The Politics of The Plan: The Michigan Republican Wish List Starts With Stabenow’s Senate Seat

On March 14, 2011 the Michigan 15th District Republican Party held a fundraiser in the heart of Ann Arbor, at Weber’s. The sold-out event, attended by some 385 people, was organized by 15th District Republican Party Chair Margy Van Houten, a city Council member from Dearborn Heights, and featured Republican Governor Rick Snyder as the main speaker of the evening. Event sponsors included former Second Ward Republican Council member Jane Lumm and her husband John, as well as the Washtenaw County Republicans, the Wayne County Republican Committee, Wayne 15th District Republican Committee, 14th District Republican Committee, Ahmar Iqbal and Dr. Said Issa, among others.

To kick off the evening “over 50 people,” according to Van Houten, paid $250 each and spent about 30 minutes mingling with Governor Snyder in a cordoned off area. At the same time, the other attendees who’d paid $50 each for dinner and to hear Snyder speak, filed into the ballroom.

Ahmar Iqbal, an event sponsor, is a U of M graduate who also holds a degree from Harvard. He the CEO of Maize and Green Capital Partners, a company that invests in green technology firms. Iqbal became active in the Republican party just this year. Prior to that, he said, “I probably identified myself as a Democrat. Then, I got excited about Governor Snyder’s campaign.” Iqbal explained that he worked to get Muslim friends and relatives, many of whom identified as Democrats, excited about Snyder’s message, which Iqbal described as “universal.”

Margy Van Houten attributed the success of the fundraiser to the fact that Snyder was delivering the keynote. Van Houten said she was excited that Snyder was “finally facing our [Michigan’s] problems,” and that she felt he had a “solid plan to get Michigan back on track to prosperity.” Van Houten also talked about Dr. Rob Steele, who attended the event. Steele ran against Democrat Representative John Dingell for the 15th District Congressional race, and came away with 40 percent of the vote. “He [Steele] was, by far, the best candidate we had,” Van Houten said. She also said that she hoped Steele would consider another run because, she said, “he excited a lot of people, including Democrats.”

Rob Steele said that he’d come out to hear “his neighbor, Rick Snyder.” He also talked about the possibility of running against U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow in 2012. “I haven’t decided anything yet,” said Steele, “but I’m definitely looking at it. People are talking to me about running again.” A February 28, 2011 poll of likely voters by EPIC/MRA showed Stabenow with an approval rating of just 47 percent. Politico.com reported that the results of the poll, “reinforces Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s vulnerability in 2012.” In a December 2010 piece published in the Washington Examiner, Stabenow was referred to as one of the nine “most vulnerable Senate Democrats.” Michigan’s new Republican Party Chair, Robert Schostak, in his introduction prior to Snyder’s speech, told the audience that one of the “goals” of Michigan’s Republican Party is “beating Debbie Stabenow.” Other goals outlined by Schostak, who took over leadership of the party this year from Ron Weiser, included keeping the State House majority, and delivering Michigan to the Republican presidential candidate in 2012.

Responding, perhaps, to intense criticism in the state and national press about what many in Michigan perceive as Snyder’s attack on poor working families in his proposed budget that targets the Earned Income Tax Credit, and cuts to education, Schostak made a point to tell those present that, “this Governor cares for Michigan families. He and his family care about yours and mine.” Earlier in the day, local Ann Arbor political and education leaders had rallied against Snyder’s budget. The Ann Arbor event was one of multiple events sponsored by Progress Michigan in Michigan cities including Detroit, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Monroe, Mount Clemens, Marshall and Birmingham.

Bonnie Halloran, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and president of the 1,800 member Lecturers’ Employee Organization, spoke out against Snyder’s proposed 15 percent cut to higher education at the Ann Arbor event. According to AnnArbor.com, Halloran told those present, “This is going to impact families in this state, families who are no longer going to be able to afford to pay for their children’s education at our public universities.”

Snyder, who began his speech early, spoke at length about his plans for the state in 2012. The Governor told the audience that his administration stands for “real action for real people.” He characterized the protests in Lansing as “real democracy,” but then dismissed the groundswell of anger against his proposed budget by saying, “I’m just doing what I said I was going to do.”

Snyder, of course, was criticized during his campaign by his Democratic opponent, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, for “rarely saying what he plans to do.” Snyder was similarly criticized after his State of State Speech for neglecting to provide specifics. Writing in the Detroit News, Francis X. Donnelly in a piece published on January 20, 2011, reports, “Michigan residents, including Democrats, liked some of the things they heard during the State of the State speech Wednesday. But residents, including Republicans, wanted to hear more. ‘I kept waiting for specifics,’ said Annie Boensch, a mother of two from Saginaw.”

The intensely controversial Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) legislation recently passed by the Michigan legislature, would allow Michigan’s governor to remove locally elected officials in cities and school districts which Snyder’s administration determined were in dire financial straights. Snyder never mentioned his plans to push that legislation while running for the Governor’s office. Political commentator Rachel Maddow, described the EFM law, as well as Snyder’s proposed budget as classic Shock Doctrine politics whereby a crisis is used as an excuse to push through unpopular political reforms.

Watch Maddow’s video here where she says that Snyder doesn’t get much national media attention, but “boy howdy he ought to.”

In his speech, Snyder told the Republicans gathered that, “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and notwithstanding what anyone else says, I still perceive we’re in a crisis. We’ve been in a crisis so long we don’t act like it’s a crisis too often….I take it as a determination to do as much as possible as fast as possible.”

He also told those gathered that he hopes to have his budget passed by May 31, 2011. I asked Governor Snyder after the event whether he had the votes lined up to pass his budget, and he replied with a smile “we’ll have them.” When pressed about whether that meant he was still working to round up the necessary votes to pass his budget intact, he reiterated that he expects to have the votes.

Republican Mark Ouimet represents the 52nd Michigan House District. When asked whether he thought Snyder had the votes to get his budget through the Legislature, Ouimet said Snyder “was close.”

Snyder, whose speech lasted about 20 minutes, urged listeners to “teach” people who “don’t understand” about the proposed budget, as opposed to arguing with them. “This is about shared sacrifice,” he said. “Some people are going to have to take a step back so that we can all take a step forward.”

At the Ann Arbor rally against the Governor’s proposed budget earlier in the day, Brit Satchwell, president of the 1,200-member Ann Arbor Education Association, put it somewhat differently: “When Snyder talks about ‘shared sacrifice,’ he’s just blowing smoke. It’s not about public versus private. It’s not about union and nonunion. It’s about the middle class and democracy at this point.”