Michigan Republicans look to keep big Senate majority; Democrats look for flips

or the past four years, the Republicans in the state Senate have enjoyed a veto-proof 27-11 majority that has ensured that few, if any, proposals from Democrats gain traction.

The Democrats' minority status shrunk even further to a tiny, 10-member caucus when state Sen. Bert Johnson resigned earlier this year after pleading guilty to putting a “ghost employee” on the state payroll to pay off a loan.

Democrats are tired of their minority status and hope that an energized Democratic base will help them pick up five or six seats, which is not enough to capture the majority but will level the playing field a bit more.

“We think we’re in a good spot to pick up four, five or even six seats,” said state Sen. David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights. “This is a full-court press. It’s a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. We haven’t held the majority since before I was born.”

Democrats see possible flips in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Macomb County, the Upper Peninsula and — if the blue tide is especially strong — Oakland County.

“Four years ago, we heard all these ideas that the Republicans had a 26-12 majority and that was such an artificially high water mark,” said former state Sen. Bill Ballenger, editor of the political newsletter the Ballenger Report. “Well guess what, the Republicans actually gained a seat in 2014. And now we’re hearing the same thing all over again.”

Ballenger said the 27-11 majority probably is the best Republicans can do and that Democrats could very well pick up a couple of seats this year, but “the Democrats have almost got tosweep the board and win all thesedistricts and I just don’t see that happening.”

The Senate Republican caucus has a big fundraising edge over the Democrats — $4.4 million to $1.9 million in cash available for the rest of the campaign season. But Democrats outraised the Republicans in the second quarter, bringing in $349,476 compared to $286,051 for the GOP.


https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/29/republicans-democrats-election-majority/852658002/

FLIPPABLE: Rosemary Bayer for MI-SD12

Entrepreneur, leader, inventor and change maestro, Rosemary Bayer is known for bringing energy, motivation, creative leadership and accomplishment to every endeavor she undertakes. An avid practitioner of agile organization management, she brings an open, participatory and shared goals philosophy of achievement.

Rosemary is running for the Michigan Senate District 12, her first run at an elected position. Feeling as though the current Michigan administration is out of touch with the people of the State and not representing her values, she is determined to make positive change happen in Michigan State government.

Rosemary’s parents instilled the value of hard work, integrity, and community service. Inspired by their involvement in many public offices, including her father serving as the Mayor of New Baltimore, she assumed many leadership roles as a child and a young adult, through being a Girl Scout leader and Council Board member.

Rosemary went on to a successful career in the fast-moving and innovative field of information technology, starting as a computer engineer and analyst, finding and inventing products to solve real business problems.

She is the co-founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of ardentCause L3C, a database technology company serving nonprofit organizations with database products and services. As Chief Inspiration Officer, she motivates the internal team as well as external collaborators to use technology innovation to move forward together. She works with customers and product teams on new designs, thriving on solving hard problems.

Rosemary was a co-founder of the Michigan Council of Women in Technology (MCWT), serving in leadership and volunteer roles for more than a decade. She spent a year also serving as Interim Executive Director, restructuring the organization to support its astonishing growth.

Rosemary was a co-founder of the Michigan Council of Women in Technology (MCWT), serving in leadership and volunteer roles for more than a decade. She spent a year also serving as Interim Executive Director, restructuring the organization to support its astonishing growth.

Rosemary also contracted for two years with Inforum Michigan, a leading business women’s organization, to define and deliver a program to help women successfully launch technology companies. The program was funded through the National Science Foundation and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and is still being delivered at Inforum.

Prior to founding ardentCause, Rosemary spent 15 years at Sun Microsystems. Over those years, she moved from Systems Engineer through the ranks of engineering management, leading development and infrastructure teams across the Midwest. During her tenure at Sun, she moved her career into a broader business context, eventually leading a large global business unit across 17 countries.

Prior to Sun, Rosemary worked as a systems engineer for Control Data and Amdahl Corporations. In both environments, she invented products that became part of the companies' strategies and revenue sources. At Control Data, this included the product now known as NetBackupTM, still sold today by Veritas Technologies.

Rosemary has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Math from Central Michigan University and an MBA with Distinction from Lawrence Technological University. She has received a number of awards including being named one of the Top Michigan Women In Computing and an Outstanding Alumna Award from Lawrence Tech.




https://www.rosemarybayer.com

MI-GOV: Interesting tweet about one of yesterday's El-Sayed/Ocasio-Cortez rally

My suggestions for the Aug. 11 and Aug. 14 Primaries (CT, HI, MN, WI, VT)

And suggestions are just that. You can ignore it, print it, take it to the polls, burn it, throw darts at it or even (you know) on it. After looking everyone over, these are, IMHO, our best candidates. This list is not sacred despite any strong opinions I may hold on some races so please feel free to comment.

CONNECTICUT:
GOVERNOR: Ned Lamont
CT-05: Jahana Hayes

HAWAII:
GOVERNOR: Noen
HI-01: Donna Mercado Kim
HI-02: Sherry Alu Campagna

MINNESOTA:
GOVERNOR: Lori Swanson
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Keith Ellison
MN-01: Dan Feehan
MN-03: Dean Phillips
MN-05: Ilhan Omar
MN-08: Jason Metsa

VERMONT:
GOVERNOR: James Ehlers
VT-01: Peter Welch

WISCONSIN:
GOVERNOR: Tony Evans
WI-01: Cathy Myers

My (Revised) suggestions for the Aug. 7 primaries (KS, MI, MO, WA)

And suggestions are just that. You can ignore it, print it, take it to the polls, burn it, throw darts at it or even (you know) on it. After looking everyone over, these are, IMHO, our best candidates. This list is not sacred depsite my strong opinions on some races so please feel free to comment. I'm especially interested in hearing about the Kansas Governor race and Washington.

KANSAS:
GOVERNOR: Carl Brewer(REVISED TO) Laura Kelly
KS-03: Sharice Davids
KS-04: James Thompson


Michigan:
GOVERNOR: Gretchen Whitmer
MI-08: Elissa Slotkin
MI-09: Ellen Lipton
MI-11: Tim Greimel
MI-13: Coleman A Young II


Missouri:
MO-01: None
MO-02: Mark Osmack


Washington:
WA-08: Jason Rittereiser
WA-09: Adam Smith

Rep. John Lewis hospitalized after falling ill on plane

ATLANTA - Channel 2 Action News has learned that Rep. John Lewis has been hospitalized at a metro area hospital.

Sources confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that Lewis was hospitalized after becoming ill on a flight heading back to Atlanta on Saturday.

Lewis was expected at an Atlanta event Saturday evening and did not show.

Sources told Channel 2 Action News he is recovering. Lewis is 78.


https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/rep-john-lewis-hospitalized-after-falling-ill-on-plane/800832233

The end of MoviePass? Service went down after it ran out of money

Subscribers were frustrated Thursday night when the app went down just as "Mission Impossible: Fallout" was premiering in theaters. It wasn't the first time an outage has occurred on opening night of a blockbuster. It happened earlier this month when "Ant-Man and the Wasp" premiered and during the opening weekend of "Avengers: Infinity War" in April.

That's why users of the movie subscription service speculated on Twitter the outage was intentional to prevent the company from paying for their tickets. MoviePass chalked it up to "technical issues" though, according to an SEC filing, turns out the people on Twitter were right.

MoviePass ran out of money and had to get an emergency $5 million cash loan from a hedge fund to restore service.

"The $5.0 million cash proceeds received from the Demand Note will be used by the Company to pay the Company's merchant and fulfillment processors," the filing said. "If the Company is unable to make required payments to its merchant and fulfillment processors, the merchant and fulfillment processors may cease processing payments for MoviePass, Inc. ('MoviePass'), which would cause a MoviePass service interruption. Such a service interruption occurred on July 26, 2018.

"Such service interruptions could have a material adverse effect on MoviePass' ability to retain its subscribers. This would have an adverse effect on the Company's financial position and results of operations."




https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/07/the_end_of_moviepass_service_r.html

Amusement parks are the biggest ripoffs on earth

Just got home after taking my kid and his friend and swear I've never spent so much cash as quickly asI did today. I can only imagine what it would be like to take an entire family. *ugh*

Tweet of the Day

A great GOTV tweet from the OH-12