Jack Lessenberry: Elections provide insight

Jack Lessenberry

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Jack Lessenberry

November 13, 2011

By JACK LESSENBERRY Syndicated Columnist The Record Eagle Tue Feb 14, 2012, 12:31 PM EST

DETROIT — Contrasting styles sometimes produce contrasting results. Take what just happened in Michigan and Ohio. You might call it a "Tale of Two Republicans." Freshman Govs. Rick Snyder and John Kasich took office in January, with somewhat similar agendas.

Both wanted to make their states more business-friendly, and felt it necessary to try to reduce and limit some of the perks given to state workers, including teachers. Each was lucky enough to come into office with large legislative majorities in both houses.

Kasich, however, went after the unions with what seemed like vindictive pleasure. He rammed a bill through the legislature that eviscerated the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions.

Teachers, firefighters and police lost the right to binding arbitration in labor disputes, and lost the right to strike.

Up in Michigan, Snyder got his legislature to do plenty to accomplish his reforms, cutting benefits at the state level, and first giving local governments incentives to follow suit. In September, he signed legislation forbidding governments from paying more than $5,500 annually in health care costs per employee, even if they wanted to do so.

He cut aid to education, over the protest of the teachers' unions, and signed a law putting restrictions on tenure.

But Snyder said he had no interest in taking away collective bargaining rights from the unions. He avoided attack rhetoric and said he had no interest in ideology, Instead, he talked about "best practices," getting expenses in line and "relentless positive action." So what happened?

Ohio's governor managed to revitalize the unions as nothing has in decades. Unfortunately for him, he did this by becoming their enemy. Detroit native Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Columbus Dispatch that "the governor, by attempting to gut labor, may have strengthened it." He did indeed. Enough signatures were quickly gathered to put a measure repealing the law on the ballot. On Election Day, 61 percent of Ohioans rejected the anti-union bill.

Ohioans normally vote more conservative and more Republican than Michiganders. Even this week, they appeared to approve another measure rejecting President Obama's health insurance mandate by almost two to one. But the governor's strong arm tactics backfired.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, union anger against Rick Snyder never reached anything like the fevered pitch it did in Wisconsin and Ohio.

An attempt to recall the governor fizzled and was abandoned. Attempts to recall GOP legislators also fizzled -- all except one, the effort against State Rep. Paul Scott (R- Grand Blanc) who chairs the education committee.

And on election night, Scott was, indeed, recalled, after a furious campaign by the Michigan Education Association, the main teacher's union, which spent heavily in an effort to oust him.

They prevailed -- barely. Unofficial results showed 12,284 voters supported removing him; 12,087 opposed the recall.

That result was heralded by some as a triumphant repudiation of Snyder's policies -- but that seems doubtful. Had Scott not been recalled, it would have been a clear repudiation of the MEA, which may have spent as much as $140,000 to try to oust him.

And Paul Scott had plenty of problems that had nothing to do with the Snyder administration. Less than two years after winning swing seat in the legislature, Scott, who is still only 29, mounted a odd campaign for the GOP nomination of secretary of state last year.

His main issue? Keeping transsexuals from changing their sex on their drivers' licenses. This may not have seemed like a major problem to most economically hard-pressed voters, but Scott claimed that it was a moral issue. While he didn't come close to winning the nomination, he did anger the gay and bisexual community. What happened next alienated social conservatives.

Scott admitted that he had impregnated a woman who was on his state-paid staff, after she announced he was the father at a baby shower. The representative said he was happy about the pregnancy but wasn't inclined to marry her. In any event, people may have voted to remove Scott for more than one reason.

It will be interesting to see how both governors now respond. In the case of Michigan, Scott's loss makes barely a dent in the large GOP house majority, though it may be politically significant which party wins the special election to fill the vacancy on Feb. 28.

In Ohio, Kasich said he needs " to take a deep breath and reflect on what happened." Whether that provokes any kind of midcourse correction, only time will tell.

Jack Lessenberry's email address is bucca@aol.com.