LANSING – Republican Governor Rick Snyder and GOP senatorial candidate Terri Land are looking much stronger in a new survey from Public Policy Polling than the last time the firm polled those races months ago.

In June, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer had a small lead over Snyder, 42 percent to 38 percent. Now Snyder has flipped that number, leading Schauer, 44 percent to 40 percent. Still, the poll shows a close race, a fact the Schauer campaign emphasized.

Land has gone from trailing her Democratic rival, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, by seven percentage points in the last PPP poll of the race, to a lead of two points in a new survey PPP. While the poll showing Land at 42 percent and Peters at 40 percent puts the two candidates within the margin of error, it was still a much better showing for Land since the October PPP poll that showed Peters at 43 percent and Land at 36 percent.

“The key races in Michigan are reflective of what we’re seeing throughout the country right now,” said Dean Debnam, president of PPP, a Democratic polling firm based in North Carolina. “The political climate has turned sharply against Democrats over the last month and a half.”

Land, who won statewide elected office twice as secretary of state, has better popularity numbers than Peters with 34 percent having a favorable opinion of her to 23 percent unfavorable. Peters is at 22 percent favorable and 21 percent unfavorable.

The name recognition issue is even more pronounced in the gubernatorial race. Snyder is still upside-down at 42 percent favorable and 49 percent unfavorable, but is still better known than Schauer, who is at 15 percent favorable and 21 percent unfavorable.

PPP said part of what is hurting Peters and Schauer is President Barack Obama’s slide in popularity. After winning the state by 9 percentage points a year ago, his job approval rating has fallen to 47 percent and disapproval rating is at 51 percent. And 63 percent say Obama’s signature issue, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has been implemented unsuccessfully.

The poll also tested Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette against Mark Totten, the lone Democratic candidate for attorney general. It showed Schuette and Totten in a statistical tie, 40 percent to 38 percent.

Another question asked those polled if they would support a ballot measure repealing the right-to-work laws enacted last year. Forty-five percent said they would while 39 percent said they would oppose such a proposal.

In the survey, 35 percent identified themselves as Democrats, 30 percent as Republicans and 35 percent as independents or others. Thirteen percent of those polled identified themselves as African-American.

The poll of 1,034 Michigan voters took place via automated telephone interviews from Thursday through Sunday. The error margin is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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