Democracy Tree: Michigan Democrats combat GOP thuggery

by Amy Kerr Hardin

“There aren’t going to be any profiles of courage passed out to this chamber.” — House Minority Floor Leader Sam Singh (D-69) on the duplicitous actions of Michigan’s GOP lawmakers.

Under Republican leadership, Michigan’s legislature has become increasingly brazen in the use of down and dirty tricks. Most recently, they exploited a loophole in the legislative process which allows them to enact repeal-proof laws through the simple act of attaching a meaningless appropriation to the proposal, thereby conferring constitutional protection from a voter-initiated referendum.

They employed this skullduggery to ram through a bill that more than once in recent history has been repealed by popular vote.

We’re talking about a law to ban straight-ticket voting, of course.

First, GOP lawmakers double-crossed their colleagues across the aisle by eliminating a no-reason absentee ballot provision, then they passed a bill that Michigan voters have previously rejected twice — voting to repeal it in 1964 by a 65 percent majority, and again rejecting the notion in 2002 by just under 60 percent.

Justifiably angered, Democratic lawmakers pushed back this time with a House Joint Resolution to amend Article II, Sec. 9 of the state constitution to close the appropriations loophole. With strong partisan support, Rep. Jim Townsend introduced HJR FF prior to the holiday break, saying this on social media of the bill to end straight-ticket voting:

“In what is becoming a standard practice, this bill contains an appropriation, which would prevent voters from challenging and overturning it, which tells you precisely what the sponsor and supporters of this bill intentions are – to suppress the your right to vote in an effort to win elections.”

The current abuse of power is certainly egregious, but it arguably is not the worst example of this form of legislative chicanery in recent years. Upon the successful repeal by referendum of the Emergency Manager Law in late 2012, GOP lawmakers already had a new bill written, in the wings, and ready to go, but this time with an appropriation — rendering it bullet-proof. And now, as a direct result of that act, the children of Flint have been poisoned at the hands of an emergency manager. In recent weeks, many commentaries have laid the blame squarely at the governor’s feet, but there are plenty of lawmakers that are complicitous in that crime too. Snyder did not act alone.

The likelihood of the passage of Townsend’s resolution to prevent future subversion of the democratic process is zero. A politically hollow exercise in ethics, yes — but it’s the only card Michigan Dems have to play. Gongwer News Service just issued a gloomy forecast for the prospect of any bipartisan cooperation in 2016 in the Michigan House, in spite of the predictable cheery rhetoric to the contrary. There always remains the possibility of a citizen initiated petition drive to amend the constitution. An attempt was made to do just that back in 2013, but they failed to garner the kind of institutional support necessary to successfully navigate the arduous and expensive process of a ballot proposal.

Possibly the only way Michigan can put a stop to this breed of legislative thuggery is to elect honest lawmakers — a feat now made that much more difficult with the end of straight-ticket ballots.

NOTE: Gov. Snyder signed the GOP bill into law earlier today.