The Michigan tea party is dead

Joshua Pugh/Detroit News

Last Thursday a bill passed the Michigan House with support from nearly every Democratic member – but opposition from most Republicans. It appropriated funds for a joint state-federal health insurance exchange in Michigan that Gov. Snyder says would be an Expedia-like website for health insurance.

The bulk of the GOP “yes” votes were term-limited lawmakers, apparently because Republicans were terrified of primary challenges from Tea Party activists who dread the tyranny of this Expedia-like website dominating the health insurance market.

But why? It’s baffling that any Lansing politicians would actually fear electoral consequences from an astroturf movement that has proven itself feckless.

There was plenty of noise made about Bobby Schostak nearly losing his reelection campaign for Republican chair. Of course, few Michigan voters care about who chairs Michigan’s political parties. But these are the kind of fights that best suit tea partiers.

Except . . . they failed. Not only did conservatives fail to convince barely 800 delegates at the Michigan Republican Party convention of the righteousness of their cause, they’ve been a failure since breaking onto the Michigan electoral scene.

First the obvious: in 2010 Rick Snyder won a five-way Republican gubernatorial primary that featured tea party favorites Mike Cox and Mike Bouchard.

Then in 2012, when at least six Republicans ran for Senate, it was the establishment choice Pete Hoekstra who collected over 50 percent of Republican primary votes – eventually winning by more than 150,000 total votes, a remarkable margin in a supposedly competitive primary. This was despite millions of dollars in negative advertising launched by Clark Durant and his allies.

But even in the most winnable races in 2010, conservatives came up short.

There were 672 total primary candidates in state House and Senate races that year, and 37 of them (all Republicans) were endorsed either by the Independence Caucus or the Republican Liberty Caucus.

Of the 20 Tea Party House candidates that weren’t already incumbents, none of them made it to Lansing. The tea party picks lost to establishment candidates like Andrea LaFontaine, Rick Outman, Deb Shaughnessy, andPaul Muxlow.

The Senate was more of a mixed bag, but equally dismal. The IC and RLC endorsed opposing candidates in the 7th and 30th Senate district primaries, with IC-backed Patrick Colbeck winning in the 7th and RLC-backed Arlan Meekhof winning in the 30th. In the 29th, IC-backed Dave Hildenbrand won, but he was already an incumbent state rep with strong conservative support from his old district.

In 2012 it was much the same story. Tea Party favorite Dan Grimshaw managed to knock off incumbent Rep. Kurt Damrow in a thumb district, but lost the general election in a district with a 56 percent Republican lean – by nearly 6,000 votes.

What electoral victories can the tea party point to in Michigan?

If Lansing Republicans are ever going to get serious about governing, they should drop their fear of conservatives and start leading. Speaker Jase Bolger likes to say that House Republicans care about good policy, not playing politics. If they want Michiganians to believe this, they should start acting like it.

Michigan councilman gets Secret Service visit after depicting Obama’s head on a spike

By David Edwards/Raw Story

A city councilman in Sterling Heights, Michigan says he was questioned by the U.S. Secret Service after video emerged of him at a tea party rally holding signs that depicted violence against President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D).

The Sterling Heights City Council on Wednesday called for the resignation of Councilman Paul Smith after Mayor Pro Tem Michael Taylor discovered a YouTube video of him at a 2009 tea party rally holding signs that showed Obama’s head on a spike, Pelosi’s head riddled with bullet holes and Granholm’s head in noose. The resolution was passed 6-1, with Smith being the only “no” vote, according to The Detroit News.

In the video, Smith says the signs are to “show our governor, our president, Speaker of the House what we really think of them.”

Basically, they’re worse than any of the enemies America has ever fought against,” he explains. “Basically, we’ve let a communist in the White House.”

By Thursday evening, the Secret Service had paid Smith a visit.

“Some joker called the Secret Service and made a complaint about me,” Smith told The Oakland Press. “They told me that their policy is they respond to every complaint and that’s exactly what they did. They asked me a lot of questions dating back to when I was a kid. I answered them honestly and I guess they believe I’m not a threat or some kook.”

Smith also said that he would not resign from the city council.

“I don’t mind open warfare,” Smith explained. “The council acted like they were being friendly and they were stabbing me under the table. … That council is like a fraternity. They don’t want outsiders on the council. I’m not welcome to the club.”

But Taylor insisted that the group had only called for his resignation after it was clear that he had violated the council’s rules and ethics.

“Mr. Smith has engaged in conduct unbefitting a public official,” Taylor said. “He has failed to repudiate his actions.”

Watch this video, uploaded to YouTube on April 17, 2009.

Cracked Up: Debate A Window Into Divided GOP

By David Holtz/Progress Michigan








Today’s Tea Party Republican Senate debate in Mt. Pleasant may tell us almost nothing about the candidate most likely to challenge Debbie Stabenow in November.   But it does say something about the cranky state of Republican Tea Party politics in Michigan. 

The Freep reported that Pete Hoekstra, the Republican frontrunner for Senate, is dissing theMichigan4ConservativeSenate Debate at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant.  Hoekstra mentioned not wanting to be part of a process that endorsed straw polls.  But this is the fourth or fifth tea party forum or debate Hoekstra has ducked, and it’s beginning to look like Hoekstra’s just afraid of defending his record as a Washington corporate lobbyist/politician.    

Today’s Republican Senate debate will include everyone else who's running and is an outgrowth of a political power play involving about 100 Michigan Tea Party leaders and the Koch Bros’ Freedom Works. They hope to short-circuit the real Michigan GOP primary in August by anointing the right-wing candidate of their choice at a Tea Party straw poll in late February.  The debate is the first part of that two-step process. 

The effort, however, has divided Republicans into at least three warring camps:  1) Tea Partiers and fellow travelers aligned with Freedom Works and Senate Republican candidates Clark Durant and Gary Glenn, 2)Hoekstra supporters including Gov. Rick Snyder, and 3) other Republican activists who aren’t buying into the Freedom Works power play.  

One of the odder things about all this is the date chosen for the Tea Party straw vote—Feb. 25—which is the weekend before the Tuesday Michigan Republican Presidential primary.    Call it a gift to Mitt Romney.   

Michigan Tea Partiers may be divided between the DeVos Clan’s favorite, Durant, and far-right cultural warrior, Glenn, over whom to support for Senate, but their disdain for the man from Bain is pretty clear.  Yet a good number of them will be off somewhere straw polling in hopes of crowning a conservative Senate candidate on a weekend when they should be organizing around the big presidential contest. 

On the other hand, the Republican presidential contest is itself looking like a coronation, and coronations seem to be the preferred way of choosing Republican candidates in 2012.