BAG OF BUCKS

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, elected in 2018 on the slogan of “fix the damn roads,” had her whole agenda waylaid in 2020 by COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequent battles with the Republican legislature and lawsuits against her executive authority may have dinged her, but haven’t scarred her, even as Michigan, and the United States, is entering a feared next wave of the health crisis. While President Trump calls her “that woman from Michigan,” and leads chants of “lock her up,” at rallies in Michigan, Whitmer can laugh all the way to the bank. One with a really big safe. According to MIRS, a campaign filing for Whitmer for Governor on October 23 revealed Whitmer has raised an unprecedented $5 million since January – and has a whopping $3.25 million cash on hand. In comparison, her predecessor, Gov. Rick Snyder, raised $544,146 for all of 2012, the second year he was in office. “Whitmer raised 10 times that amount in nine months of her administration’s second year,” MIRS wrote. The last Democrat to hold the governor’s office, Jennifer Granholm, raised $1.64 million in her second year in office, 2004, which is equivalent to 2.26 million – or half what Whitmer raised. Huzzah.