It's hard to determine who has a bigger conflict of interest here -- Democratic commissioners who are aligned with the politically powerful UAW leadership, or UAW officials who seem more closely tied to the commissioners than their own rank-and-file members. Starting with the 2006 elections, the UAW, under the new leadership of Region 1 president Joe Peters, began playing a major role in county board elections. They handed out $5,000 campaign contributions -- an extraordinary amount for a commissioner campaign -- to incumbent Democrats and their favorite Democratic candidates. In some cases, the UAW checks have represented one-fourth or one-third of the total amount raised by a candidate.

I reported earlier today that Macomb gave the UAW a mulligan, one in which the union approved (specifics to be disclosed) concessions that prevented large-scale layoffs to balance a bloated budget that the democratically-controlled Council has been mismanaging for years. The day of reckoning was today. Well, actually it was a few weeks ago when the union rejected any concessions. Today, they voted to take them. I thought that was the end of the story. I was wrong.

The new results immediately created a storm of protest among many UAW employees because of claims that dozens of ballots were tainted. UAW officials would not comment on the contested election but one UAW unit chair sent an e-mail to employees Thursday morning to address the rumors that are "running wild."

The note said that the ballots cast at two departments -- the Macomb County Community Services Agency and the Animal Shelter -- were presented in a cardboard box. All other UAW units presented their ballots in a locked container.

Without the boxed ballots, the ratification vote would have failed. (emphasis mine)

What a shock. More votes were found. Had the vote failed today, I'm sure the UAW would have been given a new mulligan. Then another. Then another. Until enough votes were "found" to give the desired result. On a bigger scale, this has happened before. Anyone remember the 2004 Washington State Governor's race? More recently, how about the Senate race in Minnesota? It should come as no surprise that the shenanigans on full national display in very critical elections happen on a much smaller scale as well. This is just par for the course.

With a lot of cash invested in the board, which is now dominated, 20-6, by Democrats, some employees are convinced that their union was determined to spare the commissioners from politically tough decisions. If they could balance the budget on the backs of the workers, the commissioners wouldn't have to resort to numerous layoffs, which would mean cuts in services. And possibly a tax increase on top of that. (emphasis mine)

Angry employees are already pushing for a vote that would oust the UAW and choose a new union to represent their 539 members. And you can bet that in 2010, many employees will be working behind the scenes to defeat the incumbent commissioners, particularly the pro-UAW Democrats.