More than half a million Michiganders signed petitions supporting the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics initiative. Now it will be on the ballot in November.
They collected signatures, cleared the certification process and got ballot language approved.
Then Lansing got involved.
On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Michigan House voted 77–26 to enact the MMOP citizen initiative before it could reach voters in November so they could adopt and amend it.
That sounds, at first glance to folks not deep in the trenches, like lawmakers simply agreeing with the proposal.
But there was a very important catch.
Under Michigan’s citizen-initiative process, lawmakers get 40 days after certification to enact a proposed law themselves. If both chambers approve it, it becomes law without a statewide election. If they don’t, voters decide the proposal at the general election.
And those two paths do NOT create equally durable laws.
If voters enact an initiated law at the ballot box, changing it later generally requires a three-fourths vote of both chambers of the Legislature. If lawmakers enact it themselves, a future Legislature can amend or repeal it with an ordinary legislative majority and the governor’s approval.
That distinction is why MMOP supporters viewed the House vote not as an embrace of the campaign, but as an effort to intercept it before voters could decide. This was not done in good faith or with the best of intentions in mind. This was in the simplest of terms, MAGA Matt Hall fuckery.
Democratic Reps. Carrie Rheingans and Betsy Coffia had warned before the vote that legislative adoption could keep MMOP off the ballot while leaving it more vulnerable to changes later. MMOP campaign manager Maura Cowley went further, calling the House maneuver “political gamesmanship.”
House Speaker Matt Hall rejected that characterization because it was true and made him look bad. (This happens a lot)
But the House could not make that decision alone.
Enter Democratic Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks.
After the House vote, Brinks announced that the Democratic-controlled Senate would NOT take up the initiative.
Her reasoning was straightforward: more than half a million Michiganders had signed petitions, and she believed voters should be the ones to decide.
“The message from Michiganders is clear: They want this on the ballot in November.”
Brinks, who Jocelyn Benson has chosen to run as her lieutenant governor, said the Senate would not use the legislative process to “subvert the will of the voters.”
And without Senate approval, the House vote cannot enact MMOP. Hat tip to Brinks on that one.
So what would MMOP actually do?
The proposal would impose new campaign-finance restrictions on businesses whose financial relationship with state government creates obvious questions about political influence.
It would prohibit certain political contributions from:
regulated electric and gas utilities, including companies such as DTE Energy and Consumers Energy;
companies receiving more than $250,000 annually in government contracts; and
certain people and organizations with substantial connections to those companies.
It would also expand disclosure requirements for political communications, including online communications and spending that clearly identifies candidates or ballot questions even when the communication stops short of explicitly saying “vote for” or “vote against.”
That would represent a significant change in a state where regulated utilities and major contractors have long been substantial political spenders.
A MAGA group funded by out of state money called Protect MI Free Speech has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to overturn the Board of State Canvassers’ certification of the petitions, arguing that election officials did not properly apply signature-verification procedures. The Board of State Canvassers certified the initiative after determining that MMOP had submitted enough valid signatures. This will likely fail.
Barring unlikely intervention by the Michigan Supreme Court, one of Michigan’s biggest fights over corporate political spending is now poised to end where its organizers intended:
with Michigan voters on the ballot November 3.
Special thanks to the legislators who stood with MMOP in the House yesterday.
Michigan Representatives who stood with MMOP:
Rep Kelly Breen
Rep Erin Brynes
Rep Brenda Carter
Rep James (Jim) Desana
Rep Emily Dievendorf
Rep Kimberly Edwards
Rep Morgan Foreman
Rep Kristian Grant
Rep Kara Hope
Rep Jason Hoskins
Rep Matt Koleszar
Rep Matt Longjohn
Rep Sharon MacDonell
Rep Donavan McKinney
Rep Reggie Miller
Rep Jason Morgan
Rep Tonya Myers Phillips
Rep Veronica Paiz
Rep Laurie Pohutsky
Rep Natalie Price
Rep Carrie Rheingans
Rep Dylan Wegela
Rep Regina Weiss
Rep Jimmie Wilson Jr
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Great move by Winnie Brinks. Now the people can decide instead of the initiative floundering around in legislature hell. Womp, womp...you lose evil Matt Hall!
The legislature has had YEARS to fix this and shot down every effort by honest people on both sides of the aisle. How shameful to see them still pitifully grasping for the power to be crooked when the people do the work to take it away from them.