michigan politics

Today on Stateside, Democratic nominee Elissa Slotkin on why she's running in Michigan's 8th Congressional District, one of the most expensive races in the country. Plus, Washtenaw County Department of Veterans Affairs director Michael Smith talks about how a shortage of qualified staff makes it harder for Michigan veterans to determine their eligibility for federal VA benefits. 

Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below. 

It's a congressional race that political pundits and prognosticators are watching closely, and it just so happens to be in our backyard. 

Michigan's 8th Congressional District represents Livingston and Ingham Counties, as well as parts of Oakland County. Democratic candidate Elissa Slotkin is challenging the incumbent, Representative Mike Bishop (R), who is running for his third term.

Today on Stateside, pollster Richard Czuba on how news consumers should be looking at media coverage of polls in 2018. Plus, Stateside kicks off a week-long series about the challenges Michigan veterans face connecting with VA benefits after returning to civilian life. Two veterans, one who served in Vietnam and one who served in Iraq, discuss their experiences navigating life after returning home from war. 

Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below. 

Now that the primary elections have shaken out the winners and the losers, the victorious candidates are turning their attention to the November general election.

Which means it's already time to talk strategies, campaign messages, and running mates.

The 2018 Mackinac Policy Conference kicks off today.

Big names in Michigan politics, business, philanthropy, tech, education, and more will be on Mackinac Island for the annual event put on by the Detroit Regional Chamber.

I’ve been asked to speak to a group in Mount Clemens today about the difference between Republicans and Democrats. That may sound easy to answer, but it’s not.

Thousands of Michigan Democrats packed into the Cobo Center on Sunday for their endorsement convention, a day that had some rowdy and raucous moments.

Zoe Clark and Rick Pluta, co-hosts of Michigan Radio’s It’s Just Politics, joined Stateside to discuss what the convention’s attendance suggests about Democratic engagement in November, how Dana Nessel nabbed the party endorsement for attorney general, and the shape of the governor’s race.

This week alone, four people were shot and killed by one gunman in Detroit. There was an apparent murder-suicide in Southfield. A Grand Rapids man was killed after being shot ten times. And today, two people were shot and killed at Central Michigan University.

Government leaders in Washington and in Lansing are trying to come up with ways to prevent mass shootings. The main focus is on shootings at schools, such as the one last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Yesterday, the state of Michigan went through a process called the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference. University and governmental economists met to discuss where the economy is going and what its projections mean for the state budget.

The Republican majority leader in the Senate, Arlan Meekhof, has introduced legislation that would allow city police departments to contract with a private firm for police officers. They'd have all the authority and the protections given to public police officers. 

Republicans in Lansing hit the gas pedal to pass legislation that could greatly increase corporate and special interest spending on political campaigns. The legislation sailed through the Senate last week and cleared the House Tuesday.

Today, Governor Snyder signed that legislation into law.

A conservative news website is busy pumping out stories on political candidates. The stories quickly take off on social media as people share them with friends and family.

But a closer look at the website, called Conservative Intel LLC of Grand Rapids, reveals it isn't a news operation at all.

The Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference begins today; I’ll be there, though so far, it doesn’t look like the most momentous conference they’ve ever had.

There will be a few national speakers worth hearing, including historian Michael Beschloss and journalist and author Walter Isaacson.

Governor Rick Snyder and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will give keynote addresses, and there will be panels on politics, and on things like “Michigan’s Digital Future.”

Congressman Dan Kildee, who many expected to run for governor, said he won't enter the race. He’s going to run for another term in Congress instead.

That leaves former senate minority leader Gretchen Whitmer and former Detroit health director Abdul El-Sayed as candidates on the Democratic side.

A Facebook post from Representative Andy Schor​, D-Lansing, caught some attention this week. He accused the Republican Speaker Pro-Tempore Lee Chatfield of violating the rules of the House and the state’s Constitution.

It's been a bumpy first few months in office for new Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deeds Karen Spranger and her staff.

Last night, the county ethics board met to discuss ethics complaints filed by a former top aide, someone Spranger fired shortly after taking office.

The meeting ended with a $100 fine against Spranger for an ethics violations, a fine she intends to appeal.

But that is just scratching the surface of what's happened since Spranger was elected last November.

Hundreds of Detroit parents angered by school closure threats are having their kids opt out of the state's M-STEP test. They say the standardized tests are used to justify closures. 

Mark Twain once said that “no man’s life, liberty and property are safe while the legislature is in session.” 

He’s been dead for more than a century, but I’m sure he wouldn’t be the least surprised to learn that things haven’t improved in the slightest.

Actually, they’ve gotten worse, in Michigan at any rate, thanks to term limits, which have served to vastly increase the power of the lobbyists.

Well, as you may have heard, the final days of the lame duck session are winding down, and not nearly as many bills have been rammed through as I first thought might be the case. Lawmakers,for example, gave up early on plans to slash teacher pensions, and “reform” retiree health care for municipal employees in the state.

For many years, few people paid any attention to the politics of Michigan Supreme Court justices. Nor were elections for the state’s highest court usually exciting.

That’s because there used to be a presumption that judges were more or less above politics, and that once on the bench, they should remain there as long as they were honest and competent, until the magic age of 70, after which, under the Michigan Constitution, they may finish a current term, but are no longer eligible to run again.

Perhaps the most horrific story of the summer was the Detroit News’s revelations of unsanitary conditions at the now for-profit group of hospitals known as the Detroit Medical Center.

These included dirty instruments, old blood and bone fragments in tubes that were being used for a baby’s operation and other similar horrors.

That was more than bad enough. But a group of mental health advocates are now concerned that the Snyder Administration wants to partly or totally privatize mental health services.

The greatest scandal in American political history was, of course, Watergate. Reporters began investigating corruption in the Nixon Administration.

Congressional committees and the courts got involved, and the existence of a secret White House taping system was eventually discovered. Finally, the tapes provided absolute proof of Richard Nixon’s criminality.

Democrats in Michigan’s Eighth Congressional District have no way of knowing yet who they’ll be casting a ballot for in November. The district includes northern Oakland County, Livingston County, and Ingham County.