The Ballenger Report

Trump-aligned challengers ousting GOP legislative incumbents By TODD RICHMOND and DAVID A. LIEB AP TODAY Aug. 6, 2022 Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talks to the media after Gov. Tony Evers addressed a joint session of the Legislature in the Assembly chambers during the Governor’s State of the State speech at the state Capitol, Feb. […]

Subject: Spotlight on The News (WXYZ TV/Channel 7 in Metro Detroit) & Off the Record (Michigan Public Television) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 15:18:39 -0400 Bill Ballenger, Tim Skubick, Chuck Stokes, Zoe Clark, Emily Lawler, Kyle Melinn & Ed Sarpolus Spotlight on the News: Inside the MI Primary with Bill Ballenger & Ed Sarpolus https://www.wxyz.com/news/political/spotlight-on-the-news/spotlight-on-the-news-inside-the-mi-primary-election-with-bill-ballenger-ed-sarpolus […]

Question 1): The five Republican candidates campaigning this year to be Michigan’s next governor have failed to disclose any information about their income, tax payments and charitable contributions over the last year, much less anything in the past, despite transparency pledges they have made on the campaign trail. As Craig Mauger of The Detroit News […]

Fringe GOP nominees give Democrats hope for the midterms by Douglas E. Schoen, Opinion Contributor The Hill July 21, 2022 Republicans have every reason to be optimistic about their party’s political prospects in this year’s midterm elections. Democrats are widely blamed for soaring inflation, President Biden’s approval rating just hit a record low and the GOP has approximately a […]

The great realignment Josh Kraushaar AXIOS/ Politics & Policy July 18. 2022 Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios Shifts in the demographics of the two parties’ supporters — taking place before our eyes — are arguably the biggest political story of our time. The big picture: Republicans are becoming more working class and a little more multiracial. Democrats […]

Question 1): A group called ‘Reproductive Freedom For All’ just turned in 753,759 petition signatures to the Secretary Of State to put legalized abortion on the November 8 ballot. That means tens of thousands of voters who are angry about Roe v Wade being overturned will turn out and probably vote for Democratic candidates as […]

Michigan losing population again, after decade of tepid growth, Census shows Deaths from COVID-19 were only part of what was driving population losses in Michigan during the past two years. So, too, were residents simply leaving the state … But why?   by Mike Wilkinson BRIDGE Magazine July 5, 2022 The COVID-19 pandemic hit many […]

Let’s start with a question about the never-ending Flint Water Crisis and then get into abortion: Earlier this week, the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled (6-0) that the case the state has been making against various officials in the administration of former Gov. Rick Snyder, including Nick Lyon, the ex-director of the state Dept. of […]

From his beloved Horton Bay in the northwest Lower Peninsula of Michigan, GT Long has penned a political memoir entitled “A Distant Rumble — The Unnoticed, Unreported World of Grassroots Politics.” It’s a hoot — an absorbing, funny page-turner of only 122 pages divided into a Prologue and some three and a half-dozen very brief […]

Question 1): The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley last Thursday on four misdemeanor charges, hours before the first high-profile hearing by a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Federal authorities in court records said Kelley climbed onto portions of the U.S. Capitol, encouraged and gestured to other […]