Michigan Election: The Morning After

Michiganders went for change in a big way on Tuesday. In addition to big numbers for Obama for President, 57% to 41%, our incumbent Supreme Court Justice, Clifford Taylor, was defeated, breaking a Republican voting block in the court. Whether this was a result of the wind of change or the “sleeping judge” TV ads, only the voters know for sure. According to an article by WZZM-TV in west Michigan, the ads were hotly disputed by Taylor with no clear consensus about their truth after several media investigations.

We also said yes to both state proposals, which means we legalized marijuana for medical use and authorized embryonic stem cell research in the state. The successful passage of Proposal 1 doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but a poll I ran last week did comes as a surprise. When given the option of keeping marijuana illegal, legalizing it for medical use or legalizing it for recreational use, 66% of the participants voted for recreational use. The poll undoubtedly has a margin of error in the stratosphere, but given the landslide by which the proposal passed, maybe an expanded proposal could have passed.

Next up? A special election in February will decide who will permanently succeed Kilpatrick as mayor of Detroit for the rest of his term.