Let’s take a breath here for a minute, shall we? You can’t read an article or blog post about the race to fill departing Senator Carl Levin’s seat without hearing how Gary Peters is the leading contender, almost as if the seat is his if he wants it. While Peters is, without question, a great candidate and certainly someone to […]

It’s an EMERGENCY!

Congressmen Gary Peters and John Conyers have asked the Govenment Accountability Office to look into the efficacy of the Emergency Financial Manager Law in Michigan as well as whether or not it has resulted in any conflicts of interest or other improprieties as the law has been enforced.

Much more including their letter after the jump.

Double digit leads must be very helpful when you’re deciding if you’ll run

Congressman Gary Peters from Michigan’s 14th Congressional District leads his nearest opponent in the race to replace Senator Carl Levin when he retires in 2014 by a factor of two in a recent poll conducted by Main Street Strategies. Of the four leading candidates, Peters has a very clear early lead with 24.8% of the vote. Former MI-01 Congressman Bart Stupak was favored by 11.7% of the 1,032 respondents, Debbie Dingell — wife of U.S. Congressman John Dingell — got 9.2% and former Congressman Mark Schauer came in at 9.0%.

Click through for more.

And then there were three

Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer announced today that she will NOT be a candidate for Governor in Michigan in 2014. Her stepping aside narrows the immediate field from four to three: 2010 candidate and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, Detroit-area Congressman Gary Peters and former MI-07 Congressman Mark Schauer. While that’s not to say that others won’t throw their hat into the ring, these three are certainly the top three at the moment.

My analysis after the jump.

I’ll just sleep in mid-November…

Anne and I arrived home from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC at about 11:30 p.m. Friday night. The next morning I was on the road at 6:30 a.m. to the Michigan Democratic Party’s State Convention which took place over two days this weekend at the Lansing Center in Lansing. Like me, there were a LOT of faded looking people there but, despite their weariness, Day One of the convention was a huge success; well-attended and with high energy.

Details with photos after the jump.

In a comprehensive and sternly-worded letter to Governor Rick Snyder (pdf), Congressmen John Conyers, Jr., Hansen Clarke, and Gary Peters are asking for some answers regarding his administration’s proposed Detroit Consent Agreement. The letter focuses on seven key areas: Failure of State to Provide Any Financial AssistanceGovernor Snyder is asked to explain why, unlike in other struggling cities across the […]

The never-ending story… Muskegon Heights EM review team still hasn’t met – 3 weeks laterMLive reports that the financial review team for Muskegon Heights schools still hasn’t met three weeks after it was formed. The review team assigned to determine whether Muskegon Heights Public Schools needs an emergency manager has yet to meet three weeks after it was appointed. “We’re […]

Game on Congressman Gary Peters faces two solid primary opponents in the newly-drawn 14th Congressional District in Michigan, Congressman Hansen Clark and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, a situation intentionally created by Republicans during the redistricting process last year. This morning, Peters announced that he has picked up the much-coveted endorsement of the SEIU: I’ve got some great news to share […]

What’s say you and him and her fight? When Michigan Republicans redistricted our state this past year, they intentionally created a major battle ground in Michigan’s 14th Congressional District which makes up much of the metropolitan Detroit area. As was already announced, Hansen Clark who currently represents the 13th District and Gary Peters, Representative from MI-09 will be contending for […]

Yesterday, I wrote about how Pontiac Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel signed an agreement with Oakland County to manage monies from a substantial HUD grant. This boneheaded decision, it turns out, would have resulted in a loss of upwards of $800,000 per year for Pontiac. Thankfully, Congressman Gary Peters stepped in to prevent this from occurring. Federal and local politicians lined […]

This is shocking to me (though I suppose it shouldn’t be.) Pontiac’s Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel that all but gave away millions of dollars dedicated to the City of Pontiac due to a single decision he made as EM. He was able to do this with no accountability because he is, after all, completely in control of the entire government […]