A few thoughts while mulling the rock and roll theme of the State of the State address. (Some will insist she pumped up the jam while others will say it’s where another one bit the dust.)
Last summer, I traveled up north to Sutton’s Bay for a sit-down with Governor Whitmer. We took stock of the priorities she laid out in her 2023 State of the State address and while her critics could take issue with the direction of her aims, it was hard to get around the fact that she had checked many of the boxes.
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Lansing was a different world than the one to which most Democrats had become accustomed. Enjoying their first legislative majority in three decades, the margins, however narrow, were enough to push forward some of her key goals including gun control measures, senior citizen and working family tax reform, and LGBTQ rights.
But she comes into 2024 without the clear majority in the Michigan House (thanks to two legislators turning in their House badges for mayoral offices in metro Detroit), and that will be the case until at least April. And there’s no getting around the political winds that are likely to blow into full gale force in a fraught election year. Achievement will require some deft dancing by those on both sides of the aisle.
Not surprisingly, many of the ideas put forth in her address are aimed at helping grow Michigan’s population, a near obsession (and an understandable one) among Michigan leaders just now. Free community college for Michigan high school graduates, speeding up the plan for free pre-K, and improving the state’s housing stock all seem designed to change the state’s reputation among those who might move here and, just as importantly, those who might leave.
But the headwinds from the right were blowing strong even before the address. House Minority Leader Matt Hall and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt held a media roundtable a few hours before the Governor took the podium to call her to task for whiffing on a number of fronts including her famous promise to “fix the damn roads.”
Hall insists the Governor has no plan for repairing the state’s infrastructure and no real plan for economic growth. (The Governor, in turn, will hand them a copy of tonight’s speech.)
We were treated to the usual moments of a standing ovation on one side of the chamber met by silent grumpiness on the other. (I would note that both sides stood for the Lions and Wolverines. Football as uniter.) That’s reliable as rain. But the gambit here will be fascinating. Skirmishes will be energized by election year calculations. But our recent Local 4/ Detroit News poll showed the Governor with an approval rating of 61%, the highest of her administration, and certainly high enough to serve as a warning light for the GOP.