Cooling Recall Mania

May 28, 2010

Maybe you remember slogging through your high school government course when they explained how a bill becomes a law. There’s one element they left out: intimidation.

Take a gander out there on the political landscape and you will see it is alive and well.

Think Tea Party, think labor leaders, and think any group that disagrees with what lawmakers are doing.

Former Gov. John Engler raised intimidation to an art form and state AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney is no slouch either. He warned House Democrats who tossed school employees under the bus the other day on the retirement bill that they “are in danger” of losing union support this election year.

The ultimate weapon, of course, in playing the “we’ll get you” card is recall. Michigan is one of a handful of states that allow it, and there is a quiet effort underway to revamp the recall law to make it more difficult for dissidents to use it against elected officials.

Everyone remembers the trouncing two former state senators took after they supported former Gov. Jim Blanchard’s embattled income tax hike in 1984.

That changed the course of history and literally opened the door for Engler to become governor.

But if Sen. Mickey Switalski has his way, the recall hoops would be placed so high that recalls themselves might become history.

Under the current law, anyone in public office can be recalled based on “conduct in office.” That means if elected men don’t put the toilet seat down in the unisex johns, the women could force them out of office.

In other words, some legislators believe the recall law is just a tad too liberal and needs some tightening up.

And they have tried to tighten it up over the years. However, each effort has gone up in smoke. Many intimidated lawmakers were simply too afraid to vote yes for fear of what might happen back home with all those anti-government types…and you know who you are.

The Roseville Democrat Mr. Switalski is not afraid. He’s losing his Senate job because of term limits and may be looking for work after his bid to unseat Congressman Sandy Levin goes caput.

Instead of changing the reasons for a recall — the approach that others tried — the crafty senator is coming in the back door. He has legislation to reduce the number of elections in the state.

Currently, local and state governments can hold elections in February, May, August and November. The recall crowd loves to stage its recalls in the dead of winter when voter turnout is low and the chances of recall are high.

You see, the passionate voters who loathe elected officials will go out in a blizzard to vote, while the typical voter, who might actually like the targeted politician, finds something else to do.

That’s why two-thirds of the recalls are successful.

Switaliski would revamp the election law to limit recalls to November. That automatically eliminates the two winter elections and the one in summer, which does not draw a lot of voters either.

It’s actually an ingenious attempt to stick a spoke in recall mania, because the legislation is being sold as a way to save money by eliminating elections. The “recall” factor is a hidden agenda.

At least it was until now.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s Senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972. He also covers the Capitol and politics for WLNS-TV6 in Lansing.

Tim Skubick Extra Extra… (A weekly bonus only for Dome readers)

Weak Impact of Rallies
It’s impossible to count the number of protestors who have been on the Capitol steps to gripe about this or that. Over the last 40 years, it has to be in the hundreds of thousands.

And here’s the dirty little secret: in most cases the impact the demonstrators had on the lawmakers was zilch.

Oh sure, occasionally legislators looked out at the folks on the lawn. But then they went back to doing darn well whatever they wanted to do, as if the mass on grass had never been there in the first place.

That does sound callous and very un-American, but in the real political world that’s just the way it is.

There are some exceptions, however.

During the height of the Viet Nam war back in the dark ages, about 10,000 colleges students, mostly from nearby Michigan State University, staged a massive march on the Capitol. It was impressive in that most of the time college kids could care less about politics. Funny thing about the possibility of being drafted and killed; it does get your attention.

Years later another crowd of 10,000 or so actually had an impact on legislation. Instead of long-haired hippies, this time lawmakers saw a sea of white coats as doctors flooded the Capitol lawn to make their point on malpractice insurance. They eventually got a bill; it wasn’t perfect, but their protest did resonate with the politicians.

More recently, the first batch of Tea Party rebels, maybe 4,000 strong, started their campaign to fix everything that is wrong with government. Lawmakers took note because these folks reflected the anger that is out there, and even lawmakers could figure out that some of these Tea Party players might actually vote legislators out of office if they did not listen.

Actually, the only benefactors of all these events are the news media. Toss five or six thousand chanting demonstrators on the Capitol lawn and you have an instant story. Nice visuals, upset citizens and after a few hours, things return to normal.

The lasting impact ain’t much, but that doesn’t stop them from showing up.

Too Much Hanky Panky
Wow. Tuesday was the news day from you know where.

Kwame goes to slammer for at least 18 months.

The Maize and Blue look black and blue after self-imposed sanctions.

A Detroit legislator, up to her neck in a fight for a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, discovers her tires slashed.

And the Michigan Senate salutes rock singer and Niles native Tommy James.

If it’s all the same to you, let’s go with the Tommy James story for a little breather from all the bad news.

Tommy James and the Shondells made their mark on the music scene with monster hits such as “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now” and, of course, who could forget “Hanky Panky,” which could be the theme song for the three stories listed above. But we digress.

Anyhow, the decidedly conservative state Senate in this town decided it was time to honor Mr. James, and just before he entered the chambers he chatted about how he almost wasn’t Tommy James.

As he kicked around in Niles with his teen-age rock band, he came across the tune Hanky Panky. He asked the good folks at WNIL, the AM station in town, to tape him, a record was pressed, and that was that.

James was on the road working bars when his two-week “engagement” came to an abrupt end as the bar gave its last, last call and closed.

“I came back to Niles,” he continued this rags to riches saga. Little did he know that way over in Pittsburgh PA, a local D.J. was rummaging through a record store bin when he uncovered Hanky Panky.

He played it and, well, you know the rest.

James got a call and dashed out to Pittsburgh, where the disc jockey had “bootlegged” the song and sold 80,000 copies. But James had no band. It had dis-banded, as they often did. So he hooked up with a local bar band and headed off to the Big Apple to hawk his smash hit.

“Only in America,” he smiles.

Just before the Senate salute, he was asked to sing the first verse.

“My baby does the Hanky Panky,” he started…and then stopped. “If I sing any more, you’ll have to pay the royalties,” he laughed.

Sure beats going to jail, or going on probation or buying new tires.

Perles for Governor: NOT
It was the longest running gag on the political front this year, and the media got sucked in time after time.

That robust laughter you hear over there comes from the coach.

George Perles, the football guy, played the media like a concert violinist, which he ain’t.

When he said he might run for governor, lots of reporters, who should have known better, ran for their typewriters…er, what do they use now?

Anyhow, when the list of potential gov candidates was printed, there was ole George. Sure he was at the bottom, but he was on the list and that’s what kept him laughing all the way past the May 11 filing deadline.

Instead of filing 15,000 petition signatures to secure a spot on the August primary ballot, the former MSU coach was sitting on the couch at home nursing a bad back and even more painful legs. You see, for the last three weeks or so, G.P. has been in the hospital following back surgery to correct a pain he’s had for 15 years.

“I spent too much time in the huddle,” he jokes.

Doctors inserted some “screws and pins” into his back, and now the pain is gone. But because he has not used his legs in weeks, he has to use a walker to get around until he’s back on his feet.

Having missed the filing deadline and never having the fire in his gut to run in the first place, Mr. Perles was still laughing.

“We could have had a ball,” he suggested and added, “but I had a ball.”

His tongue-in-check, phantom campaign for governor was never much more than that. He knew it, but apparently the hot shots in the media did not.

Maybe it was wishful thinking, as Perles would have been one heck of a governor to kick around.

Return to good health soon, coach. The next race for governor is only four years off.