Here’s how things are looking for the crowded gubernatorial field with one week of October left to go:
Clearer picture to come at the top of next week as all 12 candidates in the running will have something to show on how their fundraising has been going between July 21st to this Wednesday. Yes, even Kevin Rinke – a long-since declared candidate who is attempting to hide behind the same “exploratory” charade James Craig did. Where are we on that candidacy, Kevin?
Uncertified Cop James Craig Expert At Extreme Positions and Question Dodges
Speaking of Craig, we took the week to help him fill out his certification portfolio that he didn’t bother to keep up with for the final decade of his law enforcement career. And he didn’t even have to take a test! But we get it, it was “overly time-consuming” for us too. Full list below:
- Certified Political Insider
- Certified Election Conspiracy Theorist
- Certified Anti-Choice Extremist
- Certified Roads Opponent
- Certified Question Dodger
Tudor Dixon and James Craig Are All In on Gutting Public Education
This week, Governor Whitmer signaled her intent to veto “the latest effort by legislative Republicans to create a school voucher system in Michigan.” It earned the ire of Tudor Dixon who pledged to support a bill that would allow private donors to funnel money through organizations funding the educations of “qualified students” – a move that could reduce state revenue by upwards of $500 million annually.
Based on Craig’s past pro-school voucher comments he made to get Betsy DeVos’ attention (and most importantly her resources), we imagine he’s all in on this bill as well.
Otherwise, this week jumped off the deep end in some pretty spectacular ways – even when rounding for the unhinged depths Michigan Republicans have managed this year.
Meshawn Maddock’s “ReSEWERS”
Starting with “leadership,” MIGOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock had a tasteful edit in reaction to the news that fellow Republicans, Reps. Peter Meijer and Fred Upton, joined a bipartisan group “committed to embodying a new way in politics which unites, rather than divides us”:
Rabidly insulting everything that isn’t rubber stamped by far-right extremists is one thing, but we’re mainly hung up on the fact that playground bullies have come up with better material than this. This is the big “RINO hunt” everyone has been worried about?
Ryan Kelley, Garrett Soldano Want to Defund the Police
Similarly, we’re struggling to wrap our minds around not one but two of this primary’s “front-runners” advocating for defunding the police this week in direct contrast with Governor Whitmer’s proposal to invest $32 million into law enforcement retention and recruitment.
First, Ryan Kelley appeared on some right-wing underbelly program to “defund all of the police” in Michigan (his words, we couldn’t possibly make this up) to allow for a “constitutional militia” to take its place. This is spooky season after all so there is a high chance we’re in The Upside Down.
Then, Garrett Soldano, who apparently hadn’t considered the one of the main mechanisms keeping police departments funded, vowed to slash Michigan’s budget “every single year over the next eight years when we’re in.” Presumptive, but seeing as Republicans have lost all ability to focus solely on the cycle they’re actually in, unsurprising.
2020 Election Lies
Case in point, the 2020 election continues to be the top issue of the 2022 cycle. It was once again reported that the gubernatorial field keeps pursuing their baseless crusade to “[call] the results of the election into question.” Tim Skubick profiled Tudor Dixon as a Republican that “still bangs the fraud drum” and reported the conspiracy theory she attempted to peddle.
Meanwhile, Kelley gave a masterclass in moving goal posts for 2020 fanatics. After calling last week for a pointless “forensic audit” of results that have been reviewed only to reconfirm reality “more than 250” times, he’s now taking it several steps further by demanding the Michigan legislature “do the right thing and decertify the election.”
There’s still plenty of time to come up with more ridiculous ultimatums before this crop of folks vying to lead the state trusts the truth.
