We’re almost there.

{Breakdown of Thursday’s vote below.}

After eight months of feet dragging by our Secretary of State, legal games, Board of Canvassers mischiefs, even more legal games eventually leading up to the Michigan Supreme Court finally telling the Michigan State Board of Canvassers to do their job… which ultimately led to our indifferent Secretary of State certifying said petitions just two days ago, the Michigan Senate finally introduced the Unlock Michigan Citizen Initiative Petition for a vote earlier today.

Judging by the general statements made from Michigan Republicans on this topic over the past several months, one would have thought that this matter would have been the very first item on Thursday’s agenda. Instead, it was shoved right into the middle of Thursday’s Michigan Senate session after commenting on obviously more pressing matters to Michigan such as the departure of a deputy communications director, the introduction of several tax hikes, Glioblastoma Awareness Day and reopening of the border to Canada.

Um, okay.

In their defense, when the matter was brought up, not only was it fast-tracked to third-reading, but it was also moved to take immediate effect. Typically, petitions like this go through first and second readings on the Senate Floor before getting sent to a committee. Then, they are voted out of committee and brought back to the floor for a third vote (See Rule 3.208).

That vote went pretty much as expected along party lines: 20-15 in favor. But since they didn’t have 2/3’s vote required; the immediate effect portion didn’t pass.

Naturally, Michigan democrats, specifically State Senators Bayer, Polehanki, McMorrow, Geiss and Hertel threw a tantrum over the fact that they were powerless to prevent one facet of Gov Whitmer little power trip from being taken away.

And did they ever pull out all the stops here.

Sen. Bayer attempted to defame the people behind Unlock Michigan, by making this outlandish claim;

“The process has been masked in millions of dollars of dark money, felons convicted of voter fraud, the unethical and illegal gathering of signatures, conspiracy to commit perjury, and even a criminal investigation into the means of gathering signatures. All these actions undermine our core democratic ideals and adopting this, given everything we know now, could literally put lives at risk—millions of lives, even.”

I’m going to love to see her reaction when the Arizona Audit (or Georgia or Pennsylvania or…) is made public.

Sen. Polehanki was up next. She immediately whipped out the gender card and made this inane comparison;

“And from this perspective, I’ve heard enough talk by some of my colleagues across the aisle about emasculation and neutering to think that this issue might not merely be an issue of co-equal branches of government needing to work together, like my Republican colleagues claim. In short, I don’t think it’s happenstance that we’re voting to strip the second woman to hold Michigan’s top job of the power granted to her by Michigan law.”

Would Sen. Polehanki be making the same comparisons if Michigan had a Patriot like Gov. Noem running Michigan, rather than Gov. Whitmer?

Since Gov. Noem didn’t push the panic button and make irrational decisions to scare the residents of South Dakota or kill off large swaths of seniors in the process, probably not!

Sen. McMorrow lamented on the fact that the Michigan Legislature didn’t work remotely;

“And I’ve also stood up here and I’ve spoken to encourage this Legislature to adopt means for us to meet remotely; to continue our work in case there are armed protesters here in our building, in case there is a pandemic. But session here was cancelled numerous times due to threats. Session here was cancelled when there was a COVID outbreak in the chambers. And by removing these powers, we would be telling the people of Michigan, You have to wait. I know there is an emergency, but you have to wait.”

Now, I wonder why working remotely was never going to happen here in Michigan? Ever?

Wasn’t this the same Sen. McMorrow who used those same protestors in a scheme to infringe on 2A? No, there’s no agenda there.

Sen. Geiss decided to one up her fellow democrats with this line of reasoning;

“Because the same people behind this petition are the same people who have been linked to a plot to kidnap and possibly kill the Governor, to harm members in both chambers of this Legislature, and those are the same people who traveled to our nation’s capital to carry out the first insurrection of that institution in more than a century on January 6. Yes, these things are connected and they are based on a lie—one big lie.”

If only her narratives matched the truth? Maybe here?

Well, she is a democrat, after all.

The best one yet came from Sen. Hertel when he made this claim;

“We cannot thank the people of Michigan enough for doing their part to end the pandemic, not by fighting the reality of science or by arguing about powers or politics, but by taking an active role in doing the right thing to help save lives here in Michigan.”

Rules for Thee, but not for me, Senator Hertel?

Okay, enough of the rabble…lets me focus on the good news here!

The petition is now on its way to the Michigan House. It has to wait at least five days before it can be taken up in that chamber. The Michigan House is scheduled to meet next Wednesday (July 21st).

If you have had more than enough of the damage Gov. Whitmer was wrought upon our state, I would strongly urge those of you reading this post to contact your state representative regarding this petition and tell them to vote yes.

Michigan has had to endure over 16-months of emotional, physical and economic destruction to our state due to her administration’s ineptitude.

This has to end.