Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
I hope the zoning component does pass... Seems like some serious opposition to that from some property-rights types (although it will only encourage more intense uses, so it expands rather than restricts property rights).
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Honestly, if these things get Dem votes, they pass comfortably. I think the two supplmental bills failed less because of factions within the GOP caucus, and more because if I remember correctly, these were votes were taken
after the Dems walked out of the capitol, and the Republicans basically said "f%ck it." for the day.
BTW, Snyder has played a good moderate on television for the past two years, and I guess up against the ideologues around him he kind of is, but most of this last minute hyper-partisan legislation is a result of senate GOP senators threatening a coup against the state senate majority leader if he didn't put this foward. The Kock Bros. and Dick Devos (a Michigan billionaire and failed gubernatorial Republican nominee) also began pumping money within the last week.
In other words, either the state senate majority leader and the governor took a side, or they were going to be immediately toppled in the case of the state senate majority leader, or competitively primaried in 2014 in the case of the governor. So, they both put on their best acting masks and talked about how great RtoW would be for Michigan. I think it's a coward's move and a stupid one because Snyder basically cut off a major part of his base he'll need for 2014 (i.e. apolitical/moderate/centrist voters), but it is what it is. So, he gets to payback the other half of his base (movement conservatives), but he's basically lost everyone else, even folks that aren't usually union supporters, because of his hypocrisy and the last-minute methods use to pass the legislation.