House passes early voting bill that will not get by Senate Republicans

The Michigan House continued its quest to improve voter turnout and make it easier for people to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. This time, the House approved a bill that will allow early voting in Michigan.

On Thursday, the House approved House Bill 4090 by a vote of 58-50 that will allow Michigan the same convenience we saw voters in other states enjoy. The common sense measure gives local clerk's plenty of leeway in how to do it.

The polls will be open on Friday, Saturday and Monday before each election. The clerk's office is already required to be open on the last Saturday before the election to collect absentee ballots, so it's just an extra two days. The clerk only has to open one polling place, instead of all the precincts, which could just be the local township, village or city hall where the clerk is already. It also only requires the polling place to be open for eight hours a day, and the clerk can pick the hours.

This will increase voter turnout by being open for working people on the weekend. The problem is this bill is tie-barred to HB 4048, a bill to allow people to vote with an absentee ballot for no reason. But the Republican-controlled Senate has jumped through hoops to disentrance voters, and it refuses to allow a vote on HB 4048, that was just approved by the House in September, as well refusing to act on the Senate version.

The Senate has been the biggest obstacle to getting anything passed, and it took one more step in that direction this week.

Thursday was the last scheduled session day during the Lame Duck session, and all bills not passed by the end of the month are dead. There are three tentative session days scheduled for next week, and three the week of Dec. 16. But when the Senate adjoined on Thursday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, surprised the entire Senate when he said the Senate will not come back until Wednesday instead of Tuesday, meaning there is now only a maximum of five days left to accomplish some major legislation.

The House was in session from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in an attempt to address this major legislation, but Bishop's ego is again holding the state hostage.

According to subscription only MIRS and Gongwer, Bishop said the Senate will not address any legislation until Gov. Jennifer Granholm issues her budget-cutting Executive Order. But the Governor has said all along she wants to wait on cuts in light of plans for a federal stimulus package, as well as talks on cuts with legislative leaders. Why not have an agreement or a consonance in place on cuts before an EO with cuts is issued.

You will have to ask Bishop's ego.

Michigan Senate promulgates 2009 Senate session schedule

The Michigan Senate Majority Floor Leader has promulgated the 2009 Senate session through the summer, and it does not look very ambitious.

The Republican-controlled Senate will not meet until Jan. 14. Following that one session day, there is a tentative session set for Jan. 20 that follows the normal routine of meeting Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The first solid session day is not until Jan. 27.

The schedule follows the normal routine until it takes the week of Feb. 24 off, and session continues again until the two-week spring break on April 7. Then it's back to work until the session breaks for the summer on June 25.

The Democratically-controlled House has not yet promulgated its schedule for the next session, but the first order of business will be to swear in the 44 new House members shortly after the New Year. The Senate has traditionally been the place where bills go to die, and that will most likely continue. It remains to be seen if the Senate will practice any bipartisanship this time around with the House Democrats picking up nine additional seats.

Meanwhile, there are only three session days left in the current Lame Duck session that begins next Tuesday, and it appears it will not be enough for the ambitious Lame Duck agenda. Among the things Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop and other legislative leaders say they want to address in Lame Duck is the expansion of Cobo Hall in Detroit, getting an agreement for development of a light rail system along the Woodward Corridor in metro Detroit, completing action on promise zone legislation that will help communities allow residents to attend colleges free of tuition costs, addressing the surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax (MBT), foreclosure problems in the state and the workplace smoking ban.

In addition, the fiscal crisis is having a negative effect on the budget, and budget cuts may be addressed in Lame Duck. There are tentative session days set for the week of Dec. 9 and Dec. 16, and indications are they will needed and used. It's unclear if there will be marathon session days like the Legislature experienced last October and November when the budget was approved, but it's possible.

Time running short on Michigan Legislative session

Time is running short for the Michigan Legislature to act on a number of bills before they die when the Legislature adjourns for the year on December 27.

All bills not signed into law before December 27 will die, and they must be reintroduced when the new Legislature goes into session on January 6. There are only five scheduled session days in the Lame Duck session before the legislature adjourns, with six tentative session days. This week the Legislature will meet on Wednesday and Thursday before it takes a two-week fall, or deer hunting, break before it comes back on December 2.

Among the Lame Duck priorities are reaching an agreement on expanding Cobo Hall in Detroit, getting an agreement for development of a light rail system along the Woodward Corridor in metro Detroit, completing action on promise zone legislation that will help communities allow residents to attend colleges free of tuition costs, addressing the surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) and the workplace smoking ban.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm also wants action on proposals to try and reduce home foreclosures in the state, such a proposal that would allow for a 90-day freeze on foreclosures. In addition, action on the complex Blue Cross/Blue Shield individual market bills could be in the works.

Hundreds of hours of man-hours have been put into the package that was first passed out of the House way back in October 2007. The Senate approved its own version, and a conference committee to iron out the differences between the two bodies was just appointed in September. If the bills are not approved before the 27th the process begins anew. With 46 new members taking the oath of office in the House in January, there may be some incentive to get the bills done in Lame Duck.

The financial crisis could also have an effect on the situation. BC/BS has warned that it is facing a potential financial disaster if changes are not made to the state's individual coverage market.

Late Lame Duck session cancels meeting

The House Lame Duck session has caused the cancellation of the blogger get together with Speaker-elect Andy Dillon and Majority Floor Leader Steve Tobocman at the Brighton Democratic Party HQ tonight. As reported by Matt Ferguson over at Michigan Liberal, the House Session that began at 10 a.m. this morning is expected to last late into the night.

This was supposed to be the last day of the current session before the new House members take over in January, but current Majority Floor Leader Chris Ward has scheduled session days next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They were on the schedule as tentative days, but the lame duck session will continue into next week.

The session with Reps. Dillon and Tobocman will be rescheduled at a later date. Thanks to Matt for both scheduling it and for getting the word out quickly about the cancellation.

Ward’s alleged campaign finance reform bills die predictable death in lame duck session

It just boggles the mind that all Chris Ward has to do to get on the front page of the Daily Press & Argus is to write a letter. If I were at all cynical I would say this is just one more attempt to help clean up his record for his next run at political office. Has anyone from that newspaper ever asked him a tough question, and if they did ask a tough question did he answer it and did the response ever make it by the editors?

A package of bills pushed by Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton Township, was approved by the House but is awaiting action in the Senate, where Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, has been reluctant to schedule it for consideration.
A spokesman for Sikkema repeated the senator's stance Friday that he won't bring the bills up.
But Ward argued that, with the lame-duck session under way, now is the perfect time to move forward.
In a letter to Sikkema and Senate Majority Floor Leader Bev Hammerstrom of Temperance, Ward urged action: "I commend you for your efforts to make this lame-duck session as meaningful as possible. This issue rises to that level of importance in my mind, and there is no better time than now when a significant number of members no longer have a vested interest in retaining the status quo."

This so-called "election campaign finance reform" package of bills that came through the committee Ward chairs does more to benefit his party than anyone else, especially HB 6128. It was the only bill in the five-bill package passed in the House last June that Ward actually sponsored, and it was also the only bill that received any opposition. In fact, it barley passed by five vote because it really benefits his party.

Rich Robinson, Director of the non-partisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said in published reports in June that the bill favors Republicans because they rely on wealthy individuals for contributions. He also said an individual who violates the law faces up to three years in prison and fines of up to $5,000 or both, but if a large corporation or company violates the law all they face is a fine of up to $10,000. Huge corporations like Enron, other energy companies and pharmaceutical companies that funnel huge amounts of cash to Republicans would have no deterrent to continuing that practice.

With just three session days remaining in the Lame Duck session, there is little chance the bills will even get to the Senate floor. Perhaps Ward should have looked at real campaign finance reform instead of putting on a show.

With Ward’s record of junkets, free meals from lobbyists, gifts to rich developers and doing the bidding of rich contributors anyone would have been suspicious when he pushed for alleged campaign finance reform.

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry was just one who was suspicious of his alleged campaign finance reform, writing, "Be still, my sloshing heart. Actually, my personal blood pump never even skipped a beat once I noticed that the sponsor of these bills was Chris Ward. That is the moral equivalent of Monica Lewinsky opening a charter school of chastity.”

After January we can expect to see a stab taken at passing some real campaign finance reform that benefits the people and not the Republican Party.