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On our political radar this week…
As Donald Trump’s polling numbers continue to plummet to record-setting lows, he’s constantly shifting positions on Iran, NATO, DHS funding and ICE messaging on a daily basis. About the only constants: his efforts to shift the blame for everything bad to Biden and Obama, and his preoccupation with his $400-million ballroom, and figuring out ways to add more to the $4-billion his family has gobbled up in the last year.
Attorney General Dana Nessel is fighting efforts by ICE to convert a Romulus warehouse into a Trump Immigration Prison which would lock up as many as 500 men, women and children. The warehouse would give ICE close access to Metro Airport, but it’s also adjacent to a residential neighborhood, near both a middle school and high school, and in a flood plain.
The drive to reverse changes the state Legislature made last year to Michigan’s tipped and minimum wage laws is on hold. One Fair Wage had sought to collect enough signatures to place a referendum vote on the November ballot, but was unable to meet their signature goals. Instead, the group said, it planned to throw its efforts behind a separate ballot initiative seeking to limit certain political contributions.
The Democratic race for U.S. Senate has a battle of the polls this week. A new internal poll from state Senator Mallory McMorrow’s campaign shows her leapfrogging Rep. Haley Stevens, who’s now trailing the field in third place behind Abdul El-Sayed in the closely watched Senate Democratic primary. Her poll by Global Strategy Group has McMorrow leading the field with 30 percent, followed by El-Sayed at 25 percent and Stevens at 23 percent, with 21 percent undecided. The same survey showed McMorrow in second place and trailing Stevens by six points last June. A poll from the Stevens campaign shows the race as a statistical three way tie: Stevens 28, El Sayed 26, McMorrow 25 – well within the poll’s 3.5% margin of error.
McMorrow is the first statewide candidate to announce she has the signatures to get on the ballot. Her campaign says she will file 30,000 signatures, the maximum allowed under state law, to qualify her for the August primary. The signatures were all gathered by volunteers. Nearly all statewide campaigns typically use paid circulators.
We are recording two days before state Republicans gather in Novi to endorse candidates for statewide offices other than Governor and Lt. Governor. There’s new drama in the battle for Secretary of State. The sister of contender Amanda Love publicly alleged her family member was a “truly evil person.”Adora Orlowski says her sister would do “anything to anyone to gain power and control.” She accused Love of never having a real job and lacking the experience to serve as Michigan’s secretary of state.” Break out the popcorn!
A majority of Michigan voters believe the country is generally going in the wrong direction. 58% say things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong, and 33% say the country is headed in the right direction. Only 63% of Republicans polled were happy with the country’s direction. The poll was commissioned by the Republican-leaning Marketing Resource Group.
Donald Trump is now represented in Florida’s Legislature by a Democrat. Emily Gregory scored a major upset on Tuesday, flipping the legislative district that includes Trump’s waterfront grifting headquarters at Mar-a-Lago. Gregory, a first-time candidate who runs a fitness business serving pregnant and postpartum women, defeated her Republican opponent by a 51-49 margin to win the 87th House District in Palm Beach County. Trump, who says mail-in voting is cheating, voted in the election … by mail. Melania and Barron also mailed in their votes. Florida Democrats flipped a second legislative seat. Navy veteran and union official Brian Nathan flipped a Tampa-based state Senate seat that became vacant after Governor Ron DeSantis tapped its previous occupant to serve as his lieutenant governor.
Congratulations to Trump as winner of the brand new America FIrst Award, bestowed on him by U.S. House Republicans. This latest in a string of newly created awards gives the attention-craving Trump still another big, beautiful gold doo-dad to put right next to the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize, the first-ever “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” award, multiple golf championship trophies he awarded to himself, and his second-hand Nobel Peace Prize. As a topper, Trump’s hand-picked Federal Arts Commission has approved putting Trump’s mug on a commemorative 24-karat gold coin as part of the 250th anniversary celebration despite a law prohibiting putting a living President on U.S. coins.
T
he New Yorker reports that year one of the Trump presidency has increased his family’s wealth by a staggering $4-billion. And that doesn’t even count the tens-of-millions taxpayers have spent to pay for Trump’s every week golf trips to Florida.
Joining the conversation is veteran Detroit Free Press reporter Todd Spangler. Todd Spangler has been with the Free Press since 2003, previously as metro editor in Detroit (among other gigs) and since 2007 as Washington correspondent. In that job, he covers the presidency, Congress, politics and federal policy, a panoply which, admittedly, often makes him scratch his head in wonderment (if not outright confusion). Before joining the Free Press he managed the AP’s Pittsburgh bureau for 4 years. Away from work, Todd runs, hikes, bikes, cooks and listens to jazz. And when he’s back in Detroit he can be found, at least one night of the trip, at Lafayette Coney. Todd is a graduate of West Virginia University where he majored in journalism.
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