Columns

Jack Lessenberry

Contrasting
Election Results

November 11, 2011

Contrasting styles sometimes produce contrasting results. Take what just happened in Michigan and Ohio.

You might call it a “Tale of Two Republicans.” Freshman Govs. Rick Snyder and John Kasich took office in January, with somewhat similar agendas.

Both wanted to make their states more business friendly and felt it necessary to try to reduce and limit some of the perks given to state workers, including teachers. Each was lucky enough to come into office with large legislative majorities in both houses.

Kasich, however, went after the unions with what seemed like vindictive pleasure. He rammed a bill (now infamously known as SB2) through the legislature that eviscerated the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions.

Teachers, firefighters and police lost the right to binding arbitration in labor disputes and lost the right to strike.

Up in Michigan, Snyder got his legislature to do plenty to accomplish his reforms, cutting benefits at the state level and giving local governments strong incentives to follow suit. In September he signed legislation forbidding local governments from paying more than $5,500 annually in health care costs per employee, even if they wanted to do so.

He cut aid to education, over the protest of the teachers’ unions, and signed a law putting restrictions on tenure.

But Snyder said he had no interest in taking away collective bargaining rights from the unions. He avoided attack rhetoric and said he had no interest in ideology. Instead, he talked about “best practices,” getting expenses in line and “relentless positive action.”

So what happened?

Ohio’s governor managed to revitalize the unions as nothing has in decades. Unfortunately for him, he did this by becoming their enemy. Detroit native Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Columbus Dispatch that “the governor, by attempting to gut labor, may have strengthened it.”

He did indeed. Enough signatures were quickly gathered to put a measure repealing the law on the ballot. On election day this week, 61 percent of Ohioans rejected the anti-union bill.

Ohioans normally vote more conservative and more Republican than Michiganders. Even this week they appeared to approve another measure rejecting President Obama’s health insurance mandate by almost two to one. (Whether this is constitutional or not is another story.) But the governor’s strong-arm tactics backfired.

Meanwhile in Michigan, union anger against Rick Snyder never reached anything like the fevered pitch it did in Wisconsin and Ohio.

An attempt to recall the governor fizzled and was abandoned. Various attempts to recall GOP legislators also fizzled — all except one, the effort against State Rep. Paul Scott (R- Grand Blanc), who was chair of the House Education Committee.

And on election night, Scott was, indeed, recalled, after a furious campaign by the Michigan Education Association, the main teachers’ union, which spent heavily in an effort to oust him.

The MEA prevailed — barely. Unofficial results showed 12,284 voters supported removing him; 12,087 opposed the recall.

That result was heralded by some as a triumphant repudiation of Mr. Snyder’s policies — but that seems doubtful. Had Mr. Scott not been recalled, it would have been a clear repudiation of the MEA, which may have spent as much as $140,000 to try to oust him.

And Paul Scott had plenty of problems that had nothing to do with the Snyder administration. Less than two years after winning a swing seat in the legislature, Scott, who is still only 29, mounted an odd campaign for the GOP nomination for secretary of state last year.

His main issue? Keeping transsexuals from changing their sex on their drivers’ licenses. This may not have seemed like a major problem to most economically hard-pressed voters, but Scott claimed that it was a moral issue. While he didn’t come close to winning the nomination, he did anger the gay and bisexual community. What happened next alienated social conservatives.

Scott admitted that he had impregnated a woman who was on his state-paid staff — admitted it after she announced at a baby shower that he was the father. The woman apparently left the state payroll after she became pregnant and moved to his campaign staff.

The representative said he was happy about the pregnancy but wasn’t inclined to marry her. In any event, people may have voted to remove Scott for more than one reason.

It will be interesting to see how both governors now respond. In the case of Michigan, Scott’s loss makes barely a dent in the large GOP House majority, though it may be politically significant which party wins the special election to fill the vacancy on February 28.

In Ohio, Kasich said he needs “ to take a deep breath and reflect on what happened.” Whether that provokes any kind of midcourse correction, only time will tell.

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13th District Update
Two weeks ago I wrote about State Sen. Bert Johnson’s decision to take on longtime congressman John Conyers in the newly configured, solidly Democratic 13th District next year. Since then, State Rep. Shanelle Jackson (D-Detroit) and State Sen. Glenn Anderson (D-Westland) have made it clear they, too, are fully committed to the primary race.

This is a race in which the turnout could be barely half African-American. With three black candidates, and racial voting a frequent fact of life, Anderson’s chances may be very good indeed.

Veteran journalist and national Emmy Award winner Jack Lessenberry teaches at Wayne State University, serves as Michigan Radio’s senior political analyst and writes regularly for several publications. He also serves as The Toledo Blade’s writing coach and ombudsman and is host of the weekly television show Deadline Now on WGTE-TV in Toledo.