It’s no secret that Michigan is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the entire country. Here’s the 11th Congressional District, for example: The 9th District is almost as bad: Note that they are both adjacent and interlocking. The 11th District is highly Republican and 9th District is reliably Democratic. For good measure, here’s the 14th which is another […]

A tangled web of Big Business interests wants to disenfranchise YOU! When most of us think of the Chamber of Commerce, it’s likely that what comes to mind is your local Chamber working to promote local businesses in your community. But when it comes to state and federal level Chambers, however, the truth is that they have a dedicated agenda […]

Desperation breeds desperate behavior The Michigan Board of State Canvassers has cancelled a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, June 26th. I confirmed this with a phone call to the Elections Bureau this afternoon. Additionally, Republican Board member Jeff Timmer is rumored to have resigned and it is believed that the other Republican, Norm Shinkle, will resign as well, leaving the […]

Not all conflicts of interest are created equal

The continuing saga of the desperate attempt to derail putting the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — on the November ballot continues with a piece published on the Michigan Radio website titled “Ballot box politics: Conflicts of interest for Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers”.

As I wrote about earlier this week, one of the members of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers (BSC), the group that will decide on the challenge to the petitions collected by Stand up for Democracy, is Jeff Timmer. Timmer works for a company that is intimately tied to the effort to defeat the repeal. His company, Sterling Corporation, is one and the same as the group “Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility” that is challenging the 226,000+ signatures because they font size of the heading is 12 rather than 14. Note that the printer’s affidavit certifies that the font is the correct size.

Like I said: desperate…

[More after the jump]

Conflict of interest much? As I have been reporting on (HERE and HERE), the effort to repeal Public Act 4 — Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — is being challenged by a group called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility. The group is asking elections officials — the Board of State Canvassers — to throw out all of the petitions because the heading […]