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A little-noticed lawsuit has been filed in the state Court of Claims challenging the constitutionality of the $617 million financial rescue and restructuring plan for Detroit’s beleaguered public schools, and the plaintiffs appear to have a strong chance to be successful. Amazingly, those plaintiffs include the elected Detroit school board members, the Keep the Vote/No […]

Few Michigan politicians in the past half-century have had a more varied, productive life than former state Senator/Congressman John J.H. “Joe” Schwarz (R-Battle Creek), an otolaryngologist whose career in public service was almost an anti-climax to all that had gone before. Schwarz submitted himself to an hour and half-long videotaped interview on July 8 for […]

Thomas J. Cleary was 32 years old, married with six kids to feed, and out of a job through no fault of his own. Prowling the empty halls of the Hollister Bldg. on Allegan Street in downtown Lansing, he wondered, “How did I wind up here? Can I turn things around?” He did, and here’s […]

A lot of races, many candidates, a few polls, tons of speculation — but what are the ODDS on what will happen in coming days, weeks and months in Campaign 2016, particularly as it relates to Michigan? Here is The Ballenger Report’s morning line: Odds Hillary Clinton will win Democratic Presidential Nomination: 1-10 Odds on […]

Some political observers think so.  Republicans are in charge of everything in state government, they say, and if anything’s wrong and if you think the “country” is on the “wrong track,” well, the GOP must be to blame, right? So, take it out on Republicans at the polls. Is that really how voters are thinking? […]

What do you need to do to be a successful candidate in raising money? What does an Ingham County Commissioner do?   LANSING—The Friday Morning Podcast, a podcast hosted on Bill Ballenger’s website, www.theballengerreport.com and produced by Dennis Denno, today uploaded the latest podcast with Rebecca Bahar-Cook, the CEO of Capital Fundraising Associates.   Bahar-Cook […]

… starting in 1833, when the first William Sylvester Ballenger was born in Wayne County, Indiana, just west of Richmond. His son, my grandfather, was born Dec. 5, 1866, the year after the Civil War ended. This WSB arrived in Flint, Michigan, in 1888 as a stenographer/bookkeeper for the old Flint Wagon Works (a buggy […]

It appears so, but we’ll have to wait till the Nov. 8 general election to find out for sure. For now, however, it’s easy to make a case that the Michigan GOP is more strongly in command of state government than at any time since just after World War II. In 1947-’48, all eight statewide […]

(Posted June 19) The Michigan-born son of a former top state political organizer has just helped spearhead the re-election of a Republican mayor of America’s eighth-largest city who defies every GOP stereotype. The same day that Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in California’s June 7 Democratic presidential primary, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer was re-elected, […]

(Posted June 17) The editor of a left-wing online website plays Paul Revere for the Democratic Party in a new book, but he acknowledges Dems have already lost the battles of Lexington and Concord. The best they can hope for is Stony Point somewhere down the road. With the politically-incorrect title “RATF**KED,” now available in […]