by Rob Smith

On December 12, 2012 Governor Rick Snyder was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying that “Michigan is well-positioned for a comeback.” A few days later, for the third year, Forbes Magazine ranked Michigan 47th in Forbes’ Best States for Business and Careers list. In a piece accompanying the ranking Governor Snyder offered up a mess of excuses for why the legislative agenda of which he is so very proud isn’t working. Snyder predicted that the law will improve Michigan’s business climate. We want a comeback. We need a comeback. Folks are praying for a comeback. The lame ducks in Lansing sent, literally, dozens of bills to Snyder during the final week of the 2012 session. Included was a revised emergency manager bill that replaces a similar law rejected last month by voters. Over the past two years he has been in office, Snyder has practiced what he refers to as “positive relentless action.” Some, I’m sure, refer to it as a perpetual psychotic break with reality. Michigan became the 24th state in the U.S. to become a right-to-work state. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Snyder claimed that Big Bidness was on the phone with Michigan Economic Development Authority head Michael Finney asking about bringing their jobs to our fair state. Snyder told reporters: “The phone’s already been ringing at the MEDC since we passed that legislation. People are starting to look at Michigan. It would be premature to name particular companies and stuff, but they are getting more inquiries from people we hadn’t heard of and weren’t looking at us. I spoke with (MEDC President and CEO) Mike Finney yesterday, and he said there’s at least one major opportunity that didn’t have us on the list to say Michigan’s on the list now.”

Mike Finney, if I remember my Ann Arbor SPARK history correctly, is the same guy who stood by while Snyder put out a 2009 annual report that claimed SPARK, under his leadership, had created or retained over 12,000 jobs in Washtenaw County between 2007 and 2009. The Detroit Free Press popped that bubble in 2010 with an investigative piece that revealed $149,000,000 in MEDC funds, including money given to Ann Arbor SPARK, had created fewer than 900 actual jobs between 2007 and 2009. Ann Arbor SPARK, perhaps tired of being spanked by A2Politico, the Free Press and other investigative news sources, last reported in its 2011 Annual Report that it had created 400 jobs. SPARK reported spending over $63 million dollars in public funding, and another $35 million dollars paying for SPARK staff, between 2006-2011 to creating or retaining 10,905 jobs in Washtenaw County.

Adding up the number of “jobs” created in SPARK various annual reports is like trying to piece together slivers of the True Cross. The math is fuzzy beyond belief, and SPARK refuses to release its tax returns to the public, or its audits. According to the latest Annual Report, SPARK got 38 percent of its money from public sources, Ann Arbor’s General Fund, you, me, the local school district, as well as the folks in the county eating cat food this holiday season in order to make the rent. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I don’t have a lot of confidence that anyone from any “major opportunity” called Mike Finney right after Michigan became a right-to-work state. Mike Finney and Rick Snyder have a shared history of misleading the public in order to protect their own hides, and justify the use of public money for crony capitalism.

It has been two years since Governor Snyder was elected on the hope that he would create jobs. How’s that going for us? Unemployment in Michigan is down, so say the data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says in 2010, unemployment in our state was 11.1 percent. Today that figure is 8.9 percent. While fewer people are reporting they’re unemployed, U.S. labor experts believe it’s because hundreds of thousands of chronically under-employed and unemployed people have fled the state, or stopped looking for work. Certainly, Governor Snyder’s move to bounce the state’s poor folks from state-funded social safety net programs after 48 months, total, has contributed to driving out under-employed and unemployed Michigan residents. The legislative agenda of the Michigan GOP has been the gentrification of Michigan coupled with economic apartheid aimed at the state’s poorest residents.

According to the most recent U.S. Census, Michigan lost population. This also explains why poverty indicators in our state just won’t stop flashing red. Homelessness is up. Childhood poverty is up, since Mr. Snyder took office. Food insecurity is up, as well. In our state 20 percent of children don’t have enough to eat. The number of Michigan residents whose homes have been foreclosed on is up, as well. While unemployment is down from 14 percent in 2009 to 8.9 percent, Michigan currently has the sixth highest rate of unemployment among the states. In 2011, Michigan was number eight on the list of highest rates of unemployment among the states, at 9.3 percent. In 2010, when Mr. Snyder was elected, Michigan had the fifth highest rate of unemployment among the states at 11.7 percent. In two years, our state has gone from having the fifth highest rate of unemployment in the nation down to having the sixth highest rate of unemployment. We also went from having a civilian labor force of 4.8 million to 4.4 million.

There has been job growth in Michigan, but it’s in low-paying industries—leisure and hospitality. Right-to-work, which adversely impacts average pay rates, is sure to push down the already low average salaries and hourly rates paid to Michigan residents, and widen the pay gap between men and women—the largest in America. I want to see Michigan make a comeback and I don’t care who gets the credit. If Mr. Snyder was sitting in Lansing creating good-paying jobs, I still wouldn’t vote for him in 2014, but I would congratulate him on easing what has become chronic poverty and suffering in our state.

Saying Michigan is “poised for a comeback” is just more of the same political spin from the same nerd who signed a 2009 Ann Arbor SPARK Annual Report that claimed he’d helped create and retain a whopping 12,000 jobs in Washtenaw County in a two year period. SPARK’s latest Annual Report makes clear that the 2009 Annual Report was a fabrication, a deceit to make a bunch of rich, white, politically-connected folks on the SPARK board look important—like they were doing something positive for their community. In reality, those white folks are helping rob taxpayers blind, taking money from schools and libraries and giving it to their political friends and business associates. Michigan has turned into one huge Sherwood Forest.

Could our state and its residents have seen a different outcome had Democrat Virg Bernero been elected in 2010? That’s speculation that will take us right off track and into the La Brea Tarpit of Partisan Politics. On the other hand, looking at neighboring states, I see progress on job creation that is enviable. In 2009, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 10.9 percent. In October 2012, it was 6.9 percent. In 2009, Wisconsin’s unemployment was 8.7 percent. In October 2012, it was 6.9 percent.

What have Michigan’s GOP and its Republinerd Governor accomplished since 2010? I’m sure they’ll find something to brag about when they next run for office in 2014. The truth is, however, that our state’s elected officials in Lansing succeeded in doing little more than pushing through a “trickle-down-economics,” conservative political agenda that has been the pride of the Right since Reagan was president. However, they done little to tackle the education, economic and social woes that have hammered our state for a decade. The Michigan GOP and Mr. Snyder have exacerbated the problems, opened a wider chasm between the haves and the many have nots in Michigan. MLive writer Susan J. Demas published a December 20, 2012 opinion piece that is all at once insightful and irritating (no doubt to Dems and Indies who voted for “moderate” Rick Snyder). Demas writes: “It’s true that Rick Snyder has a perfectly pleasant, moderate demeanor. He’s not a firebrand like Herman Cain or Sarah Palin. He’s also not a clown. But he’s not a moderate in politics, and has never claimed to be. Having interviewed the former Gateway CEO extensively on the campaign trail, I never once heard him describe himself as a moderate or centrist. That was a label assigned to him by hopeful editorial boards and assorted self-styled political observers. Now as I noted in the summer of 2010, Snyder was smart enough to deploy the endorsements of former Gov. Bill Milliken and former U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz as dog whistles to independents, moderates and Democrats. See, I’m a reasonable Republican. Why, I even live in Ann Arbor (or close enough).”

Governing Magazine published a piece in 2010, during the primary election, that contradicts Demas and, I think, identifies the real reason that Michigan voters (Dems and Indies) thought Snyder would never pursue the destructive political agenda he has. Josh Goodman writes:

Ed Kilgore of 538 has a post pointing out what I think is one of the most notable questions in tomorrow’s primaries: Can a moderate win the Republican nomination for governor in Michigan?

Rick Snyder, former CEO of Gateway computers, is the candidate I’m talking about. If Snyder simply had a reputation or a history as a moderate, the story wouldn’t be all that interesting. Plenty of Republican candidates with moderate histories are running well in primaries this year — Meg Whitman in California, Karen Handel in Georgia, Bill Haslam in Tennessee — it’s just that they’re running well by campaigning as conservatives. Snyder is different.

He’s running a mostly non-ideological campaign, touting his competence, business acumen and outsider status. What’s more, he’s affirmatively associating himself with some of Michigan’s most well-known moderate Republicans — Republicans who haven’t demonstrated much loyalty to their party lately. That includes former Gov. William Milliken, who’s made a habit of criticizing Republican nominees for president, and former U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz, who supported a Democrat for his old congressional seat in 2008 over the Republican who had ousted him in a 2006 primary.

Then, Goodman hits a hole-in-one. In 2010 he wrote this: “Snyder, thanks to his personal wealth, has spent the most campaign cash. As Meg Whitman proved, money can do a great job hiding an ideological mismatch between a candidate and voters.”

Bingo.

In April 2011, A2Politico posted a piece about Ann Arbor Dems who had supported Snyder. In that piece, A2Politico reveals exactly how much Snyder spent to hide the “ideological mismatch”: “Rick Snyder ran a ‘feel good’ campaign. He shelled out over $1,000,000 to a Hollywood advertising firm that specializes in helping Republican candidates such as George W. Bush, Christine O’Donnell, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain shape campaign messages. Snyder spent millions, some might argue, misleading voters.”

These are just a few of the real “accomplishments” of Michigan’s GOP and Mr. Snyder:

• A study from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the African-American unemployment rate in Michigan in 2010 was 47 percent higher than the 15.9 percent national average of unemployment for African-Americans.
• While blacks comprise 15 percent of Michigan’s population, blacks represent 55 percent of those imprisoned in our state.
• According to research from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, half of all of Michigan’s black children live in poverty.
• In September 2012 the Michigan League for Human Services released a study that concluded Michigan has the highest rate in the Midwest for working families living in poverty.

“Michigan is well-positioned for a comeback.” These are the words of a rich white man disconnected from reality—a man who has shown he will say just about anything to further his own ambitions. Over the past two years, studies conducted by academics, well-respected nonprofits and state agencies have revealed that Michigan is tottering on the edge of a cliff. In response, our state’s GOP has rammed through a political agenda of economic apartheid that is contributing to the destruction of the lives of a generation of men, women and children.

A2P Notes: This piece originally ran in April 2011. In the interim, much has changed, politically, in our state. The Michigan GOP and Governor Rick Snyder have waged a relentless war on unions, teachers, reproductive rights, gays, voting rights and even democracy. The contempt with which our state legislators have held the state’s electorate has elicited national media coverage that has all at once been analytical, mocking and hand-wringing. It’s important to point out that Rick Snyder came within 4 percentage points of beating Democrat Virg Bernero in Ann Arbor. Snyder raised more campaign money from Ann Arbor residents than did Bernero. In short, Ann Arbor Democrats and Independent voters who supported Rick Snyder might be doing some serious soul-searching about now, and those concerned with the political shift in our state might also take a lesson from the Occupy movements in Michigan and nation-wide and focus on accountability.

By now, people all over the state of Michigan are talking about the fact that Governor Rick Snyder ran a campaign that, in essence, was short on substance and lacking in detail. His “10 Point Plan” to “reinvent” Michigan and put Michigan “back to work,” included nothing about giving $1.8 billion in tax breaks to business while eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit for the most vulnerable of Michigan’s families. His blowsy 10 point plan didn’t include mention of the Emergency Financial Manager legislation which, according to critics who recently filed a federal suit against the law, “will illegally change collective bargaining agreements and violate the property rights of city workers, they say, and they argue that the move also disenfranchises city voters….”

Rick Snyder ran a “feel good” campaign. He shelled out over $1,000,000 to a Hollywood advertising firm that specializes in helping Republican candidates such as George W. Bush, Christine O’Donnell, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain shape campaign messages. Snyder spent millions, some might argue, misleading voters. If the group firericksnyder.org is able to gather the necessary signatures to put a recall question to the voters, Snyder might find himself out of a job. Ironically, the man who is preaching “shared sacrifice,” fiscal responsibility and discipline, is sitting on a $1.3 million dollar campaign debt including tens of thousands in unpaid bills to consultants. According to his post-election campaign finance statement, Snyder’s campaign also owes money to small, local Ann Arbor businesses including $17,500 bill for equipment rental owned to SFG LLC of Ann Arbor since June of 2009, $875 in rent owned to Waterworks Plaza Limited Partnership since November of  2010, $37.84 to Arbor Springs Water for a water cooler, mileage reimbursement payments owed to Ann Arbor campaign workers, and $500 to Westside Cleaning Service, Inc. for janitorial work done in in November of 2010. To see the complete list of debts, click here.

The Dearborn Press & Guide, a Heritage-owned paper, published an op-ed on April 6, 2011 written by Morris Goodman, a lawyer, progressive Democrat and Wayne County political activist. The title of the piece says it all: “The Good Word: did you get what you voted for?” In the piece, Goodman writes:

Moreover, do Bill Milliken’s and Bill Ford’s moderate Republican followers and Andy Dillon’s moderate Democratic followers really want, in addition to the decrease in unemployment compensation weeks: (1) the collective bargaining rights of police and firefighters almost completely taken away through the repeal on Public Act 312 and those rights of other state workers severely limited; or (2) pensions taxed like any other income; or (3) giving businesses a $1.8 billion tax break while at the same time essentially cutting the budget of $1.8 billion in “unnecessary spending we can no longer afford; or (4) cutting K-12 funding by $470 per student and lowering aid to Michigan’s universities by 15 percent or more; or (5) having Emergency Financial Managers very easily appointed with enhanced powers to override the decisions of elected officials and to void collective bargaining agreements. I do not think so….Snyder might still be a nerd, but he sure is not the non-ideological nerd his self paid $6 million advertising campaign portrayed him to be.

Democrat Mike Fried ran for Washtenaw County Commissioner in the 2010 August primary and lost to Democrat Yousef Rabhi. On his web site, after the recount, Fried wrote, “Based on the number of ballots where the only vote cast was for Rick Snyder, I can only conclude that a number of Democrats voted in the Republican primary. I wish that they had not done so, but instead, had chosen to participate in our own party’s primary.”

The defection continued on in November. Virg Bernero got a million fewer votes than did former Governor Jennifer Granholm in her last election. Snyder tried hard to get the black vote, but blacks didn’t fall for his “one tough nerd” campaign, or the fact that he had his election night party in Detroit, rather than in Ann Arbor. In Highland Park, for example, where there are no white voters, Snyder pulled in four percent of the vote. In Detroit, Snyder pulled in just five percent of the vote. On the other hand, Democrats and Independents fell for the razzle dazzle, feel-good, say-nothing campaign Snyder paid millions to Hollywood and DC consultants to design for him. Dems and Independents voted for Snyder, and in Ann Arbor they donated to his campaign.

The Liberal Independent (tip o’ the keyboard to Les, aka SEB) blogger who writes at StupidEvilBastard.com (SEB), confessed the day after the election to voting for Snyder. SEB points to a politically-naive September 2010 profile of Snyder published in The Ann as partial reason for his cross-over to the Republican party. The quotes from the pre-election profile, in retrospect, are almost as chilling as they are prescient:

On the issues, Snyder was similarly out of sync. Snyder’s top two Republican rivals, state Attorney General Mike Cox and U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, both signed a pledge not to raise taxes; Snyder refused, calling it “kind of a gimmick.” On the eve of the primary, Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform issued a press release warning conservative voters that Snyder might raise taxes.

In July, the Michigan Tea Party Alliance rented the Eaton County Fairgrounds outside Lansing for a “LiberTEA Fair.” “All of the Republican gubernatorial candidates except for one came and gave speeches,” organizer Gene Clem told me. That one was Snyder.

StupidEvilBastard goes on to write: “I was really hoping that the Republicans wouldn’t take the State Supreme Court and it’s very worrying that they have and the fact that they have a super-majority in the legislator is also bothersome, but I’m hoping Snyder’s moderate bent will keep all of that in check.”

The Ann profile refers to Snyder as an “Ann Arbor RINO.” The problem, of course, is that Rick Snyder has proven, quickly, that he is neither a moderate nor a RINO.

Snyder’s campaign got a boost from his friends in Ann Arbor, where he doesn’t live, despite claims to the contrary by sloppy reporters, and in whose public schools his daughter does not study. In fact, Snyder got more in donations from Ann Arbor, Dexter, Chelsea and Saline residents, than Bernero did, over $814,000 dollars from 1,400 donors. Then again, Bernero took Ann Arbor by only 1.5 percent of the votes cast for governor. Snyder got 58,029 of the 123,672 votes cast, and Bernero got 59,829 votes.

In Ann Arbor, these were the top 50 donors to Rick Snyder’s campaign:

In Ypsilanti, the single largest donor to Snyder’s campaign was the Greff family, Matt & Rene. Stalwart Dems, Rene Greff explained in an email that her support of Snyder was “a first.” While the Greffs were supporting Republican Rick Snyder’s campaign, their Ann Arbor pub hosted campaign events of Dems who ran for local and state office. In November 2010, Ann Arbor’s 53rd District Representative Jeff Irwin and newly elected state senator Rebekah Warren, celebrated their respective wins at the Greff’s Arbor Brewing Company. In December 2009, Rene Greff donated $2,000 to Snyder’s campaign. In February 2011 Rene Greff donated another $484, then in March 2011 another $500. July 2010, Matt Greff donated $1,000 for a total of $3,984 more than any other Ypsilanti donor.

On April 22, 2011, U.S. Representative John Conyers, gave an interview on the “7 Days” show in which he alleges that Snyder’s EFM law violates various aspects of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, and told the interviewer that he has been working with the NAACP, ACLU and is planning to take the question “directly,” said Conyers, “to the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder,” to investigate whether the law can be voided with a court challenge. Conyers said that he intended to speak directly to President Obama on May 2, 2011 about the EFM law.

A2Politico revealed in a number of entries in 2009 and 2010, that as the CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, Rick Snyder conveniently had no dashboards demonstrating achievement, or mechanisms in place to track what was being done with the taxpayer money being doled out in a boondoggle dubbed “crony capitalism,” by former Obama economic advisor Dr. Lawrence Summers during a 2009 visit to Michigan. During Rick Snyder’s time as the head of SPARK, there was an overpaid CEO, and shockingly little accountability.

Conyers told the interviewer on April 22nd: “Not too long ago, when there were certain people and one certain newspaper in particular that said, ‘Why criticize Rick Snyder? He is different. Why not give him a chance?’ And now, we’ve given Rick Snyder a chance. He’s showed us exactly who he is.”

To see the names of Snyder’s Ann Arbor donors, including two Ann Arbor City Council members, a Democratic mayor, various members of city boards and commissions, local developers and business owners, download the list here. If you want to see a list of all donors, visit followthemoney.org.

Don’t forget to vote in the poll. Do you still support Rick Snyder?

Representative Jeff Irwin, a Democrat, served for a decade as a Washtenaw County Commissioner. In January 2013, he will began his second term in the Michigan House of Representatives. In his regular column, House Calls, A2Politico will pose a single question to Representative Irwin and he will answer it. The questions will focus on his work in Lansing and, of course, his efforts to bring the “progressive agenda” to state government that he told voters in Ann Arbor he intended to work on during his time in office.

A2Politico asks: Ann Arbor recently withdrew from the 4-Party transit agreement, following the lead of out-county pols—almost all of whom found little value for the money in the regional transit plan as proposed. You were uncharacteristically silent about the Washtenaw BOC recently passing a resolution withdrawing support of  Governor Snyder’s Regional Transit Authority (RTA). If your constituents (and county residents) don’t want to participate in regional transit, and residents won’t tax themselves to pay for it, was the several year, several million dollar push to get Washtenaw County involved in the regional transit game afoot in southeastern lower Michigan a political miscalculation?

Representative Jeff Irwin answers:

I think there is quite a bit of confusion or conflation out there regarding the separate plans to create a SE MI Regional Transit Authority and the plan to increase transit service in Ann Arbor and throughout the county with the countywide transit enhancement plan put forward by AATA through act 196. These are separate ideas that are related, but not dependent on one another.

Regarding the RTA bills floating in the legislature, I have been publicly vocal about my concerns. I don’t want to subject AATA and our federal funding to a new layer of regional governance. Although there are some protections in the legislation and in federal law for our transit revenue, I can not support legislation that will endanger AATA funding and AATA operational autonomy. In short, I want decisions about routes and service levels made close to home. So, while I support additional investments in regional transit — especially more functional train service along the I-94 corridor — I don’t support the RTA bill in its current form. Accordingly, I support the similar sentiments coming from locally elected leaders in our city and county.

Hopefully, the legislature will remove Washtenaw from the current RTA composition and create a method for Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe or other neighboring counties to join the RTA once Wayne, Oakland and Macomb get their act together. Also, it’s important to mention that the RTA bill does not offer new options for local revenue generation.

The bills that allow counties to offer gas tax or registration fees to their citizens as a revenue source for local transportation needs are not moving. Without new revenue options on the table, the RTA discussion is really a negotiation regarding where the deck chairs should be stored while we attend to the sinking ship.

With respect to the efforts to organize additional transit in Ann Arbor and more meaningful connections with surrounding jurisdictions, I am disappointed that the locally elected leaders have decided not to move forward at this time. As you know, I believe that increasing evening and weekend service would be a benefit to our city. I also would have liked to continue some of the service enhancements that AATA deployed successfully in anticipation of increasing investment from the public. Specifically, increasing service along Washtenaw and Packard — I believe — is good for Ann Arbor, Pittsfield Twp., Ypsilanti Twp. and Ypsilanti. Perhaps AATA will find a way to continue these service enhancements, but without a consistent source of revenue to support these services I have a hard time seeing how that will be possible.

In any event, you know I am a transit supporter and you can expect me to continue to support public transit. I still think we have a good bus program in Ann Arbor that needs some modest improvements, and I’ve noticed that many opponents of the transit enhancement plan make the same observation. Hopefully, we can bring those two groups together. More complete hours and better service will allow more people to count on bus service to meet their transportation needs. For some families, this means shaving enough off of their expenses to keep their job and their home. In addition to reducing the need for downtown parking and ever widening roads, this economic benefit for lower income families helps all of us maintain a successful, diverse and vibrant community.

by Rob Smith

Michigan Radio writer Lester Graham points out in a great piece titled, “Muddying the Michigan Constitution?”: “In the 224 years since it was ratified, the U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times. The latest Michigan Constitution is less than 50 years old and it’s already been amended 31 times.  And the people could add five more amendments on election day.” Jack Lessenberry, in his piece titled, “Constitutional confusion,” writes: “Michigan’s Constitution is less than 50 years old, and already has been amended more than 30 times….If we continue going at this rate, Michigan’s constitution will soon be an unworkable joke. America’s Constitution has survived in large part because it is pretty difficult to amend. If we want our state constitution to have any meaning, we need to fix the amendment process very soon.”

Governor Rick Snyder has urged voters to reject the five constitutional amendments. As much as it hurts me to say this, I have to agree. Monied special interests on both the left and the right are trying to manipulate voters into approving amendments to the Michigan Constitution that will line the pockets of Big Business (including companies invested in alternative energy). It’s bad enough when this happens by buying state politicians with relatively small donations, but trying to buy self-serving amendments to the state’s Constitution is some downright nasty politics.

I part company with Governor Snyder when it comes to the repeal of Public Act 4. In his video, Snyder claims that Emergency Managers go in, get the job done and then return power to elected officials. What planet is Michigan’s Governor living on? Planet Hollywood? EMs have a record of abusing their powers. Arthur Blackwell II, Highland Park’s former emergency financial manager, had to give back more than $250,000 he paid himself. Michael Stampfler outsourced Pontiac’s wastewater treatment to United Water just after the Justice Department indicted the company for violations of the Clean Water Act.

In not one of the cities or school districts to which Governor Snyder has dispatched an Emergency Manager over the past two years has the job gotten done. Currently, emergency managers are in Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Pontiac, Allen Park and the Muskegon Heights, Highland Park and Detroit school districts. The threat of the state appointing an emergency manager to the city of Detroit led this spring to a financial stability agreement between Mayor Dave Bing and Snyder.

Michigan’s November ballot is jam packed this time around thanks, in part, to grassroots efforts to bring the Michigan Republican Party to heel. There are a total of six ballot proposals on the state-wide level, and five of them seek to amend the state’s Constitution. Special interest groups on both sides of the questions have spent tens of millions of dollars, and many of these special interest groups (and their donors) would like to tell you exactly how to vote. Special interest groups have been paying for polls, as well.

Lansing-based Marketing Resource Group (MRG) phoned 600 likely voters between September 10-15 to gauge support for proposals that would enshrine collective bargaining in the constitution, raise the renewable energy mandate, provide collective bargaining for home health care workers, attempt to block a proposed bridge between Detroit and Windsor, and require a two-thirds vote of the state Legislature to raise state taxes.

Proponents of the renewable energy, or 25 by 25 proposal, paid for that question in the poll, while the rest of the questions were conducted for Inside Michigan Politics.

The sheer number of special interest groups involved, and the amount of money invested in each of these proposals (and by groups opposing each proposal) makes it difficult to find objective information concerning each of the proposals.

Michigan Forward needed 160,000 signatures to put the question to the state’s voters of whether to repeal Public Act 4 (Emergency Manager law). Brandon Jessup’s group delivered close to 250,000 signatures. Organized labor and their allies, no doubt galvanized by Republican efforts in Wisconsin to curb collective bargaining, came together to propose the “Protect Our Jobs” amendment to the Michigan Constitution. The Protect Our Jobs Coalition, comprised of the Michigan Democratic Party, Progress Michigan, Teamsters, Michigan Education Association and the Michigan UAW, among others, raised over $8 million dollars and collected the necessary 300,000+ signatures to put the question to voters of whether collective bargaining should be protected within Michigan’s Constitution.

In total, on November 6, 2012 Michigan voters will fill out a ballot that includes six such proposals.

Proposal 1: Emergency Manager

Background: Authorizes the Governor to appoint an Emergency Manager to make decision in financially distressed communities or school districts.

What it does: Gives non-elected gubernatorial appointees the power to change laws and contracts passed by locally elected officials that voters have chosen. Undermines democracy by preventing locally elected officials from taking any government action to serve residents.

Polling data: MRG showed 48 percent want to repeal the law and 45 percent want to keep it. EPIC-MRA reported 46 percent support a repeal and 42 percent want to keep the law in place.

Vote Yes to keep Public Act 4 in place

Vote No to repeal Public Act 4 (More info.: http://standup4democracy.com)

Proposal 2: Protect Working Families

Background: Constitutional amendment to establish employees’ right to join unions and bargain collectively with public or private employers regarding wages, hours and other terms of employment.

What it does: Collective bargaining levels the playing field and helps ensure good working conditions and a better quality of life for all Michiganders, whether in unions or not. Allows employees to come together with employers to negotiate a fair deal so CEOs aren’t the only ones benefitting from a company’s success.

Polling Data: The MRG poll found 48 percent support the proposal, while 42 percent are against it. The EPIC-MRA results were similar, showing 48 percent support and 43 percent against.

Vote Yes to amend the Michigan Constitution (More info.: http://protectourjobs.com)

Vote No to keep the Michigan Constitution from being amended (More info.: http://protectingmichigantaxpayers.com)

Proposal 3: Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs

Background: Requires utilities to obtain at least 25% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Limits consumer rate increases from renewables-related costs to no more than 1% per year; creates incentives to employ Michigan workers and equipment. Real question: Should energy policy be placed in the Michigan Constitution?

What it does: Reduces our state’s dependence on foreign oil and out-of-state energy. Ensures Michigan energy is clean, creating a healthier, safer environment for children. Encourages the production of energy, like wind and solar, here in Michigan, made by Michigan workers. If voters approve this measure, it will be the first time a specific energy requirement would be put into a state constitution.

Polling Data: MRG found 58 percent in support and 31 percent opposed, while EPIC-MRA showed 55 percent for and 34 percent against.

Vote Yes to amend the Michigan Constitution to require utilities to obtain at least 25% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025 (More info.: www.MiEnergyMiJobs.com)

Vote No to keep the Michigan Constitution from being amended (More info: www.michiganjobsandenergy.com)

Proposal 4: Keep Home Care a Safe Choice

Background: Establishes the Michigan Quality Home Care Council to register, background check and provide standards for home care providers.

Back-Background: In 2004, home health care workers receiving federal and state funds were designated public employees by an agreement between state and county officials. This allowed them to organize under Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act (PERA), and in 2005, home health care workers voted to recognize the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as its bargaining unit.

Just last year, PERA  was amended to exclude home health aides. Subsequently, SEIU sued and a federal judge issued a temporary injunction protecting the workers’ existing contract until its expiration in February 2013.

What it does: Ensures seniors and people with disabilities have an affordable, safe choice of living at home, rather than at more-expensive nursing homes. Links providers with patients, provides for extensive background checks and saves taxpayer dollars since home care is significantly less expensive to taxpayers than nursing homes.

What is REALLY does: Allows home health care workers to continue to be represented by SEIU.

Polling Data: MRG reported 59 percent in support and 31 percent opposed, while EPIC-MRA showed 55 percent for and 27 percent against.

Vote Yes to amend the Michigan Constitution (More info.: www.keephomecaresafe.org)

Vote No to keep the Michigan Constitution from being amended (More info.: www.handsoffourconstitution.com)

Proposal 5: Supermajority Vote

Background: Would amend the Michigan constitution to require a 2/3 majority vote of the legislature, or a statewide vote of the people at a November election to impose new or additional taxes on taxpayers, expand the base of taxation or increase tax rates.

Back-Background: Ambassador Bridge owner, Matty Maroun financed the Proposal 5 effort.

What it does: Gives a small minority of just 13 state senators the power to stop the closure of tax loopholes or increase taxes in an emergency, even if it was supported by the other 135 members of the legislature. Would lead to larger class sizes, closures of hospitals and decreased police and fire protection, while property taxes increase. Would cost jobs by lowering the state’s bond rating, driving up borrowing costs and increasing debt.

Polling Data: MRG polled and found with 64 percent of respondents in favor and 29 percent against. EPIC-MRA showed 53 percent in favor and 37 percent opposed.

Vote Yes to amend the Michigan Constitution (More info.: http://miprosperity.com/)

Vote No to keep the Michigan Constitution from being amended (More info.: http://defendmidemocracy.com/)

Proposal 6: New Bridge to Canada

Background: This proposal would require a public vote for any international bridge project not completed by the end of the year. It’s aimed at blocking construction of a new government-owned bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor.

Polling Data: MRG, whose president Tom Shields is the spokesman for proposal opponents, found that 52 percent of respondents support the proposal and 38 percent do not. EPIC-MRA showed 47 percent in favor and 44 percent opposed.

Vote Yes to amend the Michigan Constitution (More info.: www.thepeopleshoulddecide.com)

Vote No to keep the Michigan Constitution from being amended (More info.: http://buildthedricnow.com)

by P.D. Lesko

52nd District Representative Mark Ouimet and Governor Rick Snyder both let mainstream media assumptions that they were moderate Republicans go uncorrected. The last laugh, in retrospect, has been on all of the Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County independents and Democrats who endorsed, gave money to and voted for the two men. Ouimet went on to vote in lock-step with the Republican ideologues in Lansing as they raised taxes on the middle-class, socked it to oldsters by taxing pensions, and attacked public education by slashing funding—despite the sorry fact that 70 percent of the state’s 4th and 8th graders can’t read at level, according to data compiled by the Children’s Defense Fund. Last year Ouimet went along with his Republican murder of cronies as they cut state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks, and he also voted to impose absolute time limits for children and their parents seeking assistance from the state. This means tens of thousands of families with children whose parents are unable to work or who cannot find jobs are being barred from help.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau released in September 2012, poverty in Michigan has increased 66 percent since 2001. Michigan’s poverty rate continued to rise sharply through 2011, to 17.5 percent up from 16.8 percent just a year earlier, and well above the national average of fifteen percent. Almost 1 in 4 children in Michigan lives in poverty. Child poverty rose to 24.4 percent in 2011, up from 23.1 percent in 2010 and 14.2 percent level in 2001. Michigan is in the worst third of the nation for child poverty.

However, according to Representative Ouimet’s (pictured right) latest Legislative Update, “Two Years of Fiscal Responsibility” have helped give Michigan a big boost. The Legislative Update must have been prepared by some Whirling Dervishes in Ouimet’s employ, because the spin is stunning. Michigan has a “higher credit rating,” claims Ouimet (well, not exactly, but who’s counting?). He claims that Bloomberg research concluded Michigan’s economy is improving thanks to “the leaders of our state continue who work together to reduce spending and make necessary tax and government reforms.” Well, no. According to Bloomberg Business Week: ”Michigan’s economy is recovering from the recession at the second-fastest pace in the U.S., lifted by reviving carmakers.” Carmakers got a boost from President Obama and the Congress, not Governor Snyder, Representative Mark Ouimet or the state’s other Republican legislators and their billion dollar tax break for business.

Taking credit for the work of others is what politicos do, but it’s smarmy nonetheless.

The reality is ugly and doesn’t fit into the libretto penned by the state’s GOP leaders: In Michigan, income inequality continues to grow. The percentage of households making $150,000 or more increased by five percent over the decade, middle-income households declined. Low-income households making less than $35,000 a year increased by over 10 percent, confirming the downward spiral in the living standards of working class families. The largest increases were in the lowest income cohort, households with income under $15,000, according to an analysis by the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS), an advocacy group for low-income households.

All in all, Mark Ouimet has turned out to be about as moderate as Mitt Romney (whom Ouimet is endorsing in the 2012 presidential race). Snyder’s “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” pole dance and Voodoo Economics have not resulted in any significant improvement in the state’s childhood poverty rate. With 641,615 Michiganders on food stamps, our state has the third highest rate in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. census. More Michigan residents are on foodstamps than in 2010, when Ouimet and Snyder were elected.

In point of fact, Mark Ouimet’s main accomplishment in two years has been voting in lock-step with Lansing Republicans, and his sponsorship of a bill to allow the sale of beer at Michigan Stadium. Coupled with Ouimet’s academic degrees purchased from a diploma mill shut down by the FBI, according to reporting by the local news blog AnnArbor.com, and it’s no wonder Gretchen Driskell is challenging Ouimet to represent the 52nd District.

As it turns out, Driskell and Ouimet have more in common than Dem voters might imagine, or Driskell might like to have people know. Both of them donated to Rick Snyder in 2010. Driskell, the Democratic Mayor of Saline, sent along a donation to the RepubliNerd’s campaign, and Ouimet, as a Republican County Commissioner did the same. Both Ouimet and Driskell are up to their political necks in the local job creation boondoggle Ann Arbor SPARK. On her campaign web site, Driskell writes: “I served as chair of the Saline Economic Development Corporation and have been involved significantly with Ann Arbor SPARK. There, we helped develop initiatives designed to spur job growth — including incubators, business accelerator programs, micro-grants, and the talent portal.” Ann Arbor SPARK has skimmed close to $2.5 million in money from public schools in Ann Arbor, as well as from the city’s General Fund since 2009.

With both hands in the cookie jar that is the Ann Arbor SPARK model, including its diversion of money from public education, Driskell assures liberal voters: “Under the current Republican majority, K-12 education has been under constant attack. If we want to improve education, we need to stop cutting K-12 education and raiding the School Aid Fund to plug other holes in the state budget. We need to get ballooning class sizes under control so all our students get the attention they need and deserve. We should be putting the highest quality teachers at the front of the classroom and giving them every tool they need to deliver the best possible education to our kids, including a curriculum that encourages critical thinking and problem-solving skills.”

While Driskell does have the support of the state’s education unions (including a $5,000 donation from the Michigan Education Association) and Planned Parenthood of Michigan, she does not list the endorsement of a single current Washtenaw County Commissioner, or even a member of the Saline City Council she has headed for the past 14 years as Mayor of Saline. Democratic State Representative Jeff Irwin is endorsing Driskell and gave her a $100 donation. Irwin served on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners with Ouimet before both were elected to the State House in 2010.

Irwin recently told the Michigan Daily, “Mark Ouimet’s success in the past has always been predicated on his ability to get more moderate Republicans and even some Democrats to vote for him. Irwin added that Ouimet has campaigned as pro-choice and pro-education, but has voted against both ideals during his time in the House. He (Ouimet) likes to wear maize and blue and go to football games … but he’s willing to cut U of M (funding) by 15 percent.”

State Senator Rebekah Warren donated to Driskell’s campaign via a behind-the-scenes $500 check from Warren’s Envision Michigan PAC, but Warren has not endorsed Driskell against Republican Ouimet. Washtenaw County Commissioner Barbara Levin Bergman donated $200 to Driskell in July 2012. Bergman, who is retiring at the end of her present term, filched over $1,800 from county taxpayers for per diems to which she was not entitled, according to an audit, and has refused to pay back the funds. County Commissioner Leah Gunn, who is also retiring at the end of her present term, donated to Driskell, as well, without endorsing her candidacy. Not to be left out, Joan Lowenstein, a former Ann Arbor City Council member and Downtown Development Authority Board member who called Ward 5 residents “whiners,” and then went on to harangue Ann Arbor voters as “old, stingy and Republican” in a loopy essay published in The Ann in December 2011, gave Driskell’s campaign $100.

Lowenstein, Gunn and Bergman last teamed up to endorse and support Ward 1 Council candidate Eric Sturgis, whose campaign imploded thanks to his lies about his academic credentials, as well as behavior that included angry outbursts at public debates, and removal of his opponent’s campaign signs—captured in photos by the local news blog. Prior to that, the three women backed the losing campaigns of former Ward 2 Council member Stephen Rapundalo, and Ward 3 City Council candidate Ingrid Ault.

Driskell, like Ouimet, is behind a multi-million dollar bungled push for regional transit. She writes on her campaign website: “Likewise, transportation projects such as light rail, commuter rail, regional busing, and the other parts of our comprehensive transit plan come closer to becoming a reality every day….By thinking strategically and comprehensively about how we can utilize these resources in the most efficient way possible, we can offer our businesses and residents a host of options for moving their products and getting around. Implementing this strategy sends a clear signal — particularly to the young, talented, highly-educated workers and the knowledge-economy businesses that employ them — that Michigan is the hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.” Driskell is serving up a heaping plate of Demublican babble, and her platform on transportation should be readily recognizable as the Republican Party line in Lansing.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that her 2012 pro-education, pro-life, pro-rainbows, pro-unicorns and pro-regional-transport campaign platform is very similar to Ouimet’s in 2010. Whereas Driskell has the endorsement and support of unions, Ouimet has the endorsement and support of associations: business associations, builders and contractors associations, insurance associations and the NRA.  He even managed to land the 2011 Legislator of the Year award from the Michigan Townships Association.

If, as Representative Jeff Irwin suggests, Ouimet is a turncoat moderate Republican who campaigned as a pro-life, pro-education candidate only to have “voted against both ideals during his time in the House,” what should Democrats expect from Gretchen Driskell—a woman who supported the Republican candidate for governor in 2010, and who touts her support of the Ann Arbor SPARK “job creation” scheme, a taxpayer black hole that has earned the scorn of conservative political analysts at the Mackinac Center, as well as harsh criticism from newspapers such as the Lansing State Journal, and the Detroit Free Press?

Is Driskell a turncoat Democrat?

Some would argue that any sitting Democratic mayor who supports a Republican gubernatorial candidate over the Democratic candidate is worse than a turncoat. In some states, such disloyalty is punished by tossing the politico out of the party on her/his ear. The question, of course, is whether over the past 14 years in office, during which time she has cavorted with Ann Arbor’s Democrats-for-ALEC, Driskell sold her political soul. She wants to replace the Republican who has disappointed his independent and Democratic friends—friends who perhaps naively believed that he would, as a freshman legislator, stand up to the Republican majority and vote away his chances for re-election. Ouimet may have been caught buying his Master’s degree from a diploma mill, but he is no fool; the Michigan GOP rewarded him for his staunch loyalty with a redrawn district that protected his Republican base, and perhaps even expanded it a bit.

The race in the 52nd District boils down to a political conundrum: Voters must choose between a Republican who managed to convince naive Democrats and independents that he would be a moderate, and a classic Washtenaw County Demublican who wants to convince naive Democrats and independents that she is a progressive. The problem, of course, is that many who run as Democrats in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County belong to the party of Political Opportunism. With her support of Snyder in 2010, her enthusiasm for the SPARK boondoggle, and her subsequent campaign condemning Michigan’s Republican leadership, Driskell is skating on some very thin Democratic ice.

Officials from the Michigan GOP don’t expect her to unseat Ouimet. However, at least one Michigan political analyst in his comments to the local media said that Driskell’s race in the 52nd District was “winnable” by a Democrat and suggested she could, possibly, ride in on President Obama’s coat tails—that is, if local Democrats and independents come out and vote in the same numbers they did in 2008. Will they? That is, literally, a million dollar question. While both DNCC and RNC officials expect Obama to take Michigan, it’s by no means clear that voter turn-out will equal 2008 numbers.