Michigan Politics

2014 Michigan State Senate Elections

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

All 38 seats in the Michigan Senate are up for election in 2014. Republicans currently have a 26-12 supermajority, and have controlled the senate since 1983.

Republican control of the state senate has prevented democrats from complete control of Michigan’s government, and stopped a lot of bad things from being passed. More recently, the Republican supermajority has prevented some of Governor Snyder’s more liberal plans from being implemented.

Fortunately for Republicans, the Michigan state senate is up only in midterms, which favor Republicans much more than presidential years. 2010 was very good to the Michigan GOP. Republicans picked up four state senate seats (and one earlier in a 2009 special election).

Republicans had complete control of redistricting this cycle. They crafted a very effective map. One democrat district was eliminated in Wayne County and replaced by a Republican one in west Michigan. Four other dem districts were made more dem. Most of the potentially vulnerable Republican seats were made more Republican, though a couple got slightly worse due to the need to avoid splitting counties. The new map is actually cleaner than the old one, excluding the Detroit districts, which are ugly for VRA reasons.

Michigan Redistricting: Official Republican State Senate Map Released
Michigan Redistricting: Republican State Senate Map Passed

There are ten open seats. Seven senators, four republicans and three democrats, are term-limited. Two republicans are just retiring, and one is running for Congress. Three Republican-held open seats (17, 20, 32) are tossups, and one other (13) could be competitive. Democrats have only one top challenger to a Republican incumbent (7), though another (34) could be competitive. Notably, dems failed to recruit credible candidates in several districts that were hotly contested in 2010 (29, 31, 38).

All but one of the current state senators are former state representatives. This pattern held in the past, and most credible candidates this time are current or former state reps.

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All the Other Stuff, Cronyism, Democrats, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out Carl

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sencarllevin-jokerIts one thing for a US Representative, or US Senator to intervene on behalf of a constituent when government is running amuck, but its quite yet another when a powerful elected member uses the ‘running amuck’ government to stifle free speech.

Michigan Senator Carl Levin took it upon himself to challenge eligibility for non profit status of certain groups.  He SPECIFICALLY targeted 4 groups; each of which lean conservative and exercise their first amendment rights as protected by our constitution.  A Letter to the IRS by Mr Levin names the following groups response to a certain question to be reexamined:

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Sure: Carl Levin just up and Decided to *Retire*

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Or, perhaps why Mr. Julianna Smoot‘s White House memo read, “Carl, cannot run for reelection. Tell him thanks for playing along, and dos svidaniya. Now, bring me Gary Peters”.

Read all about the documents obtained at Judicial Watch.

And, don’t even start about being unaware of the Marxist Levin slime that established his political career in the Progressive’s Utopian Cesspool of Detoilet, nor act oblivious about the Socialist-lite Republicans that have propped up that agenda for decades – you all were made aware.

Levin-detroit-300x234

Never fear, Weeper Boehner and Eric Holder have the situation *normalized*

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Moneybags

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BuySeatMy wife asked me, “who is this guy?”

She was referring to the now frequent television commercials for fourth district congressional candidate Paul Mitchell. And if you have never heard of him before, its because he has not held political office that you might recognize.  Another bucket list brigade member, GOP primary candidate Paul Mitchell has already piled tons of cash into Michigan’s 4th congressional district race in an effort to present himself as a real contender.

Cable and broadcast buys for April and May have already exceeded a quarter of a million dollars, and sources have indicated he intends to whiz away his entire bank account to feel extra special if necessary.  And who cares if anyone knows who he is, or what he stands for?

Ah yes, the “what do you stand for?” question. That place where people look beyond the claims of a candidate being a conservative first, and actually predict what kind of legislator they might actually be.

And if the nape hair instincts kick in at the point where you realize a candidate has no record to examine, is blowing a wad of his own cash, and was the finance chair for the Michigan Republican Party, then you might be paying attention.

Oh yeah.. All that.

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Democrats, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics

Conyers NOT On Ballot

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180px-John_Conyers_1977_Congressional_photoPolitics is always interesting.

Forever termed congressman John Conyers will not be on the ballot this year. Conyers has been in congress since 1965, (The picture at right from 1977.) and quite possibly will be gone after 2014.  From Fox news:

“Longtime Congressman John Conyers of Michigan doesn’t have enough signatures to appear on the Aug. 5 primary ballot, an elections official announced Tuesday.

Conyers’ nominating petitions were insufficient, Wayne County Clerk Kathy Garrett said in a statement.

It follows her report last week finding Conyers more than 400 signatures short of 1,000 needed. Garrett said Tuesday that he had 592 valid signatures after challenges.”

It comes as no surprise that Conyers’ signature counts included WAY too many that were not registered voters.

The REAL talent is in the Democrat party however.  Many were likely dead for decades as well.

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Michigan Politics

MIGOP Subverts Michigan Constitution to Silence Voice of the Voters

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Richardville MackinacNo matter how you feel about raising the minimum wage for or against this is just plain wrong! When the will of the citizens are subverted along with their constitutional rights by any political party its tyranny.

Never mind that giving voters the final word is precisely what the framers of Michigan’s constitution had in mind when they established the ballot initiative process in the first place.

So Michigan Republicans have decided to short-circuit that process you know, the untidy one ordained in Michigan’s constitution in favor of closed caucus meetings where Republicans who control the Legislature can wire an outcome more palatable to their business buddies who contribute to their campaign coffers.

The arrogant disregard of Senate Majority leader Randy Richardville for the democratic process that the ballot initiative was designed to keep in check is evident in his statement.

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