UPDATE: Campaign Briefs – Snyder Endorses Romney, New Ads from Santorum and Romney, 6 Michigan Polls

Patch will present Michigan presidential campaign roundups before the Republican primary Feb. 28.

Governor Picks His Man

Gov. Rick Snyder will endorse Mitt Romney as their party's presidential nominee Thursday in remarks to the and in a Detroit News op-ed commentary, the newspaper reports.

"Our next president must understand how markets work and know how to get our nation back on track. Mitt Romney is the man for the job," the first-term governor writes in the The News, which posted an article about his endorsement at 8:42 p.m. Wednesday.

Coming soon to your TV

Rick Santorum punches back. A feisty new commercial for the former Pennsylania senator shows a Mitt Romney look-alike using a machine gun to spray mud at a moving cutout of Santorum.

"Mitt Romney’s negative attack machine is back on full throttle," a narrator says in the 30-second spot (embedded at right). As the voiceover ends with "Mitt Romney’s ugly attacks are going to backfire,” the Romney stand-in sees mud on his white shirt.

Politico.com, a prominent national blog, says the spot begins airing statewide Wednesday and will be shown elsewhere later. "Everyone in Michigan will see it," the Washington-based site quotes an unnamed Santorum aide as saying. "We’re not going to sit back and take it."

'I grew up in Michigan'

Romney released a new half-minute ad Tuesday, tailored to voters in the state where he was born and raised. "I remember going to the Detroit Auto Show with my dad," he says, referring to George Romney. Father and son appear in a black and white photo before the candidate says: "I want to make Michigan stronger and better. Michigan has been my home, and this is personal."

Expect to see that ad often if you watch TV. A political action committee called Restore Our Future, which backs Romney, "is putting $600,000 into ads in Michigan in advance of the state’s Feb. 28 primary,"  the Washington Post reports. (The Santorum aide interviewed by Politico declined to give that campaign's Michigan ad budget.)

What polls show

Santorum leads Romney by 3-15 percentage points in four statewide polls released since last week, as a New York Times graphic roundup illustrates Wednesday. Romney led in a pair of surveys issued Feb. 1 and 2.  

As of Wednesday morning, Times politics blogger Nate Silver gives Santorum a 77percent chance of winning Michigan while noting "there is still considerable uncertainty in the forecast."

Romney's largest survey lead (39 percent to 24 percent) has a bold-face asterisk because it's based on responses last weekend by 404 likely Republican primary voters. They include Democrats, who can request a Republican ballot Feb. 28 and still pick President Obama in November.

Still, as Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza noted Wednesday: "Romney’s roots in Michigan mean a loss here to former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum — who has performed better in the Midwest and with blue-collar workers — would be embarrassing."

'Favorite son'? Depends who's asked

Two veterans of Michigan campaign coverage note Romney's Detroit birth in 1947, his Bloomfield Hills education until 1965 and his dad's 1963-69 term as governor don't necessarily make him a homie.

Tim Kiska, a University of Michigan-Dearborn associate professor from Grosse Pointe Woods, writes at his WWJ blog: "One number is potentially troublesome for Romney: Only one in four of those questioned [by Public Policy Polling last weekend] consider Romney a Michigander. ... While the analysts think of Romney as a Michigan guy, the natives don’t necessarily agree."    

Lansing talk show host Tim Skubic of WKAR, commenting on the same poll at Mlive.com, writes: "And if the Romney-ites are hoping for a halo affect from the former Gov. George, forget that, too. Only 39 percent have a favorable opinion of Mr. Romney’s dad and 46 percent have no opinion about the senior Romney. And the rest are going, 'George who?' "

105,000+ voters have decided  

Talk about proactive: A surprisingly high (to us, at least) number of Michiganians have cast absentee ballots already, The Atlantic magazine reports: "As of Friday (Feb. 10), 105,500 voters had requested and returned GOP primary ballots."

That likely includes Democrats who may be mischief-making. But there also seem to be lots of decisive, efficient folks who may now have moved on to making St. Patrick's Day plans or preparing for the Tigers' home opener April 5.  

Voices from the trail

• "I think he'll (Romney) do very well. I would be very, very surprised if we don’t chalk up a big win." – L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County executuve, quoted Wednesday at Politico.com
• "In Michigan, we’ve always felt like the rest of the country either doesn’t understand us or wishes we weren’t here. It's nice to know that someone's running for president who knows the state and is from here." –U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, R-Livonia, quoted Tuesday by the Washington Post
• "Santorum’s persona, his record and his platform all have a populist tinge that plays well in states like Michigan ... where swing voters tend to be socially conservative, but economically middle-of-the-road." – Ross Douthat, New York Times blog, on Tuesday
• "Romney will say and stand for anything to get elected. ... He's against everything that Michigan is for, and even his family name can't cover that up." – Jennifer Granholm, former Democratic governor, media conference call, Tuesday
• "It’s going to be a slugfest here. We didn’t think we’d matter and now we’re at the eye of the storm.” – James Muffet, president of Lansing-based Citizens for Traditional Values, quoted Tuesday by the Washington Post