January 22, 1999

Legislative & Political Week in Review

• Newly sworn-in legislators are rolling up their sleeves in anticipation of daily sessions beginning next week and extending at least through mid-June. Little floor action is anticipated until after Gov. John Engler’s January 28 State of the State address to lawmakers. Meantime, the largest freshman class in more than three decades is settling in at the capitol. The 41 GOP frosh—comprising nearly 70 percent of their party caucus–have hit the ground running, while their 23 Democratic counterparts—constituting less than half of the minority party caucus—are finding distinctly fewer opportunities to stake out legislative turf.
• The new reality of solid Republican control was apparent in House committee assignments announced this week by Speaker Chuck Perricone (R-Kalamazoo Township). Every one of the 22 standing (permanent) committees will have a first-term lawmaker serving either as chair or vice-chair, and GOP freshmen will chair 12 of them. There will be no Democrat chairs, of course, newcomers or otherwise, but of the minority vice-chairs, only four of the Dems tapped will be freshmen. And in an uncommonly candid move, one Democrat representative—Vera Rison (D-Mt. Morris)—opted for no committee assignment at all, noting that she can do more for her constituents in her office than on a GOP-dominated committee. In voluntarily surrendering her seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, Rison explained, "I’m not one who likes to fight endlessly for nothing."
• With passage of House Resolution 1, the standing rules of the lower chamber, the structure of 28 committees that had been in place under Democrat rule were pared, renamed, and reorganized into 22 House standing committees. Seven committees were eliminated (Colleges and Universities, Commerce, Consumer Protection, Forestry and Mineral Rights, Marine Affairs and Port Development, Mental Health, and Public Retirement), and the former Judiciary Committee was split into two new ones (Criminal Law and Corrections, and Family and Civil Law).
• Adding to capitol-watchers’ confusion at the scores of new faces is the growing number of familiar faces in new places. Topping that list this week is newly elected Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Rogers (R-Brighton). Rogers beat out challengers Joanne Emmons (R-Big Rapids) and Loren Bennett (R-Canton) for the leadership post vacated when Michael Bouchard abruptly quit the Senate to fill an unexpected vacancy as Oakland County sheriff.
• The special primary election to fill Bouchard’s vacant 13th District seat has drawn a crowded field of nearly a dozen hopefuls, including incumbent Rep. Robert Gosselin (R-Troy) and former Reps. Shirley Johnson and Greg Kaza. Following a February 23 primary runoff, the seat will be decided in a March 16 special election.
• While we were out, the inevitable post-election reshuffling of state agency chiefs was in full swing. Corrections Department head Kenneth McGinnis stepped down in favor of an east coast consulting job; former lawmaker and State Lottery Director Bill Martin has been tapped to replace him. Family Independence Agency Director Marva Livingston Hammons returns next month to Colorado to serve as that state’s director of human services. Former Republican Party State Chairman Susy Heintz took over as state travel director, and former budget director Mark Murray—wooed to Michigan State University just a year ago as finance VP—was wooed back down Michigan Avenue to replace Doug Roberts as state treasurer.
• What headline writers delight in calling “punk prisons” inched closer to in-state reality with Governor Engler’s signature earlier this month on a six-bill package of technical and enabling legislation. Public Acts 508–14 permit a privately managed youth-detention facility among corrections projects. After several seasons of debate, the controversial measure finally passed during the waning days of the last legislative session.