Michigan voters can’t elect mainstream leaders as long as Republicans and Democrats keep nominating fringe candidates.
Two of the four most powerful elected officials in Michigan are selected for the general election ballot at partisan conventions by party insiders, rather than chosen by voters in the August primary. Those conventions are dominated by the more radical elements of each party.
A ballot drive aimed at including the offices of secretary of state and attorney general on the primary ballot is kicking off next week at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference, where organizers will be lining up support.
“Look at what just happened at the Democratic convention,” says Republican consultant Jason Cabel Roe. “They didn’t pick mainstream candidates who are electable. That’s not helping anybody.”
They intend to present the Legislature with a proposal within weeks for a constitutional amendment that, at the least, would require nominating the secretary of state and attorney general in the August primary.
Roe is co-directing the Voters Not Insiders ballot drive with Lon Johnson, former chair of the state Democratic Party, who says both parties have enough experience with conventions gone wild that garnering bipartisan support in the Legislature shouldn’t be difficult.
“In 2022, Republicans gave us Matt DiPerno for attorney general and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state, and gave themselves no chance to win,” Johnson says. “This time, Democrats passed on (Oakland County Prosecutor) Karen McDonald as AG in favor of a candidate from the far left.”
This is a proposal whose time as come, as evidenced by the chaotic Democratic Nominating Convention, which is still mired in controversy over whether votes were properly cast and counted.
But it doesn’t go far enough. Reformers are likely to get just one crack at fixing an antiquated system.
Michigan certainly would benefit from changing how candidates are nominated. But it also needs to get rid of the elected governing boards at Wayne State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University and replace them with trustees appointed by the governor.
Elected boards continue to diminish the reputations of these three quality universities with their lax oversight and infighting.
Bringing the three major universities in line with the state’s other 12 public colleges, all of which have appointed boards, would increase the professionalism of the leadership.
Roe and Johnson say they may add elected boards to their proposal, depending on the feedback they get from lawmakers.
They feel the urgency now, though, is with fixing the nominating process. Michigan is one of only three states that allow party insiders to select nominees for these key offices.
Getting the proposal on the ballot without a signature drive will require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. And it has to be done before lawmakers leave Lansing for the summer in late June.
Roe and Johnson are modeling their effort after the successful Prop 1 measure on the 2022 ballot, which relaxed term-limits and imposed financial disclosure rules on government officials. That campaign succeeded at a very low cost and with overwhelming voter support.
“We believe if this gets on the ballot it will pass,” Roe says. “Everybody knows the current system isn’t working.”
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Finley: Secretary of state, AG nominees should be on primary ballot
Reporting by Nolan Finley, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
