Michigan Politics

Michigan Political considerations.

Put a cork in it, Chris!

Nope, this sort of thing NEVER happens in elections.

3rd-debate-prep

I’ll have to admit, I liked last night’s Presidential Debate…most of it.

Unlike the previous debates where the “expert” journalist moderators quickly lost control of things and the topic firehosed everywhere (except for the question being asked), Chris Wallace did a fair job of keeping a handle on things.

The media blacked out Wikileaks story was mentioned early on, in which Clinton tacitly acknowledged the authenticity of them during her answers.

Clinton digging a bigger hole for herself by claiming the Russians had a hand in the release of internal e-mails that democrats never thought would ever see the light of day (and did she forget that “donation” to the Clinton Foundation for Uranium Mining Rights???).

We certainly cannot forget the next generation of terrorist attacks her in America due to her ill-conceived “asylum” program from Syria. Break out the tissues while she spins a tale of woe on the “migrants”. OABTW, how anyone can really “vet” someone’s record, when there is no government to contact regarding said record?

Nope, absolutely positively nothing to worry about here!

And then there was the end (no, this doesn’t have to do with a song from “The Doors”)…

{More below}

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Not Her Brightest Day

Michigan republicans have a bad habit of making national news for all the wrong reasons.

According to Article IV, Section G, Paragraph 1 of the Bylaws of the Michigan Republican State Committee, “The Chairman shall have the power to declare vacant the seat of any officer who refuses to support the Republican nominee for any office within the State of Michigan.” That’s the language, and it’s straightforward. If you’re one of the officers specified in Article IV, Section A of those same bylaws, then you support the republican nominees, up and down the ticket, or else risk immediate termination . . . end of discussion.

That paragraph is something that a certain lady, whom I still consider a friend, should have considered before shooting her mouth off, knowing the cameras were rolling, last Friday.

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It’s a shame that we cannot apply this elsewhere?

wendy-day-campain-pic

 

At the behest of Michigan Republican Party State Committee Member Matt Hall, it has been announced on multiple news outlets today that Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel has removed MRP Grassroots Vice Chair Wendy Day from her position due to comments made on Fox 2 Detroit last week regarding her unwillingness to support Donald Trump for President.

Citing party bylaws (and the teachings of Saul Alinsky), Mr. Hall claimed that her refusal to support ALL Republican party candidates on the ballot necessitated her removal from the position.

Mrs. Day issued a statement which can be read here.

It’s too bad that those bylaws are limited to only certain republicans?

I cannot help but think what would happen if they were applied to him, this guy or even these guys?

Just something to think about…

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2016 Michigan State House Races

Cross-posted at The Western RightRight Michigan, and Red Racing Horses.

All 110 seats in the Michigan House of Representatives will be up for election in November. Republicans won a 63-47 majority in 2014, picking up four seats (62, 71, 84, 91), up from 59-41 after 2012. There are 42 open seats, 27 held by Republicans and 15 held by democrats. There are 41 open due to term-limits and one (Gretchen Driskell) just seeking another office.

Democrats are hoping to take back the state house. They will benefit from higher turnout in a presidential year and possibly coattails from the presidential race. They will try to take advantage of Republican support for a tax increase for roads and Governor Snyder’s handling of the Flint water crisis, though state house candidates had nothing to do with the latter.

There are also many Republican seats first won in 2010 that are now term-limited.  Democrats are targeting several Republican incumbents, including 62, 71, 91, and a number of open seats.

State house fundraising is analyzed in this article.

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Rizzo Environmental Services Bribed Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds

And Who Else?

clinton-township-trustee-dean-reynoldsClinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds was charged with bribery Thursday, in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan. Rizzo Environmental Services allegedly paid Reynolds $ 50,000 – $ 70,000 in cash for his vote and influence on an $18 million, 10 year garbage collection contract. Reynolds is also alleged to have received free legal services from a Rizzo connected attorney in his divorce case.

Reynolds is a Hillary supporter, a gun control supporter, and an environmental supporter. Now living proof that you don’t need a gun to commit a serious crime.  As you read about this case, ask yourself why not one article mentions his political affiliation. Were he a Republican, his affiliation would be in every headline. Reynolds is an AFL-CIO toady now running for Clinton Township Supervisor in the November 8th General Election. The Metro Detroit AFL-CIO scrubbed their endorsement of him this morning, but they can’t change history:

detroit-afl-cio-2016-endorsements

The Free Press reports that the “FBI’s years-long investigation is expected to trigger criminal charges against numerous politicians in towns and cities across Macomb County who engaged in pay-to-play schemes with various developers and businesses. The Clinton Township case, sources said, is just the tip of the iceberg and numerous more charges will follow.”

Rizzo Environmental Services is under contract in a lot of communities outside of Macomb County in Michigan. Who else have they bribed?

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Daddy Day Care

Brian Calley's New Job.

nowBrian Calley eliminated any chance he might have of becoming Governor a couple of days ago.

In the fearful snit drummed up by #NeverTrump GOP operatives, Clinton, and the complicit media, Calley led a few other usual suspects in asking for the GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to step aside. Calley smelled the end for Trump, gambled and rolled snake eyes on the come out. He jumped out in front of the Trump Train and yelled stop!

“The latest revelations about Donald Trump and his past make it impossible for me to maintain support of him,” Calley said in a statement released exclusively to The Detroit News. “This is not a decision I take lightly because I still believe that a Hillary Clinton presidency represents a disastrous alternative.”

Calley called on Trump to step aside and “allow a replacement to provide the kind of option America could believe in.”

Apparently, trains don’t stop for has-been politicians.

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So You Think Its Over?

Were the words spoken on a 'hot mic' eleven years ago the end for the GOP presidential nominee?

Oh My Goodness, Donald Trump said some vulgar things!

Some Republicans think it matters.  All the Hillary supporters think it matters; yet stand and boo God, crap on police cars, promote police slaying,  blithely stand by while liberal women objectify themselves (caution link includes naked liberals –  prepare eye bleach prior to visiting) in protests, murder the unborn in numbers that never stop increasing, and call for equal standing of those who would marry the same sex, animals, or children.

Yet what Donald Trump has said; the disgusting NY machismo statements made to a [Bush family] television personality during a soap opera shoot over a decade ago, is the end of all paths presidential?  Maybe Barack Obama might think otherwise.

Oh, but that is not in it’s proper context dear reader.  It’s only the president in his former life reading his fabled “Dreams from my father ” work.  He is simply doing a reading ..of what he wrote.

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Harbor Beach Mayor fulfills legal requirements, tells public he’s a “nice guy” for doing so

Pious Harbor Beach Mayor Booms obeys Open Meeting Act and then tells the public how we should be thankful he's a nice guy for doing so.

Recently the Mayor of Harbor Beach told a member of the public during a public meeting:

When I allow people to speak during city council meetings, I do it because I’m a nice guy.

Harbor Beach Mayor Gary Booms

Harbor Beach Mayor Gary Booms

WRONG, Mr. Mayor don’t-know-the-law.  It’s a legal requirement.  In that spirit, I have decided to publish an email I recently sent “Gary” — so more light may be put upon his false self-virtue.  Below is that email:

Hi Gary,

I hope you don’t mind me calling you Gary. I don’t mind me calling you Gary, so we should be good.

I read a recent comment you made during a public meeting as Mayor.

One part of this caught my attention, aside from the fact you have no regards for an employee’s natural right to self-defense. It was:
Booms added, interrupting Armitage’s attempt at a question. “When I allow people to speak during city council meetings, I do it because I’m a nice guy.”
Let’s not make this about you and how nice and virtuous you are. Based on what I’ve read about your respect for Casey’s rights, I’ll go ahead and assume you’re not really that virtuous. Anyhow…
You don’t let people speak in public comment because you’re a nice guy. You let people speak because the Michigan Open Meetings Act requires that you let them speak.
(5) A person shall be permitted to address a meeting of a public body under rules established and recorded by the public body. The legislature or a house of the legislature may provide by rule that the right to address may be limited to prescribed times at hearings and committee meetings only.
A professional tip: if you’re going to extol your virtues, it shouldn’t be over something the law requires you to do. That just seems tacky and insults the intelligence of anyone who is informed.
Kindly,
Phillip Hofmeister
My hope is to reach nearly every voter in Harbor Beach, to let them know what a self-righteous and pompous guy their Mayor is.
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Financial State of Michigan – 2015

41st Place Among the States

tia-methodologyYou have probably read the Mackinac Center’s excellent works on Michigan’s government finances, much of which they release through Michigan Capitol Confidential. Top quality analyses, but parochial in the sense that they don’t place Michigan’s government finances in the context of the other American states. An Illinois 501(c)(3) organization, Institute for Truth in Accounting does, and has come up with a useful metric – taxpayer burden – by which you can rank Michigan financial status relative to the other states. No accounting degree necessary.

Suffice it to say, you will not be reading any of Truth in Accounting’s work in Michigan’s nitwit, cheerleading media.

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