After the Republican-led House Government Operations Committee passed a terrible substitute to S.B. 934 that only raise the minimum wage to an insulting $8.50/hour and strips out indexing the minimum wage to inflation, the full House passed a version (pdf) that is much closer to the original bill passed by the Senate this afternoon on a 76-34 vote. Shortly thereafter, […]

Bobby McKenzie, one of three Democratic candidates for the 11th Congressional District seat now held by Kerry Bentivolio, received the coveted endorsement of Dean of the House John Dingell this past week. McKenzie is a former counterterrorism officer for the U.S. Department of State and will face off against Dr. Anil Kumar and former progressive radio host Nancy Skinner in […]

I was speaking with a Democratic state legislator today and they raised an interesting point. If the House passes the bill to hike the state minimum wage that was passed by the Senate last week, unless both chambers give the bill “immediate effect”, it won’t become law until 90 days after the end of the current legislative session which ends […]

Hold the right people responsible and GET OUT THE VOTE! After my post yesterday, there has been a LOT of push back here at Eclectablog and on Facebook from people accusing Michigan Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer and Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, of “selling out” minimum wage workers. This is absolutely unfair and entirely untrue. Was this legislation […]

It’s been more than three years since Rick Snyder took the reins of power in Michigan and, despite having Republicans in charge of both chambers of the legislature along with all of the major administration posts, his favorability is still under 50% with 52% giving him failing grade. Among the data was a question asking how voters would rate the […]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is looking for Summer Fellows to work this summer to elect Democrats across the country. That’s especially true here in Michigan where the DCCC is supporting a number of our candidates like Pam Byrnes (MI-07) and Jerry Cannon (MI-01). Below is an announcement that explains things. The only way to defeat the Republicans is to […]

By now, you’ve likely heard about Netroots Nation and the fact that the largest annual assembly of progressive activists in the country is happening in Detroit this year. Yesterday, we learned that progressive hero Elizabeth Warren is going to be the keynote speaker, a major coup and a major draw for the event, for sure. There are a couple of […]

“Politics is all about power for them. Politics should always be about people for us.” Michigan Democrats took over the newly-renovated Cobo Hall in Detroit last night in a show of forceful solidarity unlike anything I’ve seen in the recent past. A sold out crowd of over 2,200 packed the venue, over 700 more than attended the event in 2012 […]

Although I was unable to attend the Senate Democrats’ hearing on expansion of the Education Achievement Authority earlier this week, I was allowed to submit written testimony. Since it allowed me to sum up my impressions based on nearly 20 interviews with former and current EAA teachers and an administrator, I am reprinting it here. April 22, 2014 Chris Savage […]

On Tuesday of this week Senate Democrats, led by Senators Bert Johnson and Hoon-Yung Hopgood, held a hearing about Governor Snyder’s failed experiment on Detroit students known as the Education Achievement Authority. They took testimony from Michigan State Board of Education Vice President Casandra E. Ulbrich and from EAA teachers Delbert Glaze, Jordan Smellie, Mechelle Seiglitz. They also heard from […]

MORE THAN HALF OF US NOW PAY HIGHER TAXES THANKS TO THE GOP AND YES I’M SHOUTING! A little over two years ago, I wrote a cautionary post titled “The tax timebomb that explodes in Michigan in 2012 is MUCH worse than you thought”. In it, I explained how the Republican budget passed in the first year after the 2010 […]