#Governor race national dominate ad wars trial#

In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Rinke called the allegations from two separate lawsuits “blatantly false.' He acknowledged making payouts to former employees but said it was less expensive than going to trial on the accusations. The allegations against businessman Kevin Rinke, who ran his family's suburban Detroit auto-dealership empire in the 1990s, are particularly graphic.įour employees sued in 1992 alleging that Rinke repeatedly made vulgar and belittling sexual remarks to both men and women, creating a hostile work environment that was intended to make them quit. But Republicans insist Whitmer is still vulnerable this fall given rising prices for gas and food and her close ties to President Biden, whose approval ratings remain low. There's little polling to suggest there's a clear front-runner among the remaining candidates. Two top candidates were kicked off the ballot for submitting false petition signatures, narrowing the field to five contenders. The GOP campaign has been fraught from the start. “There are skeletons in the closet of most of the Republican candidates.” “Whitmer can attack every one of them,” said Bernie Porn, a Lansing-based pollster with more than three decades experience surveying the state. 2 contest could hobble the party's effort to defeat Democratic incumbent Gov. In an otherwise favorable election year for Republicans, the spectacle surrounding the Aug. In one of the most politically consequential states in the U.S., the Republican primary for governor is shaping up as a battle of whose personal baggage is the least disqualifying.