Democratic poll says Santorum leads Romney in Michigan GOP nominating race, but....

  Two weeks before Michigan's presidential primary, a Democratic polling firm says Rick Santorum is 15 percentage points ahead of Mitt Romney among Republican primary voters.
  A poll released Monday by Public Policy Polling of 404 GOP primary taken between Feb. 10 and 12 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.
  PPP says Santorum takes an outright majority of the tea party vote, 53 percent to 22 percent for Romney, and scores at 48 percent among those identifying themselves as evangelical.
  The poll, however, notes that 53 percent of those responding said they could change their minds in the next two weeks.

Democrats criticize Patterson's leadership

Oakland County Democrats, at odds with Republican County Executive L. Brooks Patterson over a new law that redraws and reduces county commission districts, brought their own message to Patterson's annual State of the County address Wednesday.

Instead of giving Patterson credit for the economic programs he outlined as successful in his speech, Democrats said Patterson's initiatives have done little to stimulate job growth in the past 20 years.

"Year after year, we hear Brooks Patterson boast about his achievements in the State of the County address," said Kevin Howley, of Huntington Woods, in a statement prior to Patterson's speech.

State of Oakland County: Economy top issue

The economy — and its recovery — was the focus of Republican L. Brooks Patterson's annual State of the County address Wednesday in Pontiac.

The five-term county executive, up for re-election this year to a sixth four-year term, outlined programs he has instituted in the past 20 years to either grow jobs or mitigate their losses in a down economy.

"The overriding issue facing all of us in this room, in this region, and in this state is, of course, the economy," Patterson said in his invitation-only address to about 400 people at the Centerpoint Marriott.