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Abortion.

It has turned our politics around. Mark and Jeff analyze the polling showing the Cobb decision is moving the numbers decidedly in the direction of Democrats.

Also on the podcast agenda this week: Michigan Republican voters are still undecided on Governor even as absentee ballots start showing up in mailboxes (meaning Jeff’s pants are still a contender!); and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions on gun rights and religious freedom could also get into the mid-term electoral mix.

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This week’s podcast is underwritten by Practical Political Consulting and EPIC-MRA. We thank them for supporting “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”

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Michigan was back in the spotlight at the January 6 Select Committee hearings, with tales of a possible overnighter in the state Capitol for the GOP slate of phony presidential electors. Republican witnesses confirmed that the multi-state phony elector plot was led by the Trump campaign; Michigan’s 16 fraudulent electors are facing potential state and federal criminal charges.

Also on this week’s agenda: Michigan Republicans double-down on stopping all abortions in Michigan; Texas Republicans give us a preview of our state’s new GOP’s radical policy agenda; and top Michigan Democrats make their pitch for having Michigan come first in the presidential primary calendar.

Mark and Jeff are joined by Michigan Advance reporter Ken Coleman. He covers southeast Michigan, economic justice and civil rights … and has some keen insights on the politics of southeast Michigan. He is a former Michigan Chronicle senior editor and served as the American Black Journal segment host on Detroit Public Television. He has written and published four books on black life in Detroit.

Coleman has served as a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party, Detroit Public Schools, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters and U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence. Prior to joining the Advance, he worked for the Detroit Federation of Teachers as a communications specialist.

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This week’s podcast is underwritten by Practical Political Consulting and EPIC-MRA. We thank them for supporting “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”

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This week’s focus: brand-new polling on the chaotic GOP race for Governor, along with James Craig’s you’ve-gotta-be-kidding write-in campaign, Perry Johnson’s latest court loss, and the state Senate going out of its way to diss LGBTQ+ Michiganders.

Our guest this week is Detroit state Representative Joe Tate, considered the frontrunner for House Democratic Leader in the 2023-24 session. We’ll talk about how Michigan Democrats plan to flip the state House and Senate and give Michigan its first Democrat-run state government since Jim Blanchard’s first term as Governor in 1983—39 years ago!

Representative Tate is a Detroit native. His father was a firefighter for the City of Detroit who gave his life while serving the city, while his mother was a Detroit public school teacher.

His first claim to fame came in athletics as a three-year starter and team captain on the Michigan State football team. In addition to his success on the field, Tate earned a degree in Public Policy and received Academic All-Big Ten honors for his excellence in the classroom. After graduating from MSU, Joe moved on to the National Football League (NFL) where he spent two years playing for three teams.

Tate left his career in athletics and was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the United States Marine Corps. He deployed twice to Afghanistan, first as a Platoon Commander and then as a Company Executive Officer, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of hundreds of Marines and sailors. After an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, resumed his education, earning an MBA and Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Planning, both from the University of Michigan.

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This week’s podcast is underwritten by Practical Political Consulting and EPIC-MRA. We thank them for supporting “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”

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It has been a week focused on the intersection of crime and politics:

• The initial hearing of the January 6 Special Committee laying the case that Trump led the attempted coup;
• GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley arrested by the FBI;
• Multiple other Michigan Republicans facing criminal investigations
• Also this week: James Craig launches a Quixotic write-in campaign for Governor, believing that’s less of a challenge than collected 15,000 valid signatures.

Mark and Jeff mull over the politics of this week’s Law and Order edition of “A Republic, If You Can Keep It”.

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This week’s podcast is underwritten by Practical Political Consulting and EPIC-MRA. We thank them for supporting “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”

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In the rapidly developing state political scene —

• Three frustrated Republican would-be candidates for Governor lose in court
• The remaining GOP gubernatorial candidates bring a far-right message to the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce
• The GOP opts to bypass voters on petition-drive-generated laws
• New polling shows minimal support for Betsy DeVos’s latest efforts to take money away from public schools

Joining Mark and Jeff to update us on the latest are pollster Bernie Porn of EPIC-MRA public opinion research’s and Emily Lawler, state government and politics at the Detroit Free Press.

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This week’s podcast is underwritten by Practical Political Consulting and EPIC-MRA. We thank them for supporting “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”

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A seismic shift in Michigan politics with as many as five would-be Republican gubernatorial candidates facing banishment from the August ballot due to petition signature fraud.

Joining Mark and Jeff this week are two seasoned political savants to shed some light on the sudden end of the James Craig and Perry Johnson campaigns are Michigan pollster Bernie Porn of EPIC-MRA; and Detroit native Mike Murphy who has been a top adviser to dozens of prominent Republican campaigns including those of George W. Bush, John McCain, Christie Todd Whitman, John Engler, Spencer Abraham and Arnold Schwarzenegger. These days, Murphy is a full-time pundit with regular network commentary gigs, and co-hosting the bipartisan political podcast Hacks on Tap with Obama administration veterans David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs.

This week’s podcast is sponsored by
EPIC*MRA, ranked as Michigan’s top public opinion research firm by FiveThirtyEight.com; and,
Practical Political Consulting, the go-to campaign consultants in Michigan for more than 40 years.

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This week in politics:

• Mark Brewer takes a victory lap as Pro-Choice advocates win a crucial court test
• Multiple state legislative candidates knocked off the ballot by the Secretary of State
• Mike Pence brings his defund the public schools campaign to Michigan
• Pennsylvania’s GOP goes full MAGA; Democrats look to flip a Senate seat
• Two MAGA candidates bite the dust: Madison Cawthorn falls in North Carolina, a Trump-backed challenge to the Governor of Idaho falls short

All that … inside info bundled with more than a little snark … on this week’s hosts-only presentation!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:30 — 30.5MB)

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This week in Michigan:
* The Republicans hold their first gubernatorial debate with James Craig MIA
* The candidates agree on opposing freedom of choice for women, with nuanced differences on who won in 2020
* Craig concedes petition fraud, but says it’s not his fault
* The Detroit Chamber limits participation in its upcoming debate to five candidates … leaving out Tudor Dixon

Jeff and Mark also weigh in on problems with two GOP-sponsored petition drives, changing Michigan’s term limits, a State Police investigation into former Speaker Lee Chatfield, new polling in the hotly contested 7th congressional district, and the GOP war within the Macomb County Republican Party.

Joining the conversation this week is “The Mooch”! Anthony Scaramucci is an American financier who served as the White House Director of Communications for 10 days in 2017.

Scaramucci’s worked at Goldman Sachs‘s investment banking, equities, and private wealth management divisions between 1989 and 1996. After leaving Goldman Sachs, he founded Oscar Capital Management, and in 2005, he founded the investment firm SkyBridge Capital.

(Mark) Days into his White House job, Scaramucci provoked controversy after launching a strongly-worded attack on members of the Trump Administration in an interview with The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza that he believed was off the record. Ten days after his appointment, he was dismissed by the new White House Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly, at the recommendation of President Donald Trump. He has since been critical of Trump in the media and voiced his support for Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

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How does the pending demise of Roe v Wade change Michigan politics in 2022? Mark and Jeff examine the new political playing field with veteran Republican political operative Bill Nowling.

Nowling is Executive Director of Strategic Communication at DP+. Previously, he was communication director for Wayne County (Michigan). Nowling has been a professional communicator for the better part of a quarter century, and he has advised governors, mayors, chief executives, and corporations on how to effectively communicate and manage change. More recently, Mr. Nowling has consulted on the Detroit municipal bankruptcy, the Flint water crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to being a public relations practitioner, Nowling is a communication researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in risk and crisis communication at Wayne State University.

Also this week: a heavily flawed Trumper candidate loses a special state House election in a very Republican west Michigan district to a Democrat … the GOP gubernatorial primary campaign continues to breed uncertainty as the petitions of the presumed frontrunners are under the microscope … and one of those candidates has an acting background that could come back to bite her.

This week’s podcast is sponsored by EPIC • MRA, the state’s top-rated public
opinion research service. EPIC ▪ MRA offers expertise in:
• Public Opinion Surveys – Market Research Studies
• Live Telephone Surveys, On-Line and Automated Surveys
• Focus Group Research
• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns
• Political Campaigns Consulting
• Ballot Proposals/Issue Advocacy Research
• Community & Media Relations
• Issue Image Management
• Database Development & List Management

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:51 — 26.3MB)

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The race to be the Republican nominee for Michigan Governor became the latest black eye for the Michigan GOP as petitions from at least 3 of the candidates may have fraudulent signatures. That could mean Perry Johnson, James Craig and/or Tudor Dixon don’t even show up on the primary ballot. Craig has even more problems as northern Michigan Congressman Jack Bergman switches his endorsement from Craig to Johnson, and the former Detroit police chief reports lackluster fundraising.

Adding to the drama of the week: a state party convention described by multiple Republicans as a “shit show” as delegates endorsed Trump-back Big Lie believers for Attorney General and Secretary of State. John Truscott, who served as communications director for former Republican Gov. John Engler, tweeted
On top of that, would-be state House Speaker Matt Maddock was expelled from the House GOP caucus, and congressional candidate Tom Barrett dove head-first into the swamp by alleging support for sexual exploitation of children by his opponent. Helping us wade through the week’s GOP chaos is award-winning reporter Jonathan Oosting of Bridge Michigan. He has a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University and has previously worked for The Detroit News and MLive Media Group. He is Grand Rapids native and lives in Lansing with his wife and new daughter Mara (who makes a cameo appearance!).

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This week’s podcast is sponsored by EPIC • MRA, the state’s top-rated public opinion research service.

EPIC ▪ MRA is a full service survey research firm with expertise in:

• Public Opinion Surveys – Market Research Studies

• Live Telephone Surveys, On-Line and Automated Surveys

• Focus Group Research

• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns

• Political Campaigns & Consulting

• Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research

• Community – Media Relations

• Issue – Image Management

• Database Development & List Management