Race for Michigan governor, post-Detroit bankruptcy, is a dead heat ROCHESTER, Mich. - Even in the final hours of a race that's a statistical dead heat, Gov. Rick Snyder is as mild as this 62-degree Monday, so voters can't help but smile when he gamely pumps his fist and says, "You can tell I'm fired up!" In a campaign stop at a cider mill here, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says that when it comes to touting Michiganders, Snyder is one of the biggest braggarts in all of the Republican Governor's Association, "in his normal, subtle, quiet way. And I mean that - not normal and subtle like me."" That's what supporters seem to like about him, though. Not that surprisingly, that's not so different from what Michigan voters say they appreciate about Snyder's Democratic competition, Mark Schauer: "He's a down-to-earth type guy - normal - and came up like a real person," said Chad Dillard of Detroit. The two camps also agree that jobs are coming back but disagree about whether that's thanks to Snyder or to Obama and the auto bailout. They agree that Detroit hasn't looked this good in years, too, with all the new investment since the city filed for bankruptcy. Though many acknowledge that the step was inevitable, others blame Snyder for it. And the right-to-work legislation he signed is a major issue in the home state of the auto industry. Four years ago, Snyder won by an astonishing 19 points, so in this Republican year, why is the race so close? Speaking to reporters before a campaign stop in Utica, Snyder blamed what he called "the big lie" that he cut funding for K-12 education. "So that still comes up,"" he said, even if "in many cases, people are disgusted with it." (The reality? When the federal stimulus dollars used for education dried up, Snyder didn't find a way to replace them, but he didn't cut spending, either.) Snyder, 56, now says the auto bailout worked, but his original position was murkier. Asked to clarify that position, the governor said, "It's been consistent. I don't believe in bailouts; this was a unique case" because it would have interrupted the supply chain if car companies had failed. There are different ways it could have been done, but that's why I was supportive of it. Is the bailout partly responsible, then, for the new jobs he's running on? Fewer than half of all of the new jobs in the state over the last four years are even in car manufacturing, he said, and "you need to give credit to people within the auto industry; I don't think the president has built most of the vehicles currently on the road." Still, just as Obama refrained from badmouthing Snyder by name when he campaigned for Democrats in Detroit on Saturday, Snyder returns the favor by criticizing Washington's bickering and inaction rather than speaking ill of the president himself. "Washington isn't getting the job done,"" is how he puts it. "I'm a positive guy,"" he told reporters, and "we've run a positive campaign." Sure, a local reporter asked, but didn't the Republican Governors Association do the dirty work for him? "They decide"" what ads to run, he answered. Schauer, 53, served one term in Congress and is a former state legislator who ran community programs for poor people. He travels around the state in a campaign bus that promises "A Michigan that works for everyone, not just the wealthy." In Detroit, he told supporters, "I'm so proud to be with the toughest, most resilient people in America." As at every stop, he spoke of his mother, Myra, a nurse, and father, Robert, a public school science teacher. "We're the state that put the world on wheels, that built the middle class,"" he said, then accused Snyder of hurting the average person with tax cuts for business and increasing taxes on pensioners: "The self-proclaimed tough nerd has only been tough on the middle class,"" he said. "If you're a student or a teacher,"" he said of the current state government, "they're not working for you. If you're a woman or LGBT or care about the Great Lakes, they're not working for you. In making his closing argument to voters in Utica, Snyder promised more of the same - more jobs, lower taxes and fewer regulations. But he also used a familiar Democratic talking point in arguing that Michigan shouldn't go backward, to the bad old days, but "forward, forward, forward." The latest Real Clear Politics compendium of polls has Snyder up 2.8 points. Democratic State Chairman Lon Johnson insists his party will have a crucial advantage in turnout because it sent a million absentee ballots to Michiganders who vote Democratic but don't always show up for midterm elections. Republicans counter that Democrats aren't the only ones with data and a ground game. And just because the Democrats sent a million ballots out, said Snyder's communications director, Jarrod Agen, "doesn't mean those ballots have come back."