite Hoekstra's 2010 statewide run for governor, 22 percent didn't recognize his name. Among those who did, 30 percent had a favorable opinion, 21 percent had an unfavorable opinion and 27 percent were undecided. The survey showed 71 percent didn't recognize Durant's name, compared to only 3 percent didn't know who Stabenow was. The telephone poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Hoekstra campaigned Monday at tea party events in Kalamazoo, Lansing and Farmington Hills with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. The Michigan Democratic Party said Hoekstra was ill-advised to bring the "extreme congressman" to campaign with him. King is hugely popular with the GOP's activist base, but also is known for comparing prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq to fraternity hazing and suggesting that an electric fence separate the U.S. from Mexico so that illegal immigrants get the same treatment as wandering livestock. He also has called illegal immigration a "slow-moving terrorist attack." Hoekstra is taking pains, however, to remind party activists that he helped co-found the House Tea Party Caucus before leaving Congress and going to work for a Washington lobbying firm. He's actively courting tea partiers to keep them from jumping aboard with one of his seven competitors. The Holland Republican said Monday he'd fix the economy "by lifting senseless regulations, opening up energy exploration in our country and implementing a fair tax." He criticized Stabenow for voting too often with Democratic President Barack Obama, who's having his own troubles with Michigan voters. The EPIC-MRA poll showed 61 percent give the president a negative job rating. Speaking Monday to reporters at the Capitol Region International Airport in Lansing, Stabenow said she understands voters' frustration with what's happening in Washington, but she's pushing proposals that will help create jobs. Tops among them is a bill the Senate is expected to vote on this week that would impose higher U.S. duties on Chinese products to offset the perceived advantage that critics say China gets by undervaluing its currency. Stabenow said the measure could create 1.6 million U.S. jobs by taking away China's unfair trade advantage. "It wouldn't involve any dollars, just China following the rules," she said of the proposed job-creation measure, adding it has the support of some of her Republican colleagues. "We've got to work together to do things to get people back to work." Later Monday, Stabenow was joined by business leaders at a news conference at the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce headquarters in downtown Flint. The EPIC-MRA poll didn't ask voters for if they had favorable or unfavorable opinions of the other Republicans in the race. Those include former Kent County Judge Randy Hekman, Roscommon businessman Peter Konetchy, Scotty Boman of Detroit, Brighton businessman Chuck Marino, Rick Wilson of Grand Blanc and Gary Glenn of Midland, president of the American Family Association of Michigan. Richard Fournier of Wayne County's Redford Township filed paperwork for a U.S. Senate bid Friday and launched a website, although he didn't list a party affiliation on either one. Published: Wed, Oct 12, 2011