A different kind of candidate Former US Rep. Patrick Murphy from Pennsylvania today endorsed Trevor Thomas for Congress in Michigan’s Third Congressional District. Murphy was the first Iraq War veteran to be elected to Congress and was the author of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. Trevor Thomas is a passionate public servant who will stand up […]

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

This is a collage of photographs I took during the Vaginas Take Back the Capitol event last week.

Click on “Read Full Story” below to see an interactive image of the poster where you can zoom in on the image to see the signs better or download the large file to print.

With friends like these… Tucked inside the Michigan Democratic Party platform is the following statement: We believe that women should have access to reproductive medical services and professional advice when they need it. We pledge our support for reproductive freedom, giving a woman the right to make her own choices in this matter. But we respect the individual conscience of […]

Over-achievers or show-offs? How about rock stars?! In a stunning display of the power of labor unions in Michigan, supporters of a ballot proposal to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state constitution today turned in over twice as many signatures as they needed to but the measure on the November ballot. The group, Protect Our Jobs, needed less than […]

This isn’t any better…

There’s a lot of laughing and giggling and guffawing bout the utter failure of Congressman Thad McCotter. Since it was discovered that almost 90% of the signatures he turned in to get on the August primary ballot were invalid, he has now dropped out of the race and won’t be running a write-in campaign.

Unfortunately, the guy who did make the ballot is as bad or worse than McCotter.

Run away! Run away! My piece last week titled “Is Democrat Steve Pestka buying Facebook “Likes” for his MI-03 campaign page?” ended up making a pretty big splash. It got picked up by Mario Aguilar at Gizmodo and then John Aravosis at AMERICAblog. Both pieces took Pestka to task for what seems to clearly be a purchase of Facebook likes […]

Are there really that many tea partiers out there to pander to??? After the embarrassment of his “Yellow Girl” video ad and numerous other faux pas over the years, Senate candidate Pete Hoestra dialed the “Whack-a-Doo” machine up to eleven recently by suggesting that there a department in Washington, D.C. with the sole purpose of investigating the birth certificates of […]

Those are some interesting demographics you have there, sir… A few weeks ago, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer sent a letter to the two Democratic candidates running for the seat in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, Steve Pestka and Trevor Thomas. In the letter (pdf), he asked them to sign a pledge to run a “clean and fair” primary campaign. […]

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 […]

Thank gods someone is protecting us from errant barber poles I actually thought this was a joke when I read it this morning: As the historic barber pole has become an increasingly popular symbol, one lawmaker wants to make sure its use isn’t being abused. In Michigan and other states, lawmakers want to make sure the rotating red, white and […]