Progress Michigan blog posts.
The political gamesmanship continues for Lansing Republicans. The state designed health insurance exchange has been torpedoed by Speaker Jase Bolger and House Republicans. This group of obstructionists has wasted $10 million in appropriated federal funding by procrastinating. It’s obvious that Lansing Republicans are more interested in big insurance company profits, and couldn’t care less about…
The scheme hatched up by Speaker Jase Bolger and Rep. Roy Schmidt to steal an election – and the ensuing lies and apparent coverup that followed – is complicated and requires a little context. Let’s start with the voter fraud boogeyman. Voter fraud is when an individual assumes a fake identity to vote. One is…
The House unanimously approved a bill on Wednesday that addresses the election fraud scheme Speaker Jase Bolger and Rep. Roy Schmidt cooked up. Speaker Bolger’s audacity never ceases to amaze. Bolger says we need higher election standards, “me included.” Michigan residents need to see this move exactly for what it is: an overt attempt to…
If you’re reading this, you probably already know about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the influence they wield over Lansing politicians. Just a few weeks ago, we were able to turn up the pressure on General Motors until they dropped their ALEC membership! Last October, we uncovered an outrageous ALEC model bill introduced…
“Offensive.” “Wrong…lousy.” “Shameful.” Those aren’t movie reviews. They’re reviews of the job done by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in her first big test as the state’s elections chief. What happened? Well, back in February Secretary Johnson added a citizenship checkbox to the ballot application, saying that it was only a matter of time…
The following is a guest blog, written by Ann Finkel. Ann is interning at Progress Michigan this summer. Election season is upon us! It’s a time when every citizen over the age of 18 – not just those with political clout, lots of money, years of experience in the political scene – have the opportunity…
The Progress Michigan office has already received reports of some voters being denied ballots in today’s primary election, after refusing to fill out the citizenship checkbox that was unilaterally implemented by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. As expected, there is confusion with voters and election officials over the U.S. citizen checkbox requirement following Governor Snyder’s…
In politics, money talks. Over a period of four days last week, groups affiliated with Michelle Rhee – the controversial former chancellor of Washington DC’s public schools – dumped nearly $160,000 in a single state House race. The contributions were made on behalf of Rep. Maureen Stapleton (D-Detroit) in her primary race against Rep. Rashida…
Last week, the Detroit Free Press published new text messages and emails in the BolgerGate scandal that read “dirty as hell” and “I can pretty much guarantee it is shady because I know the players involved.” BolgerGate is dirty. And shady. And the only way we’re going to clean up this mess is with a…
Pete Hoekstra still isn’t sorry. After a racist and offensive Super Bowl ad, Hoekstra is still oblivious. Hoekstra’s election gimmick featured an Asian American woman speaking in broken English to attack Sen. Debbie Stabenow. The ad backfired, and was widely criticized by newspaper editorials and Republican pundits. On Sunday when asked on Michigan Matters about…