One of the most painful losses for Michigan was the loss of Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Cliff Taylor to liberal democrat Diane Hathaway. This is all the more so since it was unexpected. The vote was 49% to 39%, with 11% going to Libertarian nominee Robert Roddis. Taylor significantly outraised Hathaway, got a lot of good endorsements, was the incumbent, and was not listed on the ballot as a Republican. So what happened?
Democrats ran an ad accusing Taylor of falling asleep in court. The ad wasn't true, of course, but it was never effectively rebutted by Taylor's ads. The democrats appear to have done a good job of getting word out to their voters to support Hathaway. With the large turnout for Obama, enough of it carried over to defeat Taylor.
Still, it's noteworthy that Hathaway didn't get a majority of the vote. Roddis pulled 11%, and there was no far-left candidate (Green, etc.) to pull votes from the left. Libertarian nominees have typically done relatively well in supreme court races in Michigan (that is, around 10%). Why? No parties being listed on the ballot has something to do with it, but beyond that it's a mystery.
Now, goodness knows there are plenty of reasons for libertarians to not be happy with the Republican Party right now. But how does that carry over to Taylor? Taylor supported the rule of law, the free market, property rights, limiting lawsuit damages, gun rights, and opposed racial preferences. What's a libertarian not to like? Of course, libertarians are nowhere near 11% of the Michigan electorate. There had to be a lot of other voters who went for Roddis. But why?
With the seats of staunch conservative Robert Young and RINO Elizabeth Weaver up for election in 2010, Republicans had better figure out the answers to these questions.
3 comments:
Great post! I also picked up on this idea and wrote about it on my blog.
on November 4th, the Michigan people voted for Diane Hathaway despite the much largely funded campaign of Cliff Taylor. They voted to end secrecy in the MI Supreme Court and promote transparency of which Taylor has not represented and only sought to suppress the voices of the people and when it was brought up to release what goes on in conference every week, Cliff Taylor didn't want to (we know that it maybe embarrassing if the public found out about some of the comments made in conference) . Cliff Taylor had overreaching power as CJ. The fact that he now seeks to retaliate against Diane Hathaway by closing the satellite offices only speaks merits about his character. That among many other instances, is why (although I am a conservative by nature) did not vote for Taylor and am glad to be able to vote for what's right- a fair and independent judiciary is what we need in Michigan to end the 'broke' court.
I am a conservative who believes in the fairness and impartiality of the Judiciary. I think that judicial activism by the left is wrong and that means judicial activism by the right is wrong also. I donated my time to defeat Judge Taylor.
I was blind to the direction of the court as are most citizens because most have no contact with the court system. I, for the first time in my 49 years, had to file a case after I was hurt at work and the company did not want to pay even though there was no denying the injury was work related. They were just being assholes. The plantiffs atorney told my attorney and I that we would win our case in the lower court and probably on appeal but they would just take it to the Supreme Court and they would win there. I couldn't believe it but my lawyer said it was almost impossible to win against an insurance company in Michigans Supreme Court. This is not the American way of fairplay and each of us allowed our day in court. This was my first experience in the court system but I could tell it was being corrupted. I made phone calls and talked to everyone I could about this. Everyone I talked to was disgusted by the actions of the court. Whatever their political persuasion, Americans only want fairness and this was lacking in the Taylor led court. This was why he lost!!!!
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