The tightening of the Presidential race nationally has once again seeped into Michigan, and polling statistics show a huge opportunity for the Mitt Romney campaign in the latest Foster McCollum White Baydoun (FMW)B poll for Fox 2 News Detroit of Michigan’s most likely voters. 

President Barack Obama and Romney, the Republican nominee,  are statistically tied, with Obama at 46.92% to Romney’s 46.56%, a lead of 0.36 points which is within a margin of error of 2.93%. 

President Obama had a taken a lead of 3.45 points in our October 5th poll.

“The negative reaction to President Obama’s first debate performance continues to hurt. Governor Romney’s ability to stand on the stage and present a clear alternative has shifted the race,” said Eric Foster, chief pollster for Foster McCollum White Baydoun. 

“In spite of the gains for Romney, he is still struggling with women voters and has exposure on foreign policy and voters who have a more positive mood on the economy.” The data reflects that these factors have balanced each other out, but Romney has clear momentum in the state. 

“Michigan and the national election will turn on political base participation,” said attorney and longtime Arab American Political Action Committee official and member Tarek Baydoun, political analyst for Foster McCollum White Baydoun. 

“Romney’s lead among independent voters has grown yet he is only able to gain three points overall which is an indicator that this will be a base election, similar to the 1996 and 2004 elections. The President’s team missed a big opportunity in the last debate on foreign policy, where Governor Romney’s strategy of “me too” allowed him to escape unscathed on the issue of foreign policy- a big victory for Team Romney because his previously detailed foreign policy position were unpopular according to our previous polling,” said Baydoun.

Obama has managed a likely two point lead over Romney in key state Virginia, however, according to a new NewsmaxZogby poll. 

Michigan Supreme Court race remains tight 

The campaigns for Michigan Supreme Court will be extremely competitive, which is a significant reversal of fortune from the 2010 election. There are two separate elections, one to fill two eight year terms on the court and one to fill a three year term. In the latest Foster McCollum White Baydoun (FMW)B poll poll, we find that Democratic nominated candidate Connie Marie Kelly is the first choice among Michigan voters for one of the eight year terms, leading sitting Justice Stephen Markman by 3.78 points (37.50% to 33.72%),  

When asked for their second choice for the eight year term, Democratic nominated candidate Bridget Mary McCormick led Republican nominated candidate Colleen O’Brian by 2.93 points, equal to the margin of error.  The race for the partial term Supreme Court position is statistically tied between Republican nominated sitting Justice Brian Zahra and Democratic nominated Judge Sheila Johnson. Zahra leads Johnson by 2.45 points (Zahra 42.12% to Johnson 39.67%).

U.S. Senate race: Stabenow still leads 

Senator Debbie Stabenow has maintained her sizable lead over Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra. In our latest poll, Senator Stabenow support is stable at 50.46% to Hoekstra’s 43.19%, a margin of 7.27 points. Hoekstra held a fairly small lead in August but  it has been declining rapidly in projection polls ever since, as the campaign season has heated up.