Michigan has a “full time” legislature which means that it is in session continuously during its two-year term. Other states, including Texas, have a “part time” legislature which meets for only a portion of the two-year term.
A legislature is “in session” when it can meet and propose legislation, resolutions and bills, that affect the government.
The radical left Michigan Democrats, who currently have a one-vote majority in both the Michigan House and Senate, are going “sine die” on Thursday after the day’s session ends, one inside staffer in Republican leadership tells the Gateway Pundit. The term ‘sine die’ is a term in legislatures which is the ‘final motion’ of the legislature to end its official session term.
There are two reasons this is being done: one to empower the moving-up of Michigan’s primaries to protect unpopular Joe Biden, and the second to preserve Democrat control of the legislature even after they lose the majority.
Unpopular Biden has been pushing to move up primaries in states because Biden’s popularity has fallen to significant lows.
Biden faces primary challenges from Cong. Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson for the Democrat primary, as well as several underdog candidates such as Joe “Tiger King” Exotic, Vermin Supreme, and pro-life champion Terissa Bukovanic. Robert Kennedy Jr. was a possible primary competitor who alleged that Democrat leaders were rigging the primaries against him, before declaring as an Independent candidate.
Iowa and New Hampshire are traditionally the early primary states for the Presidential primary in both parties.
Terissa Bukovanic told the Gateway Pundit: “Biden’s arrogant snub of New Hampshire’s primary election isn’t the first time his administration has ignored the voices of voters. His radical embrace of abortion extremism dramatically misrepresents the majority of Democrats who oppose elective third trimester abortion and perpetuates the mass murder of viable unborn children.”
Democrats moved the Michigan primaries up but neglected to give the legislation ‘immediate effect’ and that mistake threatened to render it inapplicable until the 2028 election cycle. But by ending the legislative session this week, it will cause the legislation to come into effect in time to help Biden.
Traditionally Michigan has had a ‘late’ primary in August, and the new legislation will move it up to February 27.
A shorter primary season is generally seen as a benefit to Biden because it reduces the time challengers have to mount campaigns and raise their name identification.
They are doing this because two of the 56 Democrat legislators are likely to win lower local offices requiring them to resign from the legislature, threatening their control over the legislature.
The two Democrats likely to win their local races are Kevin Coleman currently running for Mayor of Westland, Michigan, and Lori Stone, running for mayor of Warren, Michigan.
The loss of these two Democrats will take the Democrat majority in the legislature down from 56 to 54, where the Republicans also have a caucus of 54.
In the past this has resulted in ‘power sharing’ arrangements between the two parties. But according to insiders, the office of Democrat Speaker Joe Tate (D) has zero respect for Rep. Matt Hall (R), who is referred to by Tate’s staff dismissively as ‘MAGA Matt’ because Hall constantly flip-flops on whether he wants the support of Trump voters.
Even some Republicans are reluctant to let Republican leadership have a power-sharing arrangement. Hall is compromised from his antics in college where he was known as an alcoholic known for sending racist rants including pronounced use of the ‘N-word’ and terroristic threats to his ex-girlfriends. Hall was also the Chairman of the Oversight Committee that rudely dismissed the findings of Rudy Giuliani and his witnesses in the aftermath of the corrupt 2020 election.
Democrats have had little problem finding RINO Republicans, including Hall, they can buy off with small bits of legislation in order to advance their priorities.
But their ability to pass legislation and operate independent of the Republican minority is constrained by the Michigan Constitution, which requires an absolute majority “of those elected and serving”, or 56 out of 110 Members, in order to pass a bill out of the House. Instead of having to continuously buy off RINO’s, the Democrats would rather pass no more legislation.
In previous terms, the Republican leadership in the legislature refused to advance bills that did not have bipartisan support. The immediate previous Republican Speaker Jason Wentworth had this policy. Wentworth’s predecessor was disgraced Lee Chatfield, who similarly refused to combat or fight the Democrat minority and far-left Governor Gretchen Whitmer during showdowns related to gas taxes, illegal COVID shutdowns, and budget fights where Whitmer just rewrote entire Republican state budgets.
The two Democrat vacancies are likely to be filled in a special election. The primaries for those races will likely be in May 2024 and the general election will be in November 2024, for a remaining term that will be from election day through the end of the year. Both seats are reliably Democrat seats. The next election in Michigan are the primaries in Spring 2024. The next general election for legislators is on Tuesday November 5, 2024.
Meanwhile multiple radical left legislators face citizen-initiated recalls and may face the voters in May 2024 if the petitions required to certify the recall are collected in fall 2023. By ending the legislative session early, the Democrat leadership also prevents any recalled legislator from being seated in a functioning legislature.
