First, any line being spewed by anyone that Randy Richardville had all four fence-sitters (to produce a total republican support of 9 votes) is so much manure.  Reliable whip counts pegged the republican "yeas" at no more than 6 (not including Brian Calley), which means that Richardville peeled off exactly one fence-sitter (widely believed to be Judy Emmons, but that cannot be proven).  Tonya Schuitmaker had 17 "nays" plus the other 3 fence-sitters (Tom Casperson, Dave Hildenbrand, and Mark Jansen).  Word also was that 2 or 3 democrat senators were prepared to defect to the opposition if Gretchen Whitmer pushed too hard to call the question before the summer recess.

Second, Governor Nerdly made it clear by his behavior in the 2010 primary that he doesn't give a damn what happens to the rest of the ticket, as long as he gets his way.  Recall the downticket carnage wrought by Rick Michigan's execution of "Operation Schwartz" on GOTV weekend, just to make sure that he could get a plurality over Pete Hoekstra, who'd been the front-runner for the 22 weeks immediately preceding the primary.