Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 06/27/2014 11:13:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sarah Palin and right-wing Republicans are calling "shenanigans" over the Mississippi U.S. Senate race this week.
(Full disclosure: Whenever someone uses that hokey phrase, I chuckle and think of the "South Park" episode when third-graders denounced ripoffs at a local carnival).
Anyway, here's what happened in the Magnolia State, which isn't quite as funny.
Establishment GOP U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran bucked the odds and history after a narrow primary loss to Tea Party favorite Chris McDaniel.
On Tuesday, the six-term incumbent edged McDaniel in a runoff, buoyed by heavy turnout from African-Americans. The Cochran campaign openly courted these traditionally Democratic voters -- and it worked.
McDaniel and his supporters cried foul, arguing the "conservative movement took a backseat to liberal Democrats."
Sorry, but that's politics. Democrats and independents are able to vote in the Mississippi GOP primary. The state has an open primary, meaning anyone can vote in either the Democratic or Republican contests (you just can't vote in both).
McDaniel's supporters believe they have a vote-fraud case, citing an obscure law that you can't vote in a primary if you don't intend to vote for the party's nominee in the general. (Good luck proving voter intent in court).
The bottom line is if Dems had shown up to back McDaniel, you'd never hear a peep out of him.
Interestingly, let's just go back in time just a couple weeks ago, when then-U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) lost to little-known Tea Partier David Brat.
In that scenario, supporters of Cantor -- the establishment's choice -- bemoaned that Democrats sabotaged the election by voting for the more extreme candidate.
Now the numbers don't bear that out, as Brat won in heavily GOP areas. But Democrats helping Brat would make more sense than boosting Cochran.
Why? The more extreme a candidate is, the less appeal s/he tends to have in a general election.
That's why some Democrats rallied behind Rick Santorum over Mitt Romney in the Michigan 2012 GOP presidential primary.
They viewed Santorum (who compared homosexuality to "man on child, man on dog" sex), as easier to beat in November -- even though they found his politics abhorrent.
So it would be a strategic move for Dems to cross over for Brat (although winning the seat in November remains a long-shot). But why vote for Cochran, whisking any hope of stealing the seat away?
For one thing, it's Mississippi -- one of the reddest states in the country. Democrats haven't had much of a chance there since the civil rights movement.
But Cochran also succeeded by making the old-school promise to bring home the bacon -- something keenly important for folks in a state that has the highest poverty rate in the nation.
What both elections have done is renewed calls for closed primaries. Let Republicans decide Republican primaries, so the argument goes.
That's good for party bosses, who want to keep the two-party system entrenched.
That's good for groups more conservative than the rest of the electorate, like Tea Partiers, or those more liberal, like unions.
Why wouldn't they want to dominate primaries, which often have turnout rates under 20 percent? Districts often are so lopsided that whoever wins the Democratic or GOP primary is the surefire winner in the general.
Closed primaries are a great way for extremists and party honchos to solidify their power.
But they're bad for democracy, which should be about giving voters real choices.
They're bad for those of us who are open-minded and vote for the person, not the party. We don't want to have to choose a party.
In Michigan, we don't have to. Let's keep it that way.
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Susan J. Demas is Publisher and Editor of Inside Michigan Politics, a nationally acclaimed, biweekly political newsletter. She can be reached at susan@sjdemas.com
Demas wants Soviet-style uniparty “democratic centralism”.
“McDaniel’s supporters believe they have a vote-fraud case, citing an obscure law that you can’t vote in a primary if you don’t intend to vote for the party’s nominee in the general. (Good luck proving voter intent in court).”
Mrs. Demas is a fraud and a liar. The vote fraud case steps from people who demonstrably voted in both elections.
She wants centralism in the GOP but Obama is too far to the right for her tastes.
No doubt we can identify people who voted in both elections. But we can’t identify who they voted for. The best outcome we can hope for is a “do-over”.
Susan J. Demas is Mlive’s paid leftist troll. That is literally her only job is to spout whatever the most bat-s*it insane leftist position you can imagine to get traffic to the site. I seriously cannot stress how she is one of the most repugnant runts (rhymes with)that you can possibly read.
“we’re not a democracy”
There is no voting for general peasants in the original intent either.
FReepers outside Michigan don’t know what they’re missing with the endless Susan Dumbass rants.
The way she behaves, you would think Tim Walberg stood her up for the prom.
I never understood why there is such a thing as open primaries. It seemed a conflict of interest to me.
A regular Ninotchka.
Precisely so.
BTW, all primaries have their origin in the progressive movement, interestingly enough.
Hey ding-a-ling, the purpose of a primary is for a party to chose it’s candidate.
It is.
Unfortunately, many good natured, mild manned, reasonably successful people, think those qualities, along with their crusading abhorrence for "party" politics, insulates them and the statutes they enact from egregious stupidity and arrogance.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The way I understand it, if someone is listed as “Democrat” on the primary election voting list, he or she was given a Democrat ballot. So it was impossible for the voter to vote Republican. Therefore, that voter was ineligible to participate in the runoff, which legally should have included only those voters who were given a Republican ballot in the primary.
They can vote but can’t vote TWICE!
Whether a primary is open or closed should be up to the party, not the state.
Part of the problem is that too many people focus on winning an election, as though all that mattered was getting someone in office who is nominally a member of your Party, regardless of whether they reflect your views.
Most low information types like Demas have no clue what a democracy or republic is. The low information types think America is whatever YOU think it is. Most think America is a gigantic piggy bank. Demas is just a VICTIM of a poor education.
The avowed purpose of the primary system is to present the best qualified, clearest choices to voters in the general election. It's very difficult to see how that's possible if you allow cross-overs who deliberately vote for a weaker, less qualified candidate, or one who toes the ideological line of the opposite party.
In any event, registering in another Party isn't difficult. If crossing over is really all that important to you, change you affiliation during the primary, then come back to your own party in time for the general. In most states you can do that on 30 days notice or less.
Open primaries have GOT to go.
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