Michigan House Dems have chosen their leadership and have made two VERY solid choices in my opinion. First, they picked Ann Arbor-area Representative Adam Zemke from the 55th House District to be the caucus Chair. As someone who has watched Adam in action, I think he’s going to bring very exciting energy and new ideas to the House Dems. He’s […]

“This package [of legislation] is a handout to criminals.” – Rep. Adam Zemke Gary Naeyaert is a “member of Team Jesus” and the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP is Betsy DeVos’s project to destroy public schools in Michigan to make way for the proliferation of for-profit charter schools that siphon tax dollars into the bank […]

“Sit, dog. Sit. Good legislator! Have a check.” NOTE: This post has been updated to clarify the changes that have been made with regard to collective bargaining contracts. In the dog training world, dogs are often trained using delicious treats. When a dog does what it’s told to do, it gets a treat as a reward. Then, over time, the […]

As we all know by now, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s crusade against marriage equality ran up a multimillion dollar bill for Michigan taxpayers. Schuette’s office was ordered to pay the court costs and attorney fees for the Michigan defendants in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges marriage equality U.S. Supreme Court case totalling $1.9 million. This is addition to the […]

In what can only be described as a dramatic day in Michigan politics, House legislators convened for over 14 hours yesterday to consider the matter of expelling philandering liars Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser from their institution. The first two rounds of votes failed to oust the two as Democrats held their position, many refusing to cast a vote, in […]

“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.” – Joe Biden Michigan Republicans put forth their proposed education budget yesterday and, as you would expect, it shows just how little the value education in our state. After slashing education funding for years, they are back this year with a paltry […]

Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer This week, as Michigan’s legislature comes back to work, Michigan Democrats are taking a proactive leadership role on two critical issues. First, Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer and House Rep. Gretchen Driskell (maybe we should call them “The Fighting Gretchens”?) announced that they will introduce legislation requiring companies who choose to deny women access to […]

Aye aye aye…

As I wrote last Friday, Republicans in the state House threw a bipartisan piece of legislation designed to help failing school districts back in the faces of Democrats who were trying to make improvements and ended up passing a bill that, once again, harms students and throws teachers to the curb.

Recall that, during the debate, Republicans acted like complete jackasses, absurdly blaming the teachers for the financial crises in places like Inkster and Buena Vista, calling them “hogs” and saying that “they should never try to get another job in education”. It was offensive to its core.

Well, there’s a bit more to this story and, unfortunately, Democrats played a major role in botching this up royally. Click through for details.

The tea party is NOT going to like this

This morning, the Michigan House Appropriations Committee voted to accept a grant from the federal government for $30,670,000 to set up a health insurance exchange in this state as part of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”.)

Details after the jump.

The Michigan Democratic Party’s center of gravity is in Washtenaw County

Yesterday, the Ann Arbor Dems held their monthly meeting and it featured a powerhouse line-up. In addition to Dr. John Callewaert, a University of Michigan professor who spoke for nearly 30 minutes on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in Michigan, the meeting attendees heard from Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives Congressman John Dingell, President of the Michigan State Board of Education John Austin, and local State House Representatives Jeff Irwin and Adam Zemke.

The highlight of the day, however, was appearances by both Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) Chair Mark Brewer and his opponent in the upcoming election for MDP Chair, Lon Johnson. The event was extremely well-run by Ann Arbor Dems chair Mike Henry and in the overflow crowd of around 250 people was nearly every elected official from the Ann Arbor area. It was, without question, the biggest political event in Washtenaw County since the election last November.

Details and lots of photos after the jump.

Zemke showing strong support in redistricted MI-55 Last November, I broke the news that Adam Zemke had announced his candidacy for Michigan’s 55th state House district. This district was recently reconfigured and is now strongly Democratic-leaning – it is considered to be an easy pick-up for Dems. Zemke has only one Democratic opponent at this point, Bob Davidow. This week, […]