GOP rivals pledge to support Snyder

One day after winning the primary and being chosen to be the Republican candidate for governor, Rick Snyder held a “peace conference” with his former rivals in the campaign, each of whom pledged to support him in his fight against Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero on the November ballot.

The Detroit Free Press reports on the meeting between Snyder, Attorney General Mike Cox, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and state Sen. Tom George:

The vanquished candidates praised Snyder for having run an effective primary campaign and pledged their support for November.

“This was not the morning I planned,” said 4th place finisher Bouchard, “but surely the choices are clear” between Snyder and Democrat Virg Bernero.

I have to wonder if this united face can last. While Virg Bernero is a very traditional liberal Democrat who should have all of the traditional Democratic constituencies solidly behind him in the campaign, Snyder is considerably more moderate than much of the Republican base in Michigan.

Groups like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce will undoubtedly throw their full support behind Snyder, but will the social conservatives, the folks in the pews, really work to get out the vote for a candidate that is clearly not one of them and is more of a socially liberal, Bill Milliken-type of Republican? Could the running of a moderate Republican even provoke a third-party challenge from the right? That doesn’t seem terribly farfetched.

Snyder will likely seek to make up for a lack of enthusiasm on the right by attracting centrist and independent voters to vote for him, and the primary results suggest that this might be effective. Many independent voters participated in the Republican primary and voted in his favor, the exit polls show.

There is also a strong possibility that he will try to shore up his right flank by naming either Hoekstra or Cox, the two candidates who split the more conservative vote in the primary, as his running mate.