Putting the torch to Andy Dillon's takeover plans

by: Progress Michigan

Fri Aug 06, 2010 at 16:13:02 PM EDT

Political  pundits have been burning up the air waves and nets this week analyzing  Tuesday's primary election results with Rick Snyder's takedown if not  takeover on the Republican side getting lots of attention.  

Much  less is being said about progressives and labor torching Andy Dillon's  plans to capture the Democratic Party for Big Business and  conservatives.  Dillon's grand political plans are in ashes and he is  the guy holding the match that lit the fire.

Dillon, the former  Republican, had declared war on mainstream Democrats in a thousand  different ways as Speaker.   It was a battle started by Dillon that  divided Democrats and gave Republicans control of the political message.   

Progressive policies around consumer protection, energy,  expanding freedoms, corporate accountability and other issues were  smothered by Dillon's right-leaning politics and personal ambitions.    His spectacularly goofy strategy of letting Senate Republicans define  the debate around the budget not only divided his caucus it left them  without any real political strategy on taxes and government spending.   Dillon's failure to lead House Democrats with an aggressive, populist  agenda for change now endangers their majority--a majority that enabled  Dillon to become Speaker and for which he did nothing to create.  

There  are some who complained that Tuesday's Democratic primary election was  just about Dillon wanting to "shake things up" within the Democratic  party and Big Labor fighting to keep the status quo power arrangement.   But it was never all about--or even mostly about--the Democratic party,  labor or power for the sake of power.  It was a fight over values and  whether progressives would continue to have an important voice in  developing policies shaping the future of Michigan.  

Conservatives  and big corporations already have a Grand Old Party.   Dillon wanted to  give them another one.  That was unacceptable to progressives who work  on health care, environmental, family planning, equality and other  policy issues.   And it would be disastrous for voters who want real  choices come Election Day.  

To be sure, Dillon had some support  from mainstream, more progressive Democrats.  State Sen. Gilda Jacobs  threw an 11th-hour Hail Mary pass defending Dillon's pro-life position  on abortion, claiming against all evidence to the contrary that he was  no threat to pro-choice  voters and supporters of stem cell research.  It was an embarrassing  display for Jacobs but in the end her efforts were to no avail.

Mainstream  Democrats wisely decided that Andy Dillon did not represent their  values and gave Virg Bernero an opportunity to lead them in November.

Labor  gets the lion's share of credit for helping Bernero win the Democratic  nomination for governor, pumping money and people power into a race  where both candidates were relative unknowns.   It made a huge  difference.

But Bernero's progressive support was universal.   Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Lone  Tree Council, Clean Water Acton, Equality Michigan Activists, Justice  Caucus, NOW--and others--united behind Bernero and against Dillon.

Planned  Parenthood sent out 300,000 pieces of mail to Democratic primary voters  letting them know the truth about Dillon's conservative record on  abortion, family planning and stem cell research.  Sierra Club made  thousands of calls and sent mail debunking Dillon's claims about  championing clean energy legislation.  Hundreds of thousands of email  messages and mailings were sent by Clean Water Action and others.

Meanwhile,  Dillon's corporate allies operated on both sides of the primary, giving  money to Republican candidates as well as Dillon in hopes of gaining  even more political control than they already have in Lansing.  

Progressives  still play on an uneven political field when it comes to money and  politics.   But the threat that Dillon posed of conservatives and big  corporations capturing complete control of both political parties in  Michigan has ended.  For now.

As Joe Biden would say, "That a big f__g deal."