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Supreme Court 
Sat Dec 02, 2006 at 16:19:25 PM EST
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(Nicely researched. - promoted by lpackard)
"But it's not even 2007 yet!" Well, there's nothing wrong with thinking ahead. Here are the incumbents in statewide offices whose terms end in 2008.
US SENATE:
Carl Levin (D) – Elected in 1978, last re-elected in 2002; Chairman-elect of the US Senate Armed Services Committee; Foreign-relations and defense policy genius; named one of "America's 10 Best Senators" by TIME Magazine; longest-serving US Senator in Michigan history; brother of Congressman Sander Levin; all-around amazing guy
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION:
John C. Austin (D) – Elected in 2000; Senior fellow with the Brookings Institution; ran for Dem nomination for Secretary of State in 2002; possible rising star in our party?
Kathleen Strauss (D) – Elected in 1992, re-elected in 2000; President of the Board of Education since 2001; involved in numerous boards and groups
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REGENTS:
Laurence B. Deitch (D) – Elected in 1992, re-elected in 2000; attorney; former MDP treasurer
Rebecca McGowan (D) – formerly worked in offices of Senators Adlai Stevenson and Frank Church; senior staffer for VP Mondale and deputy director of his 1984 campaign
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES:
Dorothy V. Gonzales (D) – Elected in 1992, re-elected in 2000; former state House research analyst; former education policy advisor under Governor Blanchard
G. Scott Romney (R) – Appointed in August 2000, re-elected three months later; Son of former Governor George Romney; brother of Massachusetts Governor and possible 2008 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY GOVERNORS:
Paul Massaron (D) – Elected in 2000; Hyper-active with the UAW and AFL-CIO, including serving as a legislative director, Region 1-B International rep., and top aide to the UAW President
Jacqueline Washington (D) – Elected in 2000; Chairwoman of the Board of Governors; past president of Planned Parenthood of SE Michigan; Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame inductee
SUPREME COURT (officially non-partisan):
Clifford Taylor (R) – Appointed in 1997, elected to partial term in 1998, elected to full term in 2000; Chief Justice since 2005
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Tue Nov 07, 2006 at 07:51:00 AM EST
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Don't forget to vote for Supreme Court! It's non partisan, so voting straight ticket won't include Beckering and Cavanagh. Check out the MichLib Supreme Court page here.
I had a chance to hear Jane Beckering speak at the convention and I was very impressed. I know it always a long shot to knock off an incumbent on the bench (they have titles on the ballot like "Justice of the Supreme Court" or something) but I was surprised by her passion and energy.
Michael Cavanagh you may know, he's been around since the early eighties, and has served with honor. This will be his last term unless mandatory requirement ages are changed.
Voting for supreme court candidates is very important. The current court, mostly appointed by Engler, is off their rocker. You can read more about one of their nutso decisions here.
Long story short, make three bubbles. Beckering, Cavanagh and the straight democratic ticket.
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Sun Aug 27, 2006 at 14:20:23 PM EDT
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Nominated by the Republican State Convention, 8/27/06
No campaign website found
Biography:
Justice Maura Corrigan was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1998 and served two terms as Chief Justice from 2001-2004.
She graduated from Marygrove College in 1969 and from the University of Detroit Law School in 1973. She next worked as a law clerk to Michigan Court of Appeals Judge John Gillis and as a Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor. In 1979, she became an Assistant United States Attorney, serving as Chief of Appeals and later Chief Assistant United States Attorney. In 1989, Justice Corrigan became a partner at Plunkett & Cooney, a venerable Detroit law firm. In 1992, Governor John Engler appointed her to the Michigan Court of Appeals. She was twice elected to that court and was appointed as its Chief Judge from 1997-1998 until her election to the Supreme Court.
(More below the fold...)
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Sun Aug 27, 2006 at 13:07:41 PM EDT
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Nominated by the Democratic State Comvention, 8/27/06
Campaign Website
Official Michigan Supreme Court biography.
Biography:
Justice Cavanagh received a bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit in 1962 and his law degree from the University of Detroit Law School in 1966. He began his career as a law clerk for the Michigan Court of Appeals. In 1967, Justice Cavanagh was hired as an assistant city attorney for the City of Lansing and thereafter was appointed as Lansing City Attorney, serving until 1969. He then became a partner in the Lansing law firm of Farhat, Burns and Story, P.C. In 1971, he was elected judge of the 54-A District Court. Justice Cavanagh was then elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals, where he served from 1975-1982. At that time, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Justice Cavanagh was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1982 and was re-elected in 1990 and 1998. He served as Chief Justice from 1991-95. Justice Cavanagh's current term expires January 1, 2007.
The son of a factory worker and a teacher who moved to Detroit from Canada, Justice Cavanagh worked on Great Lakes freighters during the summers to help pay his tuition at the University of Detroit. During his years in law school, he was employed as an insurance claims adjuster and also worked for the Wayne County Friend of the Court as an investigator.
(More below the fold...)
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Tue Aug 01, 2006 at 19:03:46 PM EDT
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Looks like Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment to Republicans - "thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican" - has been tossed out the window - or at least in Michigan. Last week, it was a very public clash between Republican House Speaker Craig DeRoche and Republican Attorney General Mike Cox. Today it's an all out brawl between the Honorable Elizabeth Weaver and the other Republicans of the Michigan Supreme Court. The latest round arises from the court's recent reprimand of Geoff Fieger. From the AP:
Justice Elizabeth Weaver wrote a scathing dissent charging that four justices — all fellow Republicans — showed bias and prejudice against Fieger by not disqualifying themselves from the case.
That didn't please Chief Justice Clifford Taylor, who wrote in a strongly worded response that, "with her dissent, Justice Weaver completes a transformation begun five years ago, when all six of her colleagues voted not to renew her tenure as Chief Justice of this Court."
"This transformation is based neither on principle nor on 'independent' views, but is rooted in personal resentment," he added in an opinion joined by Justices Maura Corrigan, Stephen Markman and Robert Young Jr. (emphasis added)
DANG! Why is Justice Cliff so pissed?
Weaver in turn characterized the majority's opinion as misleading, inaccurate, irrational and irrelevant. She argued they should recuse themselves and cited statements about Fieger from their campaigns for the high court, including a fundraising letter mailed by Corrigan's campaign earlier this year.
Weaver said Corrigan adopted statements from former Republican Gov. John Engler that "we cannot lower our guard should the Fiegers of the trial bar raise and spend large amounts of money in hopes of altering the election by an 11th-hour sneak attack." (emphasis added)
My, my, my...
And then there's U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg's (R-Bloomfield Twp.) new gay-hatin' attack ads against Republican challenger and former state Rep. Pan Godchaux. Or there's the super-heated assault on U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-Battle Creek) by former state Rep. Tim Walberg (Wingut-Tipton). I see someone - probably not a liberal - recently took it upon themselves to scrawl the word "FAG" on one of Schwarz's signs at his campaign office.
Somebody go consult the oracle. Could this be the beginning of the big Michigan Republican implosion that we've all been waiting for? If so, I'm going to pour myself a cocktail. If not...well...I'm going to go pour myself a cocktail.
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Thu Jun 22, 2006 at 14:55:27 PM EDT
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The Republican-controlled Michigan Supreme Court has come up with some dumb rulings over the years, but People v. Derror may be one of the dumbest - and it's certainly one of the most disturbing.
Under this insane 4-3 decision (authored by Englerite Justice Maura Corrigan - who is up for re-election this year) anyone who has ANY trace of pot whatsoever in their system - no matter how small - can no longer legally operate a motor vehicle.
No, I'm not just talking about high people driving. This applies days, weeks, months...or even YEARS after the individual in question last toked up. It applies even if the hapless individual happened to inhale some weed smoke SECONDHAND!!!
None of this has anything whatsoever to do with how well someone can operate a car. It's simply carte blanche for "the man" to pry into the private lives of random citizens. Really, I'm not kidding. This is their ruling - signed onto by fellow Englerites Justices Markman, Taylor, and Young (oh my!). Party of individual rights, my foot!
The dissent, authored by Justice Michael Cavanagh and signed by fellow Democrat Marilyn Kelly and - to her credit - Republican Justice Elizabeth Weaver hits it right on the head:
Plainly, there is no rational reason to charge a person who passively inhaled marijuana smoke at a rock concert a month ago and who now decides to drive to work. There is no rational reason to charge a person who inhaled marijuana two weeks ago and who now decides to drive to the store to pick up a gallon of milk. While I certainly agree with the Legislature’s position that a person should be punished for driving while under the influence of a controlled substance because of the potential for tragic outcomes, the majority’s interpretation of the statute is arbitrary and wholly unrelated in a rational way to the objective of the statute. To say that driving while a person’s system contains any amount of a substance that has no pharmacological effect is a crime—given that under the most conservative
estimates offered by the prosecution, the current scientific testing can find evidence of the substance for at least four weeks—is not permissible under the Constitution.
Justice Cavanagh is up for re-election this year. If you believe the Fifth Amendment of Constitution of the United States of America has real meaning, consider lending Justice Cavanagh your support (anyone know if he has a campaign website yet?). Similarly, consider supporting whoever it is who winds up running AGAINST Maura Corrigan, who is also up for re-election and authored this vile decision.
What was that about activist judges?
For further information:
Read the actual Supreme Court Opinion here (rational thought [Cavanagh's dissent] begins on page 27).
Coverage by Michigan's best newspaper, the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
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Tue Jan 24, 2006 at 11:41:06 AM EST
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Nice to know we don't need to worry about this seat:
Justice Michael Cavanagh said Tuesday he will seek a fourth term on the Michigan Supreme Court.
Cavanagh, 65, first won election in 1982 and is the longest-serving member of the current court. He previously sat on the state Court of Appeals and a Lansing district court.
"I am proud to have served the people of Michigan for the past 34 years," he said in a telephone call. "I believe my history of public service both at the state and local levels of government has helped me to forge a solid, realistic understanding of the issues that greatly impact the lives of the citizens of our state."
Republican Justice Maura Corrigan will (presumably) be the other Supreme Court justice up for re-election this year.
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Fri Dec 30, 2005 at 10:52:14 AM EST
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(From the diaries - promoted by matt)
The editorial page of the Lansing State Journal smacks down the weak defense mounted by Attorney General Mike Cox (R-Livonia) against charges of cronyism and corruption in his office first brought to light here at Michigan Liberal. According to the LSJ, Cox's response to this unethical conduct is not going to win very many converts:
His best course is to stop explaining and start untangling this ethical knot. The LSJ then summarizes the problem with Cox hiring the wife of one Michigan Supreme Court Justice and giving a no-bid contract to another:
Recent news reports highlighted Cox's employment of the wives of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman and Chief Justice Clifford Taylor. Critics, including us, argued, at the least, these arrangements create an appearance of a conflict of interest.
Are cases determined on merits, or do personal financial relationships have an effect? Cox's response, which doesn't hold water with the LSJ, is the childish--they did it too, so it's OK for me to do it:
Last week, Cox responded to that criticism, by arguing that there are even more such arrangements in the Attorney General's Office. The wife of a Court of Appeals judge and the wife of an Ingham Circuit Court judge were hired by longtime Attorney General Frank Kelley, Cox noted.
It isn't progress for Michigan to claim that because others do it, something is right.
But Cox is no Frank Kelley and the situations are not the same. Cox, unlike Kelley, has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of the justices whose spouses he employs.
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Tue Nov 15, 2005 at 09:37:44 AM EST
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On Sunday, Demwave posted the following comment (which I quickly frontpaged):
Question for the press: On whose behalf was Mike Cox's 5200 Club laundering that $34,000.000?
Also, has the media looked at Cox's political patronage hiring since he became Attorney General?
If they did, they'd find this story gets even more interesting as earlier this year Cox hired Stephen Markman's wife, Kathleen Markman, as an employee of his Office of Attorney General.
And Lucille Taylor, the wife of Supreme Court Chief Justice Cliff Taylor also got a no-bid contract to do work for Cox.
That's right, the spouses of 2 Michigan Supreme Court Justices are on Cox's payroll.
Could it be Cox's insurance policy should his legal problems get even more serious?
Today, we have this from the Detroit News:
Cox hires justices' wives for staff
Conflict-of-interest questions surface as Gorcyca decides on alleged Fieger extortion.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has hired the wives of two Michigan Supreme Court justices, raising questions about whether the state's top law enforcement officer and the state's highest court appear sufficiently independent.
About a month ago, Cox hired Kathleen Markman, whose husband, Justice Stephen Markman, received $34,000 in campaign contributions last year from a political action committee controlled by Cox.
And in a no-bid contract in May 2004, Cox hired Lucille Taylor, wife of Chief Justice Clifford Taylor.
-snip-
Christopher Fairman, an expert on legal ethics at Ohio State University, said Cox's hires probably break no rules but may not sit well with the public.
"Hiring a spouse wouldn't necessarily be an ethics problem, but it doesn't pass the sniff test," Fairman said. "It may leave the impression of the appearance of impropriety. ... It reeks politics, there's no doubt about that."
Of course it's hard to say for sure if Michlib was really the impetus behind the DN story. I will, however, point out that according to the sitemeter, someone from Detroit Newspapers was cruising the site late yesterday afternoon. ;)
Good tip, Demwave!
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Sat Nov 12, 2005 at 07:26:35 AM EST
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...Mike Cox and Geoff Fieger weave. So, the latest revelation I read this morning is that Cox's PAC, the 5200 Club, helped finance the judge targeted by Fieger.
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Cox contributed $34,000 from a political committee he runs to the 2004 campaign of Stephen Markman.
Hmm...Cox didn't have any conflict of interest or maybe a bone to pick with Fieger over Fieger's attack of Markman, right?
I mean...he was just investigating what he saw as an illegality, right? He wasn't AT ALL upset with the fact that Fieger was attacking someone he supported.
This is just going to get more and more messy as we find out more, isn't it?
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