• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Events
  • Donate
  • About
  • Contact

The Ballenger Report

Bill Ballenger: #1 Political Pundit in Michigan
All the Truth, All the Time
Michigan's Only "No Spin Zone"
Who is Running for What? Who Will Win?
Can Democrats Seize Total Control of Michigan Government in 2022?
Flint Water Crisis: What's Really Going On!
Politicians
Politicians
You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Michigan Supreme Court: Can Democrats Repeat Their 2008 Success?

Michigan Supreme Court: Can Democrats Repeat Their 2008 Success?

March 31, 2016 by tbreport Leave a Comment

(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 the Nov. 8 general election ballot are held by the GOP — incumbent David Viviano, who will be running for a full eight-year term, and Joan Larsen, who must run for the unexpired two-year portion of the term she was appointed to fill last year. Gov. Rick Snyder had to make the appointment because Justice Mary Beth Kelly, who had been elected in 2010, resigned before the end of her fifth year on the court to return to private practice.

In other words, if both Viviano and Larsen win, the court stays 5R/2D. If either (but not both) loses, the GOP’s majority will shrink to 4-3. If the Democrats sweep both contests, they will gain a 4-3 advantage, their first since a brief, five-month period in late 2010 and only the second time since 1998.

In both 2012 and 2014, there were three justiceships at stake in the general election, in each case with the same 5R/2D split in effect. In both elections, Democrats had to sweep all three contests to regain a majority on the court. All the Republicans had to do was win two of the three races to maintain their 5-2 edge, and that’s what they did.

In Michigan, It’s tough to beat a sitting Supreme Court justice running for election (or any judge at the appellate, circuit, district or probate levels) because of the so-called “incumbency” ballot designation, where the jurist’s office title appears beneath his or her name. The last time an incumbent was defeated was 2008, when Chief Justice Cliff Taylor was upset by challenger Diane Hathaway, who had been nominated by the Democrats.

Before Taylor, the last Supreme to be ousted in an election was Democrat Thomas Giles Kavanagh in 1984, by Republican Dorothy Comstock Riley

Who on the Democratic side might consider running this year? Supposedly 20th District Judge Mark Plawecki of Dearborn Heights, husband of state Rep. Julie Plawecki (D-Dearborn heights), may run against Larsen, but no challenger to Viviano for the full eight-year term has yet emerged.

Both Democrats and Republicans formally nominate their candidates at their fall state conventions later this year. Then, in another electoral quirk peculiar to Michigan, they run as non-partisans in the 11/8 finale.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Newsletter Sign-up

Receive The Ballenger Report in your inbox!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Follow on twitter

Tweets by @Bill_Ballenger
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Upcoming Ballenger Events

  • No events
  • © 2023 · The Ballenger Report · Login · Sitemap

    Support The Ballenger Report - Contribute Today!

    Thank you for visiting! You have let us know that what we produce about Michigan politics and government matters to you. More people than ever are reading and listening to what we put on our news site, and the 2022 election was especially momentous. Your support makes all the difference.

    As you know, unlike many news websites, we haven’t put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism as open as we can, but we need to ask for your help. We are editorially independent, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism remains truly free from commercial influence or bias. We are not subsidized. We don’t put up paid advertisements. No one edits our Editor. No one steers our opinion.

    But The Ballenger Report (TBR) takes time, money and hard work to produce. If everyone who reads or listens to our material — and likes it! — helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.

    Whatever you might want to contribute will help TBR continue. Thank you.

    Contribute to The Ballenger Report