DETROIT

-- Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero has a message -- "Main Street not Wall Street" -- that seeks to tap into the economic frustrations of a state that has lost a million jobs this decade.

The question is whether he will have the money to effectively deliver it to a statewide audience that post Labor Day will wake up to a gubernatorial campaign they may not have been paying much attention to.

Sunday, Bernero addressed head on the characterization that he's an angry Michigander by embracing it in populist tones designed to resonate in households dealing with real or threatened job loss and among small business owners who can't get a loan.

"Some people call me an angry mayor," Bernero told about 1,000 people at the Cobo Center where the Michigan Democratic Party convention was held . "Let me tell you what gets me angry. When I see people on Main Street who have been let down, left out and wiped out, I get angry."

Bernero vowed to "chase the well-connected insiders" out of the state Capitol and pursue an agenda that boosts state aid to education, creates a new state-affiliated bank that lend money to credit-strapped Michigan business, put a moratorium on home foreclosures, limit tuition increases and restore the Michigan Promise scholarship.

Michigan has been "redlined" by Wall Street, Bernero said. "Too many of our citizens are worried about their future because their mortgage is under water, their job is in doubt, their 401(k) is in the tank, and the tuition check might not clear."

Bernero's problem is that as of his last campaign finance statement, he had less than $100,000 in the bank from a campaign that was successful largely because organized labor and others poured millions in undisclosed money for independent primary election advertising. Democrats attending Sunday's convention said Bernero, who trailed GOP nominee Rick Snyder 51-29 percent in the latest EPIC-MRA poll, may need millions to introduce himself and compete with the millions Snyder and the Republican campaign infrastructure have had their disposal.

Democrats are somewhat relieved that Republicans didn't seek to define Bernero in negative terms in the weeks following the primary. Now they have to argue with big money donors in Washington that Bernero has a shot during an election season in which Democrats face multiple challenges with gubernatorial contests in the Midwest. The jam Bernero faces is that to attract the money he needs, he needs to show support for his candidacy is growing. Yet it's difficult to grow that support with advertising dollars.

David Hecker of the Michigan Federation of Teachers is telling donors that Bernero can win because he's a candidate who understands (voters) are hurting, is as mad as they are and is as determined as they are to do something about it."

Some Democrats, however, believe that Bernero's reliance on outside dollars collected by the Genesee County Democratic Party during the primary campaign could be trouble if Snyder and the Republicans seek to portray him as captive to the public employee unions that aren't particularly popular with independent voters that will likely decide the election.

Bernero and his running mate, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence kick off a week-long bus tour Monday that that will include stops in Grand Rapids Bay City and Flint.

There was little drama at a Democratic convention that attracted far fewer and less vocal activists than Republicans drew to their gathering in East Lansing on Saturday. Races for other statewide offices were decided in the spring when a previous convention "endorsed" Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton for attorney general and Wayne State University professor Jocelyn Benson for secretary of state.

Leyton vowed to be tough on criminals, corrupt politicians and the "unscrupulous who would cheat and scam" consumers. Benson vowed to bring about voting the weekend before Election Day, no-reason absentee balloting and an end to hefty state fines for driving without auto insurance."

New Supreme Court Justice Alton Davis, appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Thursday, was officially nominated for an eight-year term as was Oakland County Judge Denise Langford Morris. If he wins in November Davis, 63, would only serve one term as Michigan judges over the age of 70 can't seek re-election.

"The people of the state of Michigan are entitled to a Supreme Court that works well, acts well and means well," said Davis, who has spent three decades on circuit and appellate courts. "I am the most experienced judge in this race from either party. I will do the public's business in the right way for the next eight years and then I'm going fishing."