Michigan state representatives met for one of the last times before midterms this week. Legislators spent their time discussing several bills and resolutions covering some of the biggest talking points this election season. The meeting comes as candidates switch their campaigns into high gear.
WKAR Captiol Correspondent Colin Jackson joined WKAR Morning Edition host Melorie Begay to break it all down. Click on the audio player above to listen.
Interview Transcript:
Melorie Begay: It's been a busy week for Michigan state representatives as legislators try to shore up support for their political parties before the midterms. Lawmakers discussed several bills related to some major election talking points, including gas and socialism.
Plus, absentee voting gets underway as campaigns prepare for the final stretch of the election before November. Here to talk about it all is WKAR Capitol Correspondent Colin Jackson. Thanks for being here, Colin.
Colin Jackson: Thanks for having me, Melorie.
Begay: So, with Michigan just weeks away from Election Day, what has the current mood at the Capitol been like this past week?
Jackson: You don't see lawmakers taking a lot of actions leading up to the election. You know they're often kind of cautious as to what they do right before they go before voters, and voters decide their future.
Wednesday was one of the last days when we saw them meet, and what you saw was a Republican package that would basically strengthen penalties for criminal sexual conduct going up on the board. Many Democrats did vote for this package, but some saw issues and they accused Republicans basically of doing this as a messaging thing, where they're saying that these bills wouldn't have the same impact in terms of helping survivors actually get justice, because you know a tighter penalty doesn't necessarily help a prosecutor press a charge in the first place. So, you saw some drama about that playing out. You also saw some messaging, especially in these non-binding resolutions that the House took up.
One of them was a resolution to condemn socialism, and you saw you know Rep. Jay DeBoyer, who's currently running as a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, give a lengthy speech that Democrats objected to. On the Democratic side, you saw them try to push some messaging around the economy. One thing that Democrats unsuccessfully tried to do frequently was tie the fate of some of these Republican priorities to legislation that would suspend the state's gas tax right now in light of really high gas prices.
Begay: What are they hoping Michiganders, their constituents, what are they hoping they take away from some of these bills and resolutions?
Jackson: I mean, there's kind of two ways to look at it, right? Whenever the legislature does something, there's the actual policy side of things and taking things at face-value, which would mean, if you talk to some of the sponsors of these bill packages, I don't doubt their sincerity. Where they want, especially when it comes to the criminal sexual conduct punishments, to set mandatory minimums and lengthen the amount of time you can serve for committing one of those crimes. The sponsors will say they want their constituents to feel safe, and they want to know that Michiganders feel safe about this.
If you talk to the Democrats and some folks who may feel a little more jaded, they see this as a chance for Republicans to get Democrats on the record taking a bad vote before the general election, so they can say, "See, look at this: Democrats don't support keeping sex offenders off the street, or something like that. So there's the face value way of looking at it, and then there's the little more political way of looking at it, especially when it comes to some of these resolutions. You know, I think that's a little bit more nakedly political,
Begay: Right, like the resolution condemning socialism. What did this give legislators the opportunity to do?
Jackson: This was a chance for Republicans to give lengthy speeches against socialism at a time when you know some candidates that don't embrace the democratic socialist term, a few of them do, many of them do not. But this has been a big talking point for Republicans leading up to the election, and this is giving them another platform for making an impassioned speech against socialism. And then this was a record roll call vote, so now you have Democrats on the record talking about either they support condemning socialism, or they don't want to condemn socialism, and they can also, especially in some of these tight districts, use that in a campaign ad potentially.
Begay: Also, this week, absentee voting gets underway. This is a moment we've been talking about for a while, right? So, you know, how are campaigns viewing this moment?
Jackson: Yeah, so this is something where it kind of feels like we never thought we'd get here, especially if you're someone who doesn't have ad-free subscriptions. You've been watching a lot of TV or streaming. You've seen a lot of these ads happening for months now. Just 10s of millions of dollars being spent on these races, especially in the U.S. Senate race.
This week we're seeing, and in general, we're seeing these candidates start to tighten up their messages a little bit, and almost center back to the issues.
Recently, you've seen on the Republican side, especially in the Senate race, you've seen Mike Rogers lay out his health care plan. You've seen him drill down a little bit more into education, some of these other issues, and the El-Sayed camp on the Democratic side, you're trying to really just solidify that Democratic base here.
One of the ways he tried to do that was campaigning in Detroit this week with Vice President Kamala Harris. It was an event aimed at discussing Black maternal health which could help El-Sayed with Black women. Especially in Detroit, a city that he lost during the primary. It could shore up some of his support with Black supporters and Black Democrats. He's also been doing these campus tours. He was in Ann Arbor. He was in Grand Rapids. Those drew crowds, and so you're seeing candidates really try to enter this final stretch of the race.
Begay: All right, Colin Jackson is WKAR's Capitol correspondent. Thanks for being here, Colin.
Jackson: Thanks so much, Melorie.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
