Michigan As Microcosm For Democratic Party Doom... Or Renaissance?

Yesterday we looked at Ken Quinnell's crowd sourced study of which state legislatures were the worst in the country. The big 3 were, Wisconsin, Florida and, at #1 worst, Arizona. I was surprised Michigan only came in at the 10th worst. After all, Rick Snyder and his zombie legislators are attacking the foundations of democracy itself and seem to be on the path to full on fascism. Of course, Michigan has a long and sordid history of flirting with fascism. So Snyder's actions this year aren't considered beyond the pale in many Michigan circles.

Michigan became the first state to pass a Financial Martial Law bill, giving unelected emergency managers extensive powers to run local governments without oversight from local officials, effectively eliminating democracy in areas of the state that hit hard financial times.

The law granted sweeping new authority to appointed managers, including powers to cancel or renegotiate union contracts, sell off assets and privatize public services. In Detroit, the school district’s emergency manager, Robert Bobb, announced shortly after the passage of the bill that 8 schools would be closing and 45 others bid out to private charter operators; in April, he issued layoff notices to every teacher and staff member in the district. In Benton Harbor, manager Joseph Harris issued an executive order effectively stripping all city boards and commissions from taking any action whatsoever.

Word is if you are an orphan, Michigan isn't the place to be, since the state is cutting money to help orphaned children get clothes. The Michigan legislature also doesn't seem to like LGBT people much, as it tried to punish universities that give benefits to same-sex domestic partners.

Non-Michiganders were exposed to what the GOP was up to in that state for the first time this spring with this report from Rachel Maddow:





So perfect for a Democratic takeover, right? Um... maybe... if enough voters decide they can get excited about choosing between the lesser of two evils. Last week Eric Baerren did a study of Michigander's attitudes towards the state's Democratic Party. Pretty bad! His conclusion: "Michigan Democrats hate the Michigan Democratic Party" and that "50 percent of Democratic voters in Detroit think that the Michigan Democratic Party is out of date and too focused on the past."

When asked who is the best Democratic leader in Michigan, most Democratic voters in the latest Denno Research poll, conducted on behalf of Michigan Liberal and First Shift with Tony Trupiano, said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. Levin got 34.5 percent of votes. Coming in second? "I have no idea," or "None of the above," with 31 percent, edging out Debbie Stabenow 26.3 percent. Mark Brewer, the state party chairman, came in second to last with barely above percent.

Know who does well with Michigan Democrats, probably better than anyone else? Barack Obama. We've heard a lot about the possibility that Obama could lose his base support next year. They like his economic policies (well, except in the U.P.), they like his war policy, they think he's struck the right tone, they think they're better off since he was inaugurated. Right now, according to this poll, Obama will have his base support, especially since it's pretty clear that Democratic voters really, really don't like what Republicans are doing right now.

The people that need to worry about losing their base support is, in fact, the Michigan Democratic Party (my guess is that they've already done it). In every relevant question, the MDP polled poorly. Michigan Democrats and independent voters who vote for Democrats blame poor messaging and leadership for much of last year's wipeout, and in a poll of the best Democratic leader, Mark Brewer beat out only Gretchen Whitmer (which was itself surprising).

Taken as a whole, I think what this poll is, is a giant no-confidence vote in the Michigan Democratic Party among Democrats and progressives. To that bloc of voters, the MDP is wallowing in the past, rudderless, out of date, and too reliant on organized labor.

As angry as Michigan voters are at Snyder and his right-wing legislators, "they place a surprising level of blame for their party's failures last year on lackluster candidates and message... Nearly 50 percent [of respondents] said it was a combination of lousy candidates, bad messaging and a lack of leadership at the top."

How indicative is the Democratic Party mess in Michigan of a national malaise across the country? My gut tells me, very. It's why so many millions of Democrats and left-leaning independents stayed away from the polls entirely in 2010 and let the teabaggers take over the House. No one was enthusiastic about seeing malevolent slimebags like Boehner and Cantor take over but voters were repulsed by the empty promises from Obama and the reactionary politics of the Blue Dogs and other corrupt ConservaDems. So they let them go down to a well-earned defeat. More than half the Blue Dogs were driven from Congress. But did the DCCC learn a thing? Absolutely not. They immediately named an "ex" Blue Dog, conservative hack Steve Israel, to head the committee and started recruiting the exact kind of candidates the voters had just defeated-- in many cases, the very same people, like conservative shills Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona and, reportedly, Chris Carney in Pennsylvania. And some of the DCCC's "new" faces dredged up by Israel are even more disgusting.

Republican mobster David Rivera (FL-25) is probably the most vulnerable Republican incumbent anywhere. Florida Republicans are so embarrassed by his behavior and his blatant corruption that they're considering adding Democratic-leaning Key West to his district to help get rid of him (and make Ileana Ros Lehtinen safer). So what does the DCCC come up with to fight Rivera? It's as though Israel said, find me the worst garbage in the state and bring him to me. Voila-- Luis Garcia, a former member of the Democrats For Jeb Bush steering committee, who recently threatened to switch parties and join the Republicans.

Similarly, in Albuquerque, the DCCC recruited an anti-union, anti-environment corporate shill, Marty Chavez, to run for the open congressional seat, despite the fact that the state's leading progressive legislator, Eric Griego, was already a declared candidate.

And the DSCC is busy trying to get reactionary Blue Dogs Joe Donnelly (IN) and Jim Matheson (UT), who consistently vote with Boehner and Cantor on key issues, to run for Senate seats. Is there any wonder that ordinary working voters are disgusted with the Democratic Establishment in DC? And that's not even to mention Obama offering to make the Republicans' dreams come true with more devastating tax breaks for the rich coupled with catastrophic cutbacks to Social Security and Medicare. Yes, a "D" is better than an "F"... but how much better? Enough to get you to bother to go vote?

You Think The Rightists Have Taken Over Yet? Can You Guess Which State Would Make Hitler Happiest?

Conspicuous by his absence, Christie's legislature has cramped his style

Ken Quinnell posted a fantastic crowd-sourced feature at AlterNet yesterday that delineates the 10 craziest legislatures in America. Hard to imagine that his own Florida only came in at #2 and that Scott Walker's Wisconsin zombie parliament was only the 3rd worst. But one of our Facebook pals, Dan Lynch really felt burned, writing, "I feel left out. Surely Idaho deserves at least honorable mention? After all, the Senate caucus chairman went on a drunken rampage, stole and crashed a car, saying he was looking for the promised land." Life's never fair.

While attention was naturally focused on the changes in Congress that came as a result of the 2010 elections, an overlooked, but vitally important, consequence of those elections was the strong rightward shift in legislatures across the state. As of the beginning of legislative sessions this year, 26 states were controlled by Republicans, with only 15 in the hands of Democrats. Not surprisingly, this has meant an epidemic of right-wing legislation being proposed and passed across the country. The worst things that have passed, in both quantity and quality, are coming from Republican-controlled legislatures.

Keep in mind that all of these right-wing bastions of extremism and, more often than not, outright fascism, are now gerrymandering their states and rigging the election laws to make sure they hold power far into the future. Ohio only rang in as the 8th worst legislature and yet Quinnell writes that "It's hard to top Ohio Republicans, who had a fetus testify against abortion on the floor of the legislature. Seriously. They also went further than Wisconsin in stripping collective bargaining rights from public workers, including police and firefighters. (After that bill stalled in committee, Republicans just changed the committee membership to make sure the bill passed.) They also tried to pass legislation to allow guns in bars and stadiums and to allow drug convicts to have the right to bear arms. The legislature also poured money into for-profit charter schools, regardless of whether or not they successfully educated students, including one with a less than 2 percent success rate. All of this is without any oversight." It gets worse. Here's why Blue America has been asking everyone-- regardless of where you live-- to contribute to helping Wisconsin's voters recall Rick Scott and his pet fascist senators.

By now, everyone is familiar with Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican legislature's stripping state workers of their collective bargaining rights, but that's far from the only bad law to pass this year. The legislature also took away local governments' right to provide workers with stronger sick leave benefits, effectively privatized the state's Commerce Department, loosened child labor laws, cut public transportation and health care, shifted federal welfare reform dollars toward paying for tax cuts and cut access to broadband. All of this was done in a climate where the governor and Republicans went out of their way to deny Democrats the right to participate in the legislative process.

Quinnell makes a point that Florida is still worse. And can you guess which state tops the list of craziest in the nation? So as not to give it away, I'll alter the description slightly... but all regular DWT readers should be able to guess this on one try:

The number of times the legislature alone makes it on the national radar, not even touching on the nutcase governor, makes it a leader in state-level extremism. And it seems that it also sets the agenda for extremists in other states. Numerous states attempted to copy its most extremist legislation, but most of them didn't pass it. This proto-fascist state not only passed it first, the state is trying to up the ante by attempting to launch state "compacts" with its neighbors to override federal immigration law.

Want anti-union legislation? Check. Want to undermine a woman's right to choose? Got it. What about a full-scale assault on federalism and the powers of the national government? They lead the way. A government official gets shot in your state and what do you do? Vote to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. Don't like ethnic studies classes and believe crazy theories about a Mexican takeover of the U.S.? This is the state for you.
.
Want a legislator ranting on the floor about bisexual high school principals? Done. Want another legislator saying the earth is only 6,000 years old? This state wins again. Want a birther bill passed through the legislature? All you had to do was ask.

Oh yeah, and the legislature (and governor) cut back on a transplant program that actually led to two people dying. When your state starts killing people who aren't on death row, then you can challenge these guys, which has the worst legislature in the United States.

These 10 states don't even remotely have a lock on the extreme legislative proposals this year. In particular, Virginia, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Maine, Kansas, and Missouri also got serious consideration for the top 10. And with groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) pushing its agenda in every state, progressives should keep an eye on all of the state legislatures to see where the national conservative attacks of tomorrow are being perfected today.

That's all folks... but only the 4th worst

UPDATE: And Back To New Jersey For A Moment

The New Jersey legislature wasn't included in the 10 worst. People would say that that's because the Democratic majority has kept Governor Christie from rolling out the full right-wing agenda that Kacich, Scott, Walker, Snyder, Daniels, etc have done in their states. But as Ken has shown earlier this month and in June, there is a dangerous species in the Jersey legislature named Christiecrats. Is a picture worth a thousand words?

Blue America Welcomes Ken Quinnell, A Blogger Running For State Committeeman In Florida

Ken Quinnell is running for a Florida State Committee position. Many of us feel like we know him, not because we've gone down to Florida to meet Ken but because we read his blog, the Florida Progressive Coalition blog. But he was endorsed by an old friend and colleague of mine, Andrew Gillum, a Tallahassee City Commissioner and one of the leaders of People For the American Way's Young Elected Officials.

Aside from being a blogger and activist, Ken is a political science professor, a poet, a fiction writer, a husband and a dad (3 young sons). And he lives in a state with one of the most dysfunctional local Democratic parties anywhere. He means to do something about it. Although Obama won in Florida (4,143,957 to 3,939,380), Ken was disappointed because he-- like many of us-- felt Democrats could have had a far better election day. If you count defeated ex-Republican Tim Mahoney as a Democrat, there was only one net congressional pickup (with Suzanne Kosmas and Alan Grayson both ousting GOP incumbents), and there was just one net gain in the state legislature.

And a number of great candidates that many of you are familiar with-- Joe Garcia, Annette Taddeo, Doug Tudor-- lost. One of the key reasons for these losses, from what I can tell, is the incessant infighting in the state party. There is still significant stranglehold on many local parties by the good old boy network and there are factions in the state party who are constantly undercutting other Dems both in the party and electorally.

Ken is running for state committee man in the hope of changing some of this. He's running, in part, on a platform that stresses his experience with blogging, BlogTalkRadio and other Netroots groups and tools. His opponent will be familiar to those of you who paid attention to the primary mess in Florida-- Jon Ausman. Many in Florida politics think Ausman's a symbol of all that is wrong with the party. He is constantly involved in undercutting other party members to further his own agenda and if you watched his presentation to the DNC, you could tell that he's much more about promoting Jon Ausman than he is about moving America or Florida forward. He's still suing the DNC over the primary and he endorsed Hillary Clinton after Barack Obama won the nomination in the name of "unity." It will be a tough race, but Ken is picking up some pretty big endorsements from local elected officials that give him a legitimate shot.

And he's been very busy; he's the president and founder of the Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition, the adviser to the Tallahassee Community College Democrats, president of the Leon County Young Democrats, a Leon County Democratic Party Precinct Committeeman and the chairman of the Leon Democratic Party Rapid Response Committee-- above and beyond being a blogger and online activist since 1998.

The election is Monday and Ken will be joining us for a discussion this afternoon at 2pm (EST) at Firedoglake.