Hello Everybody (Hi Mister Gloom!),
I promised a discussion on the Michigan Attorney General Democratic Nomination Fight, and I’m providing it.
Tomorrow is the Michigan Democratic Party Endorsement Convention, which is a significant step towards the nominations for Attorney General, Secretary of State, and the 2 nominees for Judge to the State Supreme Court. As Secretary of State and State Supreme Court Justice have exactly as many candidates as nominees, the only race being actively contested is Attorney General, of which we have 3 candidates (former US Attorney Pat Miles, former Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Dana Nessel, and past Assistant Wayne County Corporation Counsel/former Meijer General Counsel Bill Noakes). Before we break it down, I’m going to do a rundown on the convention process, why endorsements matter, as well as a significant factor that’s come up this weekend that directly affects things.
Convention Nominations
First things first, there is no primary for the offices of Attorney General, Secretary of State, Judicial nominations, and any State Boards (University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and the State Board of Education). Of these: Attorney General, Secretary of State, and State Supreme Court Judge nominees have a two step process: First, tomorrow there will be a “Endorsement Convention” which is open to any member of the Michigan Democratic Party since March 16 (i.e. you have to be a member for at least 1 month prior to the convention). There will be a weighted vote based on Congressional District (I believe this should be found somewhere in the rules for the Convention). While this is technically not the nomination it matters for Attorney General because A. I believe the only time that nominating convention won’t duplicate the endorsement convention is due to breaking scandal and B. If memory serves the Attorney General candidates have pledged to honor the endorsement convention results and drop out. Following the endorsement convention tomorrow, there will be a formal nominating convention in August to formalize the nominees (not just for Attorney General, Sec State, and State Supreme Court justices but also for Lt. Governor and the state boards).
Why Endorsements Matter
As the Endorsement Convention is based on party members it obviously pays to have be able to get your voters to the convention and voting for you. One GOTV mechanism for candidates is endorsements in this scenarios, and not just from elected officials but from unions, associated groups, and also from official MDP Caucuses (official MDP caucuses will have their individual meetings prior to the convention where they decide on leadership for the session, speak to candidates, including Governor candidates not effected by the convention, and discuss various issues).
Endorsements for Each Candidate
Bill Noakes
No One I can Find
Pat Miles
Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer
Former US Senator Carl Levin
United Auto Workers
Michigan AFL-CIO
Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon
Fanny Lou Hammer PAC
Oakland County Democratic Black Caucus
13th Congressional District Democrats
UFCW Locals 876 & 951
IBEW
Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans
Former US Attorney Barbra McQuade
Endorsements for Dana Nessel
Yemeni American Michigan Democratic Caucus
Michigan Medical Marijuana Association
MI Legalize
Cannabis Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party
Michigan Education Association
Utility Workers of America
Michigan Spanish Speaking Democrats
Iron Workers Local 25
Victory Fund
Lesbian Political Action Committee
Young Democrats of Michigan
Fems for Dems
MI Women Win
Our Revolution Grand Rapids
Michigan for Revolution
Oakland County for Revolution
Lansing for Revolution
MDP Progressive Caucus
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon
Southfield Mayor Ken Siver
Traverse City Mayor Jim Carruthers
Pontiac Mayor Deirdre Waterman
Plymouth Mayor Oliver Wolcott
Dearborn Heights Mayor Daniel Paletko
Romulus Mayor Leroy Burcroff
Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara
Sumpter Township Supervisor John W. Morgan
State Senator Coleman Young II
State Representative Jeremy Moss
State Representative Phil Phelps
State Representative Jim Ellison
State Representative Erika Geiss (based on recent facebook post, not on website)
Former State Representative Jeff Irwin
Former State Representative Kathleen Law
Mudslinging – We’ve Breached the Wall!
For most of the campaign the actual campaigns and candidates did not directly engage in negative campaigning, though supporters for both brought out a shit ton of negative activity (Miles supporters bringing up whichever clients they thought would reflect negatively based on Nessel’s private law career, Nessel supporters claiming that Miles wasn’t a real Dem). But lately…it’s been brought up by the actual campaigns, and it got ugly fast.
Nessel’s campaign has brought anti-union activity by Miles law firms (https://michiganprogressive.com/index.php/2018/04/05/__unionbusting/ , which is somewhat questionable) as well as Miles past support of Asset Forfeiture laws (which is a legitimate issue). In addition, the various Marijuana groups dislike Miles due to his alleged prosecution of grow houses while US Attorney (and some comments made about marijuana in the early days of this campaign), and some LGBT activists have issues with Miles based on his affiliation with Aquinas College (where has was a long time trustee, including being Chairman from I think 2004-2008, and which has an anti-LGBT record).
Meanwhile, Nessel started her campaign with one of the bigger self-inflicted ads I’ve seen (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/30/a-womans-bold-campaign-ad-points-out-the-one-thing-she-doesnt-have/?noredirect=on ), and did make a mistake on their campaign finance disclosure (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/03/dana-nessel-complaint-disclose-fundraisers/33510335/ , though I stress that campaigns do have the ability to revise their disclosures and make corrections). However Patrick Miles did some negative campaigning that left a bad taste in my mouth, and got a call out from Pride Source when he shopped the research of the Republican Attorney Generals Group to various media and, rather disgustingly, tried to use Nessel’s law partners representing rapists to imply she was soft on rape (https://pridesource.com/article/mi-dem-ag-race-miles-campaign-still-quiet-on-use-of-republican-research/ ). At least one person, that I think a great deal of, believes that we may be splitting the party, at least on this race with various interest group lining up behind their candidate but perfectly willing to let the other candidate hang if theirs loses.
Recent, Local Situations Effecting Tomorrow
If all this building stuff wasn’t bad enough, parts of Michigan are heading under a snow emergency for large parts of the state, which should make it difficult for those areas to get to the Convention center (Cobo in Detroit). However, again, it’s a weighted vote for Congressional District, which messes things up further. While Miles has support from a number of Detroit based groups, it should be noted that Nessel has a lot of support from nearby Wayne County areas (particularly Western Wayne) as well as backing from people such as Coleman Young II and Kym Worthy who have their own popularity. And, while Bill Noakes doesn’t have the money or backing to necessarily win on his own, he will take votes from somebody, and the question is who.
Are we Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory?
Maybe. I fully intend to support whichever the nominee as I’m damned sick of the Republican Attorney Generals using the office simply to suck up to right-wing groups in order to run for Governor (I had 8 years of Mike Cox doing it, and I’ve had 8 years of Bill Schuette doing it) so in this case any Dem is better than any Republican. However, each group seems to be digging in as we have that old primary favorite “Establishment vs. Progressive” so, if you think we lost Michigan in 2016 due to Bernie v. Hillary…we could very well face that again. And the sad thing is that all candidates that are Dems are qualified for the office and would do at a minimum an acceptable job.