Republican candidates afraid of voters and refuse to debate

Republican political candidates in Michigan continue to hide and do everything possible to avoid debating their opponents and avoid a side-by-side comparison as they try and run the clock out because they believe they have a large lead, bought with a massive influx of cash from corporations.

For the most part, journalists have let them get away with it, but WDIV-TV4 anchor Devin Scillian called them out Sunday on his weekly political program “Flash Point.” He invited the top of the ticket – Governor, Attorney General and Secretary of State – to debate on the show. But as usual, only the Democrats accepted.

Scillian relented and allowed GOP nominee Rick “Chief Executive Outsourcer” Snyder to appear separately on a prime-time Flash Point last week, and WDIV made sure big, mean Lansing Mayor and Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Virg Bernero got no where near the Outsourcer.

But When the Republican AG and SOS candidates declined to appear on the set at the same time with the Democratic nominees, Scillian - to his credit - held his ground, and said whoever shows up will go on the air in the state’s largest media market.

Predictably, only AG Democratic nominee David Leyton and Democratic SOS nominee Jocelyn Benson showed up to defend their positions and went on the air, and the Republicans chickened out.

On Sunday’s “Two guys named Joe” podcast, Joe DiSano and Joe Munem summed it up best. They said that if the Republicans refuse to debate then they can’t talk about transparency, they can’t talk about openness and they can’t talk about being accessible to voters. They can talk about those things, but they will be hypocrites.

The rest of the conservative, corporate media has failed to point out this hypocrisy. Let’s hope the voters see the truth.

MIRS launches new political podcast

There is a new political talk show in town, and for a political junkie like me that’s a great thing.

MIRS (Michigan Information & Research Service), the subscription only newsletter that covers the Capitol, launched an hour long podcast focusing on Michigan politics on Monday, and it will run weekly on Monday. The podcast is hosted by MIRS’ Editor Kyle Melinn. Panelists include MIRS’ Publisher John T. Reurink and Correspondent Susan Demas, who also writes for the Michigan Truth Squad.

It features discussion and interviews, and the best part is that even though MIRS is subscription only, the podcast is free.

I love podcasts, which are kind of like audio blogs. They are excellent for a slow day in the office because you can listen anytime you want and pause them anytime you want. Some podcasts are just recordings of radio shows, like the Stephanie Miller Podcast I subscribe to, but there are some great local ones, too.

One of my favorites that comes from a broadcast radio show comes from the Lansing City Pulse. The hour long show is broadcast on Wednesday evenings on 89 FM, the Michigan Sate University radio station, but its podcasts are archived on the City Pulse web site. The shows go all the way back to October of 2008, and they have filled some slow afternoons at the office. The show was, until last week, also hosted by Melinn and City Pulse Publisher Berl Schwartz. The show has guests that generally cover three areas: politics, the arts and the local Lansing area.

My favorite non-radio podcast is called “Two Guys Named Joe” put out about one a week by political consultants Joe DiSano and Joe Munem. One is a Democrat and one is a Republican, and they offer up lots of great inside information.

One of the newer but really good podcasts on Talk Lansing is “The Back Room: Michigan Politics” hosted by veteran journalist and radio host Walt Sorg. The show features a weekly rotating roundtable of mid-Michigan political activists that has included Ari Adler, former press secretary to the Republican leader of the Michigan Senate; Mark Grebner, Democratic political consultant and longtime Ingham County Commissioner; and Kathie Dunbar, Lansing city councilperson and head of the South Lansing Community Development Association.

Political consultants say Steele campaign is a waste of GOP assets

Rob Steele has no change at unseat the Dean of the U.S. House - U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn – for the 15th District Congressional seat, according to political consultants Joe DiSano and Joe Munem.

The two – one Republican and one Democrat - operate the firm Main Street Strategies, and they have a long list of successful clients who win elections. They also record a weekly political podcast called “Two Guys Named Joe,” and on the Oct. 1 edition they put the race in proper perspective.

“This is just bored reporters with nothing else to do taking an internal poll and running wild with it,” they said. “It’s absurd.”

They said with the make up of the 15th District - even though it was gerrymandered by Republicans to pit former Democratic Congressman Lynn Rivers against Dingell – Steele has no chance of winning even in a great Republican year. They said you do not catch Dingell sleeping.

“This is a guy who is back home in the district, all over the district every weekend,” they said. “He (Dingell) doesn’t take weekends off, he doesn’t hide in Mclean,Va. away from voters in Michigan’s 15th House District; he’s out there, in Monroe, he’s in Ann Arbor, he’s in Western Wayne. The voters know who this guy is; the voters are comfortable with this guy.”

They said the race was a waste of Republican resources, and Republicans should be spending money on races where the results are not pre-determined like this one.

“Every dollar you spend on Michael (sic) Steele or Michael Steel raises is a dollar less that is not going to Rocky Raczkowski, Dr. Benishek or Tim Walberg,” they said.

They said Republicans can’t let their personal dislike for Dingell interfere with the fact Steele has no chance of winning.

“You know what John Dingell is thinking: spend it,” they said. “Bring it on; come at me, spend it; my shoulders are broad enough to take it.”

Candidate against Rogers emerges

Democrats in the 8th Congressional District were disappointed, and some angry, when Democratic Kande Ngalamulume suddenly announced earlier this month he was dropping out of the race past the withdraw deadline, but a write in candidate has emerged.

Clinton County Democrat Lance Enderle announced he plans to run for the seat as a write in. According to subscription only MIRS, there is a possibility Enderle’s name could actually appear on the November ballot instead of Ngalamulume’s. Enderle would need more votes than Ngalamulume in the Aug. 3 primary to replace him on the Nov. 2 ballot. But there is also another way.

If Ngalamulume moves out of state, or dies, a provision in state law is triggered that would allow the chairs, secretaries and treasurers of all give five counties within the 8th District to convene a special 15-person panel to name a replacement nominee after the Aug. 3 primary, according to MIRS.

Ngalamulume is reportedly in Philadelphia or Chicago looking for work. If he registers to vote in one of those states, the panel will be triggered. MIRS said Ngalamulume “told a local supporter this week that once he finds a job out of state, he would register to vote at that location.”

“However, Ngalamulume also told 8th Congressional District Democrats in an e-mail a couple weeks ago that he would not change his voter registration information, meaning a write-in candidate would need to defeat him during the Aug. 3 primary in order for his name not to appear on the Nov. 2 ballot.”

Political consultant Joe DiSano on his pod cast, “Two Guys Named Joe,” said Bob Alexander, who ran twice against incumbent Republican Mike Rogers, is helping Ngalamulume pay off his estimated $5,000 debt.

Ngalamulume’s withdraw this late in the game angered many people, and DiSano was one of the most vocal.

“What he is doing is reprehensible and shameful,” he said.

MIRS said “Alexander said Ngalamulume told him in an e-mail four days ago that he would change his voter registration information once he found a new job, which would open up the chance for the Democrats to pick someone new.

The 8th Congressional District Democratic Committee is meeting tomorrow in Bath, and this will most likely be a topic of discussion.

Enderle is a progressive Democrat, and he says he believes in small business, agriculture, tax equality and individual Freedom. He said he believes money has nearly destroyed the political process, and he has pledged he will not take any PAC or any special interest money.

Health care petition drive signs up GOP donors

Political consultants Joe DiSano and Joe Munem offered more ammo for their theory that the petition drive to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law is little more than an exercise to build a mailing list of Republican supporters and contributors for the upcoming election.

The Astroturf “tea parties” are a Republican effort, and on their April 24 pod cast, the Republican and Democratic strategists connected the dots to show the petition drive is an effort to collect names and addresses the Republicans can solicit support and money from.

DiSano and Munem first floated that theory earlier this month, and in talking about the Republican primary in Michigan’s 9th Congressional district for the chance to run against U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, they again floated that theory.

Perennial candidate Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski and Paul Welday are the Republicans in the race. DiSano and Munem made the point that Glenn Clark, the Republican Chair of the 9th Congressional District who is supposed to neutral, is working for Strategic National Consulting, a Republican political consulting firm owned by Chuck Yob.

Raczkowski is a client of Strategic National, so how can Clark be neutral? Clark is also, apparently, the chair of the Oakland County Tea Party,” what ever that is.

One things political consultants do is collect and sell to candidates lists of supporters and potential donors. That’s exactly want Clark is doing with this petition drive, and he is directly getting the names right from the petitions.

HC petition drive is just building a Republican mailing list

There is no doubt that the petition drive to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and placeing a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law is a Republican effort to stop the President from getting a victory, and Howell School board member and head teabagger Wendy Day provided more evidence of that with an email to supporters.

Republican politicians from Mike Rogers and “Mad Thad” McCotter to Michigan Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate ‘Manoogian’ Mike Cox and Senate candidate Joe Hune have been appearing at teabag events courting the fringe that controls the Republican Party.

Because the petition language was not approved by the Michigan State Board of Canvassers before signatures were collected, this is clearly not a serious petition drive. To place the constitutional amendment before voters in November, they must collect the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters just to place it on the ballot.

Political pundits like Joe DiSano and Joe Munem said because the language has not been approved, the petition drive is little more than an exercise to build a mailing list of Republican supporters for the upcoming election. Day’s email confirms that.

“The Republican Party has pledged to help us by working to collect 100,000 signatures,” Day wrote in an email. “The GOP Fix-it Centers are willing to serve as drop off locations as well as places to pick up petitions.”