Free Republic

If ever there was a region where incumbent Republican governors can experience the great GOP gubernatorial apocalypse, it is the upper Midwest. Three of the races involve Republican incumbents who rode the Republican wave of 2010 into office. They are Rick Snyder in Michigan, John Kasich in Ohio and Scott Walker in Wisconsin. That potential loss of three Governor’s offices may be mitigated by a Pat Quinn Democratic loss in Illinois. The problem is that Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin are less red than Illinois is certainly blue.

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states,...

In a speech recently, Gov. Rick Snyder reiterated his support of natural gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). This is a good sign for taxpayers, job seekers and environmentalists. Despite the alarmism, fracking is safe — and much safer than the alternatives. Most of the fear about gas extraction comes from a disingenuous scene from a film in which people light the methane coming through their water pipes on fire because of alleged improper well construction, which has nothing to do with fracking. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says gas drilling by hydraulic fracturing has been going on for...

We are now hearing the usual voices of protest in Detroit in the wake of Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointing an outside expert to take over financial management of the near-bankrupt city. Detroit is the largest city in American history to be seized in this fashion and turned over to an outside manager. Reported deficit of the city is $327 million dollars and long-term liabilities are in the range of $14 billion. But no matter to the unions, politicians, and bureaucrats who have been at the helm for years as the city has spiraled into the depths of the black...

When the state-imposed manager of Detroit, Kevyn Orr, starts the job on Monday he will wade into a city of crumbling neighborhoods where police fail to respond to some calls, arson fires burn out of control and residents scour charred buildings for scrap metal to sell. Except for the business district and a cultural area including a university, museum and some theaters, the city of Detroit, population 700,000, is in bad shape. Orr, a Washington, D.C.-based bankruptcy lawyer, will have the official title of "Emergency Financial Manager." But his remit as an unelected administrator will range far beyond money. His...

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and a packed room of Detroiters warned today of an impending revolt against state intervention, urging residents to stock up on canned food and supplies. “Even the Bloods in the hood fight for their territory,” Kenyatta said during a 20-minute monologue on the civil rights struggle at today’s city council meeting. “You are going to have to drag me out of here for me to leave.” Kenyatta cited Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became an intellectual and civil rights icon, because of his position that black people must sacrifice their lives, if necessary, to win freedom...

Since the Motown sound went silent -- except on oldies stations -- and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents. The recent conviction of Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, on multiple charges, including racketeering, fraud and extortion, adds another insult to the city's injury, increasing its misery. During the mid-20th century, Detroit was a vibrant city with a population of almost 2 million. Today, it stands near ruin. The number of residents has now been estimated at just over...

My beloved Motor City is bleeding to death. The facts are that Detroit is a financial wreck, an unmitigated disaster, a sheer cataclysmic catastrophe – you pick. No doubt all of the above. Good Gov. Rick Snyder has decided to step in and see what he can do to save Detroit. He is appointing an Emergency Financial Manager in an attempt to solve Motown’s self-imposed financial hemorrhaging. The Democratic Party that has controlled Detroit for decades is obviously opposed to Gov. Synder’s approach. “Today, Governor Snyder has decided to unilaterally take over control of the City of Detroit from its...

Macomb County Chief Circuit Judge David Viviano has been appointed to fill a vacancy on the Michigan Supreme Court. Gov. Rick Snyder announced the appointment at 3 p.m. Wednesday in a livestreamed event. "This is a tremendous honor for me, for my entire family," Viviano said. "I am committed to the rule of law. I believe in the separation of powers." Viviano replaces former Justice Diane Hathaway, who resigned in January amid charges of fraud regarding a home she owns. "He's truly a rule of law judge, which is critically important," Snyder said. Snyder said the candidates for the state's...

“This is what democracy looks like!” That’s a popular protest chant among liberals. It could be heard at many “Occupy” gatherings. It’s a staple at union-backed protests. We all know that in a democracy, sometimes things go your way, and sometimes they don’t. The big question is, how will you react? For example, many conservatives were disappointed by the results of last month’s elections. Despite high unemployment, sluggish economic growth and an unpopular health care program, a majority of voters returned a staunchly liberal president to office. But just as there are no permanent victories, there are no permanent defeats....

The great thing about Democracy – as I’m sure you’ll all agree – is that once the campaigns, debates and battles are over and the people have spoken, everyone can pick up the pieces and get on with productive work to advance the principles each side believes in. Clearly, such is the case in Michigan, where defeated but undaunted union advocates have already begun dusting themselves off and …Nope. LANSING — A speaker at a union protest against right-to-work legislation said if Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill he would get “no rest” and that protesters would be at his...

In 1958, Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, his eye on the 1960 GOP nomination coveted by fellow Californian Richard Nixon, went home and declared for governor. Knowland's plan: Ride to victory on the back of Proposition 18, the initiative to make right-to-work the law in the Golden Land. Prop. 18 was rejected 2 to 1. Knowland's career was over, and the Republicans were decimated nationally for backing right-to-work. Badly burned, the party for years ran away from the issue. This history makes what happened in Michigan, cradle of the United Auto Workers, astonishing. A GOP legislature passed and Gov....

Politics: The union mob that tore down that tent outside the Michigan state capitol was aiming at a free-market advocacy group on the president's enemies list promoting right-to-work and other pro-growth measures. In an editorial headlined "Drinking the Kochs' Kool-Aid," the Detroit Free Press, a newspaper in a decaying city with 18.9% unemployment, opined it was pressure from the Koch brothers, David H. and Charles G., who head a Kansas-based conglomerate with 50,000 U.S.-based employees, that moved Michigan Republicans to make the state adopt right-to-work legislation. Randy Richardville, majority leader of the state Senate, and Gov. Rick Snyder may have...

Michigan is one step closer to becoming a Right to Work state. Last night, both the state House and Senate passed bills that would forbid the public sector unions from taking 2% out of workers’ paychecks for dues payments, regardless of whether or not they’re members. The bills can’t be passed into law until Tuesday, owing to procedural requirements, but they’re almost sure to prevail, at which point Gov. Rick Snyder has vowed to sign them. The House and Senate each passed bills on the same day they were introduced that give private and public sector workers the right to...

Gerald McEntee had Michigan on his mind in June when he delivered his final address as president of the nation’s largest public employee union. “Our sisters and brothers in Michigan are on the front lines in the next critical battle,” McEntee told the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. He declared that the imperative was “defeating Governor Rick Snyder's anti-worker and anti-American emergency manager’s bill. These managers are local dictators who rip up union contracts.” Focusing on an emergency manager bill in one state might seem an unlikely valedictory for a legendary labor leader who has served his...

If the General  Election were held today, 46-percent of 600 likely voters would cast their ballot for Romney, and 45-percent would vote to re-elect Obama.  In a statewide poll conducted last month, President Obama was leading Governor Romney,  47-percent to 43-percent.  

<p>President Barack Obama’s popularity in Michigan has slipped in recent months, leaving him in a dead heat with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, according to a new poll of state voters by EPIC-MRA of Lansing.</p> <p>The poll, released this morning to the Free Press and four TV stations, shows Romney leading Obama 46%-45%, a reversal from the last EPIC poll in April which showed Obama ahead 47%-43%.</p>

LANSING, Mich.—A group seeking to recall Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Thursday that it has ended the effort following Gov. Scott Walker's victory in Wisconsin's recall election. The group called Michigan Rising said it would stop collecting signatures, noting it already was short of its own gathering goals. Instead, the group said it will focus on a long-term effort to form a progressive think tank, develop progressive leaders and support current progressive legislators.

MIDLAND — Michigan’s 60,000 home health care aides will no longer be deemed government employees — meaning they cannot be forced into a government employee union and have dues withheld — as a result of legislation signed today by Gov. Rick Snyder. The next step is for the Michigan Department of Community Health to immediately stop the collection of dues from subsidy payments intended to assist developmentally disabled adults and the diversion of those funds to the Service Employees International Union, said Patrick J. Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. “Ending this lucrative charade is terrific news for...

Last spring, a caller to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy unleashed a profane series of death and bomb threats in phone messages left at the Center's headquarters in Midland, Mich. On Feb. 2, a Laura Campbell of Waukegan, Ill., was charged with making death and bomb threats against the Mackinac Center on April 1, 2011, according to court documents. She was to be arraigned on those charges Feb. 15, but the arraignment was rescheduled until next week, according to Kim Nerheim of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The U.S. Attorney charged that Campbell used a telephone to make an “alleged...