A true advocate for those with the greatest need

When I arrived at the campaign office of State Supreme Court candidate Bridget Mary McCormack just south of Dexter, I found her Skyping into a house party meeting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She had just finished making her pitch to a room full of nearly two dozen potential supporters, who could be seen on the screen of her laptop, and was taking questions. When you’re running a statewide campaign for a position most people know little about and often ignore on the ballot, it’s this type of unconventional approach that could make the difference between who wins and loses the race for one of the three open spots on the Court. It’s also completely in line with the type of campaign that McCormack is running.

Click through for my interview with this terrific candidate and to find out more about her out of the ordinary campaign.

Hmmm…

UPDATED: I was unaware that a “No” vote on the repeal of Public Act 4 means that the law will NOT go back into effect. “No” is the desirable vote. I have edited accordingly. My apology for the error.

In what will be a huge disappointment to many progressives across Michigan, Democrats chose not to support a key ballot initiative at their convention this weekend. They will not be supporting the initiative to require 25% of our energy to be from renewable sources by 2025 (Proposal 3) but will be supporting the repeal of Public Act 4.

Details after the jump.

Get on the Bus!

In March of this year, Mark Bernstein, candidate for regent of the University of Michigan, was endorsed by the Michigan Democratic Party at their 2012 Endorsement Convention. I have met and talked at length with Mark and I’m thrilled that he’s our candidate this year. He’s a solid progressive with a big heart and a strong interest in helping keep college costs down for Michigan students.

Mark’s team recently purchased a 20-year old school bus from the South Redford Public School District, painted it up with his campaign logo & graphics and set out on a statewide “Make College Affordable Tour”. After the jump is a video his team put together about the process and about Mark’s tour, an Eclectablog exclusive!

Oh, how subtle…

Following up on a story I wrote about yesterday (“‘Democrat’ Roy Schmidt pulls ultimate dick move, jumps to GOP too late for another Dem to run”), we now learn there is much more to this story and House Speaker Jase Bolger is implicated.

There are dick moves and then there are DICK MOVES. This is the latter. NOTE: this post has been updated HERE. It’s not often you see an elected official act like this much of an asshole and to do it such a dickish and public way. Ten minutes before the filing deadline to run for the Michigan House of Representatives […]

Democracy: use it or lose it

In a perfect confluence of democratic goings-on, I hereby dub May 5th, 2012 Democracy Day in Michigan. Two key events are happening that day. First, from 9 a.m. until noon, Democrats across the state will caucus to choose Barack Obama as their candidate for President of the United States.

Then, starting at 2 p.m., there will be a rally on the grounds of the State Capitol to kick-off the second attempt to gather enough signatures to put the recall on Governor Rick Snyder on the November ballot. If you can’t make it to the rally, it will be live-streamed here at Eclectablog.

[Details about both events after the jump.]

Are you ready for some caucus? Then get your caucus on! This Saturday, from 9 a.m. until noon, Michigan Democrats will hold caucuses around the state to choose Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for president in 2012. While this may seem like a formality, there’s a bit more to it than that so you should plan to attend the […]

We’ve sunk THIS low???

The Michigan Democratic Party has been busy recruiting a candidate to run against Tim Walberg in the 7th District where I live. However, as I reported back in March and others have reported since then, they aren’t recruiting Democrats, they are recruiting Joe Schwarz. A Republican.

I’m not kidding.

Here a pol, there a pol, everywhere a pol pol(itician) I’m at the 2012 Michigan Democratic Party Endorsement Convention at the Cobo Center in Detroit where the MDP will choose a host of candidates to appear on the 2012 ballot. Here are some scenes from the event. The vendors area doing a brisk business: Congressman Gary Peters: for the newly-drawn […]

Who thought THAT was a good idea? [NOTE: I have posted updates to this ongoing story HERE.] “Twitter Pete” Hoekstra, the man who wasn’t even smart enough to buy his own domain during his run for Governor of Michigan, ran an ad during this year’s Super Bowl that was so blatantly racist and offensive to Asians that even GOP consultants […]

Fighting back against Republican dirty tricks In early January, I broke the news that Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer would be asking the state committee to bypass enforcing rules against Democrats voting in both the Democratic caucus and in the primary. I have spoken with Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer to ensure that this information is correct. He told […]