ROLLING IN THE DOUGH

While consistently MIA (missing in action), Republican Senate candidate John James has maintained very good friends in very high places. Take, for example, Grand Rapids’ influential DeVos family – as in, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, whose father-in-law was a co-founder of Amway products – every candidate would like friends like these. Six members of the DeVos family – although not Betsy, who as a member of the administration cannot contribute – have given a total of $800,000 to Better Future MI Fund, a super political action committee that was formed, according to the Federal Election Commission, on October 31, and has donated to James. Irony of ironies, Tori Sachs, James’ campaign manager during his unsuccessful 2018 attempt to unseat Senator Debbie Stabenow, is now a consultant for Better Future MI Fund. While the money helps, according to a new poll by Target-Insyght, James only enjoys 14 percent African American support in Michigan, versus Senator Gary Peters (D) at 69 percent. The survey found that although Peters has been in the Senate for six years, and Congress before that, only 54 percent of voters knew who he was – meaning he better hope to ride the coattails of whoever is the ultimate Democratic presidential candidate to win Michigan.