Lots of noise and fury but little results describes the effort of Michigan teabaggers to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it with a petition drive to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law.
The teabaggers Lansing-based group called “Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom” headed by Howell School Board member and founder of the anti-gay hate group “LOVE” Wendy Day has until Monday – July 5 – to collect 380,126 valid signatures to place it on the November ballot. She admits in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus that the effort “could fall short of the nearly 400,000 required signatures.”
Like I said before, this was little more than an exercise to build a mailing list of Republican supporters for the November election and to bash the President. Day said "hundreds of volunteers have been circulating petitions, and the organization plans a full-court press for signatures statewide this holiday weekend.” Now, Livingston County has a large Republican base, and I have not seen a single petition circulator, other than at the tea party kickoff at the Freshman Campus cafeteria.
Day said she has not given up, but she “wouldn't say how many of the required 380,126 valid signatures have been obtained.”
The deadline for turning in the signatures is 5 p.m. Monday, but Monday is a state holiday. According to subscription only Gongwer that covers the Capitol, “Day said she has made arrangements with state officials to deliver their signatures if the group obtains enough.”
Gongwer said Day spent $30,000 to collect the signatures she has. But, according to Gongwer, “to ensure placement on the ballot, most campaigns would attempt to collect signatures from a minimum of 500,000 people.” That means even if some miracle occurs and she reached the required number of signatures, many will be thrown out and it will fail.
The group has scheduled a rally/press conference for noon on Tuesday on the Capitol steps in Lansing, and according to the Legislative Council that schedules Capitol events, Josiah Kissling, a staffer for state Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, reserved the time slot.
Day will acknowledge defeat on Tuesday, but she was also quoted as saying she has “several backup plans are in place if the effort fails to get the issue on the November ballot, including asking current candidates for state Legislature to sign pledges supporting placing a health-care opt-out proposal on a 2012 ballot.” She doesn’t elaborate on any of the other “back up plans.”
Livingston County residents are familiar with Day’s back up plans when the “LOVE” group’s attempt to censor books failed, and when it became clear it would fail they hinted for months at a “plan B” that tuned out to be nothing.
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