Sorg to run for Byrum's seat

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Former WJIM-AM radio personality Walt Sorg won’t get a chance to succeed term-limited Rep. Joan Bauer in the 68th House District. 

The state’s new redistricting lines have Sorg living in the rural Ingham County-based 67th district, now represented by Rep. Barb Byrum. That sets up an entirely different dynamic for the former Wheatfield Township resident.

Under the old lines, Sorg would have his hands full in a likely crowded Democratic primary. An early Mark Grebner poll had Sorg hovering at around the 4 percent mark and polling fourth out of four hypothetical candidates. While Kelly Berneros hopes of being a state rep in 2012 have essentially vanished after her impaired-driving arrest in which pot was allegedly found in her car, Sorg still would have needed to leapfrog Ingham County Commissioner Andy Schor and one, if not two, sitting Lansing City Council members, Derrick Quinney and A’Lynne Robinson.

Things are much different in the new 67th, which outside of some Lansing boundary changes and Glen Oak Township, is the same as the old 67th.

A few names are floating around there — Lansing Fire Chief Tom Cochran being the most prominent — but the Democratic field isnt as deep in the 67th. There also isnt another Byrum interested in running.

It puts Sorg in a better position in the primary. The General Election is a different story. Ed Sarpolus of Target Insyght has the new 67th at a 52 percent Democrat base. The Dem base in the 68th is an untouchable 73 percent.

Money will be spent in the 67th and Sorg knows it. Instead of having to raise $75,000 for a competitive run in Lansing, hell need to spend $500,000 to knock off the Republican nominee in the 67th. More mail. More radio. More TV. Both caucuses could open up their wallets, which means even more money.

For that reason, Sorg told me that he doesnt want a knockdown, drag-out fight in the primary. If the party establishment gets behind another Democratic candidate, Sorg told me he would bow out.

Until then, Sorg is making the moves of a real candidate, meeting with groups and influential people in rural Ingham County and hearing about their frustrations with the states cuts to K-12 education and the resulting teacher layoffs. The Republicans are to blame, he said.

If he can capture enough of that energy, Sorg could be the candidate to spoil the Rs long plans to paint Ingham County red.


Whitmer, Byrum face recall effort

Recall fever, it turns out, isn’t just limited to Republicans. 

Holt man Robert J. Walter filed recall petition paperwork recently against both of his Democratic legislators — Rep. Barb Byrum and Sen. Gretchen Whitmer — for voting no on tightening up the exceptions to the states 48-month lifetime limit on welfare benefits.

Walter has a clarity hearing Aug. 1 in front of the Ingham County Elections Commission, where he may get the go-ahead to start passing around petitions. The chances that either Whitmer or Byrum is leaving office prematurely are somewhere between slim and none.

The interesting news here is that conservatives are firing back against Democratic-aligned activists who already have 19 recalls underway against individual legislators statewide. That doesnt include the current attempts against Gov. Rick Snyder or Attorney General Bill Schuette.

None of these Republicans are getting booted through a recall either. The drive is more of an attempt to accumulate lists of supporters and gin up the base in time for next years legislative elections, where Dems hope to eat away at that 63-37 minority.

Walter is making the statement through his recall filings that some people like the Republican majoritys plans for spending restraints and that Democrats shouldnt think theyre getting a free publicity ride until November 2012.

The vocal minority always sounds louder because rhetoric is all they have. Those in charge appear to have less support because their arguments arent always out there. They dont have to be. They won the battle of words in the last election and now have the power to drive an agenda.


Chamber survey bags Council

The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce ponied up at least some of the money for the recent survey showing that 67 percent of Lansing voters think the City Council is “dysfunctional” and that the body deserves a D for its handling of taxpayer money.

Legislative bodies, as a whole, rarely fare well in polls anyway. Respondents are more likely to hammer on a faceless collective body than their own individual representative.

But after the Council sandbagged Pat Gillespies riverfront plan last fall for lack of a project labor agreement, the results from the Marketing Resource Group survey of 300 Lansing residents would have only been surprising if they had given the Council a glowing review.

The chamber wants labor loving incumbents Carol Wood and Derrick Quinney out. The survey is an obvious attempt to lay the groundwork for that.

(Kyle Melinn is editor of the Capitol newsletter MIRS. E-mail him at melinn@lansingcitypulse.com.)

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