Angry voters miss opportunity

Most officeholders returned

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To bastardize Howard Beale in the movie “Network”: “We´re mad as hell, and we´re not going to do anything about it.”

People are fed up with partisan, ineffective government, and given a chance to change it, they voted for more of the same. That is, if they voted at all. Turnout last week at 3.2 million was less than in the last midterm election. Maybe this is the best we deserve.

In Michigan, voters returned Rick Snyder for a second term, but not by much. Snyder took 51 MICKEY HIRTEN percent of the vote compared with 47 percent for Democratic challenger Mark Schauer. Considering the Snyder´s whopping 18-point win over Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero in 2010, this was a squeaker. Clearly he lost a good deal of his one tough nerd cachet. As Sen.-elect Gary Peters showed, it is possible for a Democrat to win statewide office.

But other than dumping Snyder, Schauer never really offered voters a clear and believable alternative to an incumbent with a mixed record. While his positions on issues were often more progressive than Snyder´s, the certainty of a Republican Legislature guaranteed that they would remain campaign promises, nothing more. Certainly, he didn´t energize the Detroit Democratic base or younger voters, the party´s failed strategy to win close races.

The only real change in the Michigan political firmament was the election of Rep. Peters to replace the state´s long-serving senior senator, Carl Levin. Peters coasted to victory helped immensely by the inept campaign of former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land. For a candidate previously elected to statewide office, this was an odd, gaffe-filled performance of bad TV ads, hiding and petulant fighting. Peters ran a classic, if uninspired, campaign. No frills and fundamentals delivered voters.

For other statewide offices, voters returned the same cast for a second act. Bill Schuette is again attorney general, beating Mark Totten 52 percent to 44 percent; Ruth Johnson is secretary of state, beating Godfrey Dillard 54 percent to 43 percent . The contrast between the two is stark. Schuette has politicized the office to curry favor with the DeVos wing of the Republican Party and the money it will contribute to his likely campaign for governor in 2018. Johnson has focused on improving services provided by her department, generally eschewing overtly political actions.

Voters returned two incumbent justices to the Supreme Court: Brian Zahra and and David Viviano, both Republicans. They elected Richard Bernstein, a Democrat, to the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Michael Cavanagh. According to a report on the race by Paul Egan in the Detroit Free Press, spending was down significantly from 2012 — likely less than $8 million compared with $18 million in 2012. The Free Press reported that Bernstein, who is blind, spent nearly $2 million on his campaign, supplementing the fame he enjoyed from his father´s Sam Bernstein Law Firm television advertising.

Republicans held their gerrymandered districts in the congressional contests. For the 8th District seat, Mike Bishop beat Eric Schertzing, 55 percent to 42 percent. In the 7th District, Tim Walberg beat Pam Byrnes 53 percent to 41 percent; Justin Amash beat Bob Goodrich 58 percent to 39 percent.

Bishop, who will represent Ingham and Livingston counties and part of Oakland County, was elected to the seat being vacated by Rep. Mike Rogers, who is moving on to a career in talk radio. All three will serve in a House of Representatives that is even more Republican than the last. Bishop, very much in the pocket of the Ambassador Bridgeowning Maroun family, will fit in easily with the majority at ease with income inequality, looser environmental laws and fatter corporate profits.

For State House races, there were few surprises. Returning to thier House seats are Sam Singh and Andy Schorr, who faced token opposition. Tom Cochran won but had more of a fight against Republican John Hayhoe, perhaps best know for his ubiquitous asphalt business signs.

One Democratic incumbent, Theresa Abed, lost to Republican challenger Tom Barrett in a squeaker. Barrett got 17,715 votes to Abed´s 17,405, a 310-vote difference for the Eaton County seat. This was one of the most hotly contested State House races, with each candidate spending more than $100,000.

Republican Reps. Tom Leonard, Mike Carlton and Ben Glardon as well as Sens. Rick Jones, Joe Hune, and Mike Nofs were reelected. In what was essentially a plebiscite, Democratic Chrtis Hertel Jr. won the seat being vacated by term-limited Gretchen Whitmer with a 66 percent to 34 percent win over Republican Craig Whitehead.

Democrat George Perles will return to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, as will Republican Melanie Foster, who lost two years ago. Andrew Patrick Abood and Judith K. Berry were elected to serve on the Lansing Community College Board of Trustees.

As for local ballot initiatives, Ingham County voters supported the trails and parks millage, 55 percent to 45 percent and by an even wider margin — 70 percent to 30 percent — reauthorized the Health Service millage. Lansing voters approved three non-voting seats on the Board of Water & Light´s board for and granted the mayor emergency powers during a declared emergency.

East Lansing voted to keep the blight along the eastern stretch of Grand River Avenue. The city needed 60 percent of voters to give city officials an option to sell three parking lots near the Abbot-Albert intersection. It got 57 percent, which prompted DTN Management to withdraw its Park District project. Eaton County residents voted 51 percent to 49 percent for a millage to repair and rebuild roads.

And finally, Michigan voters decided to save the wolves, at least for now. They rejected a bid to establish a hunting season for wolves, barely off the endangered species list, and in a separate measure, denied the Department of Natural Resources the power to designate wolves and other species as game without legislative approval.

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