Michigan Republicans want their honey badger title back. At their state convention this weekend, they voted by 1370-132 for a scheme to divide up the state's Electoral College votes in a way that helps Republicans. If the plan had been in place in November, Mitt Romney would have lost the popular tally in Michigan but won nine of the 16 Electoral College votes. The Michigan GOP's support for the plan put Republican Governor Rick Snyder on the spot. From the Detroit News:
Gov. Rick Snyder, who made an appearance to deliver a speech backing Schostak, remains leery of the proposal. At a brief meeting with the press, he reiterated that it's "not the appropriate time" to discuss it.
"The right way is to talk about it in a bipartisan way … just prior to a census," Snyder said.
Last month Governor Snyder said 2013 "would be the best year" for making the change, but that was before Republicans around the nation, including in Michigan, decided it didn't look so great to be openly rigging the game. Republican officials in Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin and Ohio also backed away from the plan. At this point, only Pennsylvania Republicans seem to be moving forward with an actual bill to divide the votes of a blue state, while Republican stalwarts in Michigan watch with apparent longing. The proposal had been pushed in the halls of the Republican National Committee by a former chair of the Michigan GOP.
It'll be interesting to see if Republicans in other blue states push for the revival of this idea at their local meetings. Note that Republicans in red states are not proposing to divvy up their Electoral College delegates so that a Democratic candidate would get some.
Michigan Republicans' vote to help themselves this weekend comes as their emergency manager law is on the verge of taking away local democracy from almost half the African-Americans in the state. (H/t Tricia's Morning Maddow and Morgan Whitaker at Politics Nation)
