Poorly armed and somewhat dangerous: Tea Party candidates in the 2010 Michigan primary

by: pbratt

Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 15:21:32 PM EDT

Since early 2009, the Tea Party movement has gained an enormous amount of media attention. While claiming to be a non-partisan movement, the Tea Party is remarkably consistent with some of the core constituencies at the heart of Republican Party since the late 1960s. In particular, the themes commonly evoked by Tea Party participants (economic libertarianism, fervent individualism, and deep distrust of any governmental intervention) largely mirror the platform of Republican Representative Ron Paul's 2008 candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination. Indeed, many organizers of Paul's campaign and leaders in the Young American for Freedom (YAF) were behind many of the early Tea Party events in 2009.

The rise of the Tea Party movement represents in part a return of many conservative libertarians to the GOP. The candidacy of Barry Goldwater in 1964 did much to bring libertarians into the Republican Party, were they largely remained for following four decades. During his second term, George W. Bush was responsible for driving some libertarians out, as many became extremely disenchanted with the Republican Party's focus on social issues and increased governmental expansion. While not abandoning the Republican Party entirely, a sizable percentage of libertarians voted from Democratic candidates in 2006 and 2008 for reasons similar to those voiced in blogger Markos Moulitsas's 2006 Cato Unbound article.

Meet the 2010 State House and Senate Michigan Tea Party Candidates

by: pbratt

Tue Jul 27, 2010 at 11:54:43 AM EDT

State Senate
District 7: Shelley Niles
District 12: John Young
District 13: Thomas Murdock
District 15: Heather Sartorius
District 26: Andrew Nicholls
District 36: Frantt Whitehall

State House
District 1: Jameson Canto
District 26: Susan Quashat
District 43: Matthew Quinn
District 51: William Guethner
District 64: Sara Summerfelt
District 65: Christopher Dickinson
District 107: Tony Matthews
District 108: David Polzin

Stay tuned for more candidates

Where Do the Dollars Go? The 2010 Edition

by: pbratt

Wed Oct 28, 2009 at 21:52:22 PM EDT

In the 2008 cycle the Michigan Democratic Party emerged victorious for the second straight election, picking up nine seats to bring their seat total to 67 and helping President Barack Obama win the state in a landslide. However the 2010 cycle appears to be challenging for the party; defend its hold on the executive branch and the lower legislative chamber, while picking up the upper chamber, a victory that has eluded the party since 1984.

To better determine which seats in both the House and Senate will likely be targeted by each party, I've replicated research I did in the last election cycle on the funding that the MDP and the MRP gives to various candidates in the State House. I used Michigan Campaign Finance Network reports for 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 to see on what races each party put their money. Before analyzing the data I suspected that both parties would protect incumbents first, and then spend money on flipping open seats. I suspected that independent expenditures (from both parties) would also follow this logic. Finally, candidates that raised little money on their own would not receive any financial support from the state parties. I listed any race where there was an investment of over $15,000 from either party, and whether the seat was open or whether a party's incumbent was defending the seat.  

MI Senate: Sandbox Rules

by: JPowers155

Wed Oct 03, 2007 at 16:31:20 PM EDT

Today's Senate session was a chance for the Senators to recap the preceding days (weeks, months) of budget inaction followed by the marathon final sessions that gave us a modest income tax increase and a gerrymandered sales tax hike.  (Next time when selecting a job, go with one that has a large lobby in Lansing like golf course management.)

As MichLib first reported during a marathon session early Monday morning,  Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop suspended the rules of the Senate to prevent anyone from recording the votes of individual Senators during the final votes on HB5194 and HB5198.  Specifically, a photographer from the Senate Democratic Communications office was barred from taking a picture of the tally board.  

What's the issue?  There is a directive from the Secretary of the Senate (not an elected official) that prevents anyone from taking pictures of the vote board.  There is NOT a similar Senate rule.  What rule does apply to this situation?  The Open Meetings Act (Sect. 15.263, Sub. Sec. 3.(1)) states:

Sec. 3. (1) All meetings of a public body shall be open to the public and shall be held in a place available to the general public. All persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting except as otherwise provided in this act. The right of a person to attend a meeting of a public body includes the right to tape-record, to videotape, to broadcast live on radio, and to telecast live on television the proceedings of a public body at a public meeting. The exercise of this right shall not be dependent upon the prior approval of the public body. However, a public body may establish reasonable rules and regulations in order to minimize the possibility of disrupting the meeting.

So the Senate Democratic Communications staff did nothing wrong according to both Senate rules and the Open Meetings Act.  Funny how the rules seem very different depending upon which side of the aisle you are reading the Sandbox Rule Book.

The Senate Sandbox (litter box?) was awash in pithy statements intended to score digs at one another but mostly for the 6 o'clock news. 

The Good Sandbox Citizen Award

• Not only did Senator Mark Schauer defend the Communications photographer, but he brought home the point that the Senate Republicans are now trying to hide their voting record for their constituents.  

The Sandbox Sand Thrower Award

• The worst offender in today's grudge match was Senator Alan Sanborn who stood up and called the Governor of the State of Michigan "Hurricane Jenny", implying that somehow Governor Granholm was akin to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.  For this character defamation, I sentence Senator Sanborn to NO RECESS for a month.  Now sit in your corner and stop picking your nose!

The "He Should Speak More Often"

• The young Senator from the 5th, Tupac Hunter rose up in defense of our Governor, saying to Senator Sanborn that his character assassination of her was:

Dastardly.  Disingenuous.  Pathetic.

• But was he done?  Oh no!  Senator Hunter had one final parting comment:

Why don't we get down to business people? Let's take care of business and stop crying about what we did last week.

It looks like the sand is going to keep getting thrown in the Senate Sandbox.  Maybe we need a new set of Rules or even better, a new set of Players.

MI Senate: Live Blogging Countdown to Shutdown

by: JPowers155

Thu Sep 27, 2007 at 19:10:32 PM EDT

12:49 a.m. The senate is in recess till 1pm today.

12:05 a.m. The senate came back, just to recess again at the call of the chair.

11:48 p.m. They just adjourned, coming back at 12:01am. Now my Senate TV is playing groovy music. I feel like I'm in an elevator.

11:03 p.m. They came back, only to recess at the call of the chair.  

8:52 p.m. Senate now in recess till 11pm. 

7:55 p.m.  Still at recess.  Bishop's hogging the monkey bars.  Cassis is taking lunch money from poor kids.

The Senate is currently in recess.  Pull up Senate TV to watch.  When they're back, we'll be back.