tbreport

(Posted March 31) Michigan voters won’t have as many Supreme Court justices to elect this year as was the case in 2012 and 2014, but November’s verdict could flip the partisan balance on the state’s high bench. That’s because the court is now five Republicans as opposed to only two Democrats, but both seats on […]

(Reposted March 31) “Make It Emphatic — Vote Straight Democratic!” That iconic slogan has been the Michigan Democratic Party’s campaign battle cry since the Depression, inciting voters to cast their ballots for every Democratic nominee on the general election ballot. Until this year, state law has made that easy for voters because all they had […]

(Posted March 24) The best overview of the Flint water crisis — what it means and what may lie ahead — is not to be found in anything produced by the so-called “mainstream media,” either in Michigan or elsewhere. Rather, it is a balanced, broadminded article in an obscure eight-page flier published this month in […]

(April 2) Do the impending retirements of U.S. Reps. Dan Benishek (R-MI 1) and Candice Miller (R-MI 10) really change the electoral outlook for the two major political parties come Nov. 8? Right now, the Michigan GOP enjoys a 9-5 advantage in its Congressional delegation (not counting the state’s two Democratic U.S. Senators). The likeliest […]

(Reposted April 24) Now that the April 19 filing and April 22 withdrawal deadlines are both behind us, we know there will be 41 open seats in the state House of Representatives on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. In 2014, with fewer open seats, nevertheless 42 new members were elected, plus Holly Hughes (R-Montague), […]

(March 9) The largest void in the state House in years — four open seats — was largely filled on March 8, the day of the Presidential Primary, when special elections in the 75th, 80th, and 82nd districts produced three new legislators. Two Republicans were chosen by voters to choose departed GOP lawmakers Todd Courser […]

(Reposted March 24) GOP Presidential aspirant Donald Trump didn’t win by the 20% margin most polls thought he would, but he did wind up with about 37% of the vote in the 3/8 Michigan Republican Primary election compared with Ted Cruz’s 25% and John Kasich’s 24%. Marco Rubio, who never really had a campaign going […]

Feel the Bern! (Posted on March 9) Bernie Sanders put it all on the line in Michigan, but even he didn’t think he had a chance to win here March 8 after every poll, national as well as state-based, showed him getting creamed in the Great Lakes State by Hillary Clinton. One poll, taken just […]

(Posted March 22) Ready for a “probability” theory? Walt DeVries, longtime executive assistant to former Michigan Gov. George Romney, Mitt Romney’s father, has responded to Mitt’s challenge in early March to replace GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee. DeVries, now retired in North Carolina, was a fellow delegate of George Romney at […]

(Posted March 9) It looked like Michigan would continue to get no respect in presidential politics. Before March 8, the conventional wisdom was that the Great Lakes State wouldn’t be a factor in determining whom the major parties’ presidential nominees were likely to be. After all, we never have been. This was despite the fact […]