LANSING — Michigan government will have a distinctly new look starting New Year’s Day: For the first time in history, the state’s three top leaders will be women: Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel.
All are energetic, all in their 40s and all are Democrats; Lt. Gov.-elect Garlin Gilchrist, the only male elected executive, is even younger – 36 – and African-American. For the first time in history, there’s not a single white male among the state’s four top leaders.That’s a breathtaking change; prior to 1970, all these posts had always been won by white men. But in Michigan, 2018 was the year of an un-paralled pink and blue wave that also saw Democrat Megan Cavanagh defeat an incumbent GOP Michigan Supreme Court justice.
But once they are in office – how will they govern?
What’s clear is that they will face major hurdles. A majority of Michiganders also voted for Democratic candidates for both houses of the legislature. But while their party made gains, thanks to gerrymandering, Republicans will still control the Michigan House of Representatives by a 58-52 margin, and the state senate, 22-16.
Gretchen Whitmer’s main campaign theme was “rebuild Michigan” and her battle cry was “fix the damn roads.”
That drew enthusiastic agreement from voters, who have gotten exasperated with the roads’ terrible condition and the government’s failure to commit even money to adequately repair them. (Essentially, Gov. Rick Snyder was willing – but his fellow Republicans in the legislature refused to raise the tax revenue needed.)
While campaigning, Whitmer said repeatedly “I will write a budget that has $3 billion dedicated to roads. I’m hoping the legislature will work with me. If they don’t, I will go straight to the people and get a bond passed.”
That was more honest than her Republican opponent, Bill Schuette, who claimed he could fix the roads without raising taxes. But even Whitmer avoided using the “T” word, and it isn’t clear whether voters realize they’ll have to pay more.
The governor-elect also said she wanted to eliminate an unpopular tax on pensions Snyder persuaded lawmakers to enact. But she hasn’t said how she proposes to make up the estimated $250-$300 million in revenue that tax produces.
Attorney General-elect Dana Nessel has promised to be the most aggressive fighter for consumer protection and the common man since the legendary Frank Kelley left that office in 1999.
But Republicans, angry that a liberal Democrat won the job, passed a law that would allow the legislature to intervene in any of the 40,000 or so cases her office prosecutes every year.
The governor has so far not indicated whether he will sign or veto that law, but many scholars say it represents unconstitutional legislative branch meddling with the executive branch’s powers.
Mike Cox, a Republican who was state attorney general from 2003 to 2011, campaigned hard to try to defeat Nessel, who he said held “many far-left positions that I find just plain wrong.”
But he strongly urged Snyder, who leaves office at noon on January 1, to veto the attempt to curtail her powers. “The people have spoken, and their choice must be respected,” he said.
Many other issues will face the incoming governor and legislators, who may take a while to find their footing. Thanks to term limits, more than three-fourths of the state senators are new.
Building a bipartisan coalition to actually get things done may be challenging for a number of reasons. The new Speaker of the Michigan House, 30-year-old Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) is a hard-core conservative and religious fundamentalist who last year indicated he was in favor of entirely abolishing the state income tax.
But there is some reason for optimism: Governor-elect Whitmer served for more than a decade in both the house and senate, and is intimately familiar with how Lansing works.
Neither Snyder, a Republican, or his predecessor, Democrat Jennifer Granholm, had any prior experience dealing with the legislature – and it hurt their effectiveness. After he was first elected, Snyder met with Republican state senators, and presented them with a clock showing them how long he wanted to spend on each bill.
“After he left, we threw the damn thing in the wastebasket,” one of them later told me. Whitmer is not likely to make the mistake of treating the legislative branch as her servants.
But whether she can get enough Republicans to make common cause with her to achieve progress remains to be seen.
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Planning on sending Christmas cards next year? This has little to do with Michigan politics – but it might be smart to go to a post office today and buy up as many Christmas stamps as you think you might need in 2019 – and a bunch of regular ones as well.
Starting on January 27, the cost of a first-class stamp will jump by a nickel a stamp, to 55 cents. Christmas and other stamps marked “forever,” however, will still be good regardless of what you paid, or when you bought them.
