2008: Never a dull moment in Michigan politics

2008 was a tumultuous year in Michigan politics, filled with scandals, blunders, bailouts and a partisan landslide.  One word that could never describe this year was dull.

In a bipartisan blunder, Michigan chose Jan. 15 as its presidential primary date, hoping to be the first big state on the road to nomination.  Unfortunately, this primary date violated the rules of both the Democratic and Republican parties, resulting in sanctions.  The Republicans punished Michigam by taking away half of its convention delegates.  The Democrats went further by taking away all of Michigan's convention delegates and requesting that presidential candidates take their names off the ballot and avoid campaigning in the state.

Of the major Democratic candidates, only Hillary Rodham Clinton left her name on the ballot but didn't campaign in the primary.  Party leaders advised supporters of Barack Obama and John Edwards to vote uncommitted.  While Democratic primary turnouts topped those for Republicans elsewhere in the country, in Michigan it was the other way around, with all Republican candidates active in the state.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney, won the Republican primary, while Clinton won the Democratic primary.  After initially refusing to claim any Michigan delegates, Clinton, falling behind Obama, flip-flopped and demanded that the full Michigan delegation be seated based on the tainted primary results.  Eventually a compromise was worked out to seat a Michigan delegation partially based on the results, with uncommitted slots going to Obama, who by then had clinched the nomination.

The primary blunder and delegation fight didn't hurt Obama, as he piled up a double-digit lead over John McCain, who withdrew from Michigan more than a month before the election.  A Democratic landslide followed, with Obama trouncing McCain by 16 percentage points.  Sen. Carl Levin did even better, beating his Republican opponent, term limited state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, by a nearly two-to-one margin.  The Democrats picked up two Congressional seats, gained nine seats in the state House of Representatives for a 67-43 majority, their largest in 30 years, and swept all statewide offices.  The Democratic sweep extended to the state Supreme Court race, where candidates are nominated by political parties but run on a nonpartisan ballot, with Diane Hathaway defeating incumbent Clifford Taylor, who was accused in a TV ad of falling asleep on the bench during oral arguments on a case.  Voters also approved medical marijuana and stem cell research proposals.

Even so, Michigan lost some political clout after the election, with Rep. John Dingell (D-Dearborn), the most senior member of the House, first elected in 1955, losing the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), an ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Scandal hit hard on Detroit's city government after text messages showed that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, lied when they denied having an affair in trial testimony on a whistleblower lawsuit filed by two former police officers.  Both were charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.  While Beatty resigned after being charged, Kilpatrick remained in office for months afterward.  His days as mayor became numbered after shoving a Wayne County sheriff's deputy attempting to serve a subpoena on an associate, resulting in assault charges and tougher bail conditions.  After Gov. Jennifer Granholm began removal hearings, Kilpatrick plea bargained and resigned, and is now serving a four-month sentence in the Wayne County Jail.  Beatty subsequently plea bargained as well, and will begin her four-month jail sentence in January.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating a sludge disposal contract, as well as contracts at the city-owned Cobo Center.  Two former Cobo Center directors have pleaded guilty to taking bribes and several City Council members are under investigation.

Amid the scandals, Michigan's economic malaise grew worse, with the automotive Big Three whipsawed by a gasoline price spike, which dried up demand for gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, then the financial meltdown, which dried up consumer credit.  With General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC in danger of going under, BIg Three CEOs went to Washington to ask for a $34 billion bailout.  But while there had been little resistance to giving the financial sector a $700 billion bailout, the Big Three ran into a hostile response.

In a second go-round, the Big Three CEOs made a better case, and the Bush Administration worked out a deal with Congressional Democrats for a $15 billion bailout using money from a previously approved retooling fund.  But after the House approved this bailout, it was killed in the Senate by a group of conservative Republicans, primarily union-hating Southerners.  Finally, the Bush Administration agreed to a $17.4 billion bailout, with the money coming from the financial sector bailout, and the Big Three to submit plans to make them viable and profitable by March 31.

Michigan's largest school district, Detroit Public Schools, found itself with a $400 million deficit after years of mismanagement, a shrinking tax base and declining enrollment.  State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan declared a financial emergency, setting the stage for appointment of an emergency financial manager for the district.  The Detroit Board of Education appeared clueless, appealing Flanagan's finding and firing Superintendent Connie Calloway after only 18 months on the job.  Flanagan denied the board's appeal and Calloway is now appealing her firing.