Sen. Rebekah Warren Named “Most Liberal” Mich. State Senator—Captures Designation for Fourth Year Running
THE 2014 ELECTION is a little less than four weeks away, and Inside Michigan Politics has released what the political newsletter is calling the “definitive rankings of the Most Liberal and Most Conservative members of the Michigan Senate.” Inside Michigan Politics calculated the rankings of the Most Liberal and Most Conservative members of the state Senate for 2014. Last week, IMP released its state House rankings.
Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) is the Most Liberal senator for 2014 with a 96.67 percent liberal voting record. Warren has made history; she’s the only senator to be Most Liberal for all four years of her term (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014).
Sen. Jim Ananich (D-Flint) was the runner-up with a 96.30 percent liberal voting record. Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) and Sen. Vince Gregory (D-Southfield) tied for third with 93.33 percent.
The Ann Arbor Independent has looked at Ann Arbor’s legislators’ success in getting their legislation out of committee and signed by Gov. Snyder. It’s a record long on ambition and short on success, though Warren has had more success than others.
On June 24 of this year, Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation to prevent discrimination against breast-feeding mothers, a law proposed by Sen. Warren.
Sen. Warren introduced 27 Bills, 8 Resolutions and 18 Amendments in 2013. Senator Warren’s other bills included one to authorize second parent adoption, one to elect U.S. presidents by national popular vote, and a bill to make the cherry the official state fruit.
It should come as no surprise that, in large part, Warren’s liberal views have made it difficult for her to find support for her legislation. In 2013, she proposed the following:
- Introduced 2013 Senate Bill 593: Human trafficking crime package
- October 3, 2013, to require child placement agencies to give special consideration to information that a child may be the victim of human trafficking crimes, and on that basis find that the usual reunification, adoption, or other foster care services may not be suitable.
- Introduced 2013 Senate Bill 457: Authorize “second parent adoption”
- July 31, 2013, to provide for “second parent adoption” in Michigan law. This is a legal procedure that allows a same-sex parent to adopt his or her partner’s biological or adoptive child without terminating the first parent’s legal status as a parent.
- Introduced 2013 Senate Bill 223: Give tuition subsidies to all high school grads
- February 27, 2013, to give all Michigan high school graduates up to five years of grants covering tuition in a state college or university. Funding would come from repealing $1.8 billion worth of current state tax deductions, exemptions and credits.
The Most Conservative Mich. state senator title is held by two men: Sens. Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Twp.) and John Moolenaar (R-Midland), who had 6.67 percent liberal voting records.
The second-place finisher is Sen. Joe Hune (R-Hamburg) with a 10.00 percent liberal voting record. Sens. Pat Colbeck (R-Canton) and Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair) tied for third with 13.33 percent.
The Inside Michigan Politics rankings are based on 30 litmus test roll-call votes in the state Senate this year.
For the IMP rankings, 100 percent is the gold standard for a representative who voted the liberal position on roll calls for an array of social, economic, taxation, environmental, civil rights, and public health/safety issues. If a roll call was missed, it was simply thrown out.
IMP has ranked all 38 members of the Senate in 2014. That list is available to subscribers in its Sept. 30, 2014, edition.
The list of the top three Most Liberal and Most Conservative senators from 2009 to 2013, is available at insidemichiganpolitics.com.
Rebekah Warren is liberal. Yawn. Tell me something I didn’t already know.
Warren has broad and strong support in Michigan for her National Popular Vote legislation.
A survey of Michigan voters showed 73% overall support for a national popular vote for President.
Support was 73% among independents, 78% among Democrats, and 68% among Republicans.
By age, support was 77% among 18-29 year olds, 67% among 30-45 year olds, 74% among 46-65 year olds, and 75% for those older than 65.
By gender, support was 86% among women and 59% among men.
On December 11, 2008, The Michigan House of Representatives passed the National Popular Vote bill by a 65-36 margin
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the majority of Electoral College votes, and thus the presidency, to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country, by replacing state winner-take-all laws for awarding electoral votes.
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps of pre-determined outcomes. There would no longer be a handful of ‘battleground’ states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just ‘spectators’ and ignored after the conventions.
The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of Electoral College votes—that is, enough to elect a President (270 of 538). The candidate receiving the most popular votes from all 50 states (and DC) would get all the 270+ electoral votes of the enacting states.
The presidential election system, using the 48 state winner-take-all method or district winner method of awarding electoral votes, that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founders. It is the product of decades of change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founders in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. States can, and have, changed their method of awarding electoral votes over the years. Historically, major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided).
Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in every state surveyed recently. In virtually every of the 39 states surveyed, overall support has been in the 70-80% range or higher. – in recent or past closely divided battleground states, in rural states, in small states, in Southern and border states, in big states, and in other states polled.
Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
The bill has passed 33 state legislative chambers in 22 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 250 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
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