RMGN Article II (Elections)

by: William Allen Simpson

Sat Jul 19, 2008 at 04:12:16 AM EDT

The RMGN site finally appears to have an electronic version of the petition language.  The petition separately lists the changes, followed by "Provisions of existing constitution altered or abrogated by proposal, if adopted".

This posting attempts to show the changes to Article II (Elections) by a literal difference of the two parts.  Note that by listing sections in the latter part, but not in the former part, this removes the latter language by implication.

While I agree with some of the proposed changes, the poorly drafted language makes the proposal unpalatable, and may have accidentally abrogated sections that should not have been removed.

Other problems should be detailed in the comments.

Memo to the RMGN Proposal Backers

by: rich

Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 11:20:26 AM EDT

If you want to reform government, it's best if you're not seen as being biased towards one political party at the expense of another. Reform always ought to serve the interests of the state's citizens, not one political party.

Having a PowerPoint presentation with the title, "Government Reform Proposal: Changing the rules of politics in Michigan to help Democrats" is not the way to seem unbiased. It tends to undercut the proposal's credibility, no matter how sound some portions of the ballot proposal might be (cutting legislative pay), and tends to expose the unsound ones more blatantly so (cutting the number of legislators).

It also doesn't help that so many who were backing this proposal have remained hidden until recently. It was MIRS that reported this:

"It's called shared sacrifice. It's a very sound principle. That's what's going to pull us out of the economic doldrums in Michigan."

-- AFL-CIO President Mark GAFFNEY on why unions are financially supporting the Reform Michigan Government Now ballot proposal, which cuts the pay for public officials in the Legislature, executive branch and judiciary.

Funny, I thought this was suposed to be about reforming our state government. I'm not sure how no-reason absentee voting or cutting the number of legislators is going to get us out of the economic doldrums. Companies making products people will buy is what will get us out of the economic doldrums.

Massive election law change on ballot?

by: William Allen Simpson

Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 13:12:34 PM EDT

Dawson Bell at the Freep is reporting that the so-called "Reform Michigan Government Now" proposal could be on the ballot in November. Anuzis has an editorial against it.

Grebner posted about this at the outset, but didn't think they'd get enough signatures quickly. They must have had scads of money to be done in only a few weeks!

Who's afraid of the big, bad Dems?

by: JWinston70

Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 00:23:11 AM EDT

Republicans constantly capitalize on this 'voter apathy' of the Democratic Base.  This is how they manage to slip in to office in the first place.  However; presidential elections are quite another thing.  Dems are far more likely to get off of their asses to vote in presidential or even gubernatorial elections.  Ironically, both of these elections are held in even years. 

Well the Rovian Republican strategists in Lansing have figured this out for themselves.  A group of West Michigan local boys (Dave Hildebrand - Lowell, Dave Agema - Grandville, and Tom Pearce - Rockford) and other Conservative hacks have co-sponsored and introduced House Joint Resolution U which seeks to play to the Democrats 'voter apathy' weakness.