The Michigan GOP Primary tomorrow will take place under Republican inspired, Republican introduced, Republican passed, Republican signed and Republican executed law. As you might expect, it is consequently entirely useless, insofar as actually electing anyone or deciding anything is concerned. Why would anyone want to conduct a useless election at public expense? For the money, of course.
The Michigan GOP Primary tomorrow is being held pursuant to a bill introduced by the leader of the Republican super-majority Michigan Senate, passed by the Michigan Republican controlled House, signed into law by Republican Governor Rick Snyder and executed by Republican Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson. It was passed October 4, 2011 and made effective immediately (caution PDF). But it calls for a Potemkin election, just a cheap show. Unfortunately for the taxpayers funding this useless exercise, these days, cheap isn't cheap.
Republican political consultants with Michigan ties and expertise no doubt enjoy full and well compensated employment, for the moment. Meanwhile, until tomorrow, the multimillion dollar media carpet bombing brings wide grins to the faces of the media mogul stratum of the GOP. What's not to like, except for the chump taxpayer who has to foot the bill.
Nowhere in this ridiculous election law, a law which meticulously foresees every conceivable way in which a service member might try to vote, among many other contingencies, nowhere did the Michigan legislature bother to create any linkage whatsoever between the results of the Presidential primary and the selection of delegates who will eventually pick the GOP's actual nominee for President. Nada.
A different provision of Michigan law has state party's choosing slates of Presidential Electors at Fall conventions. A frustrating online search turned up no Michigan GOP rules or national ones for that matter, setting out the manner in which tomorrow's election in Michigan will influence the GOP delegate count. The GOP nomination process continues to have transparency problems with the delegate score keeping, as with the Iowa result mix up, the Maine mix up, and differing and variable reports of delegate totals from different media voices. Expect more of the same when Michigan Republicans made sure that the Michigan election code makes no provision for influencing how the GOP selects delegates for its National Convention.
I was once moved to argue against Operation Hilarity because I was concerned about diverting attention from lower tier, like Congressional, primaries where there might be chances to elect more progressive Democrats. Well, forget that. It turns out (caution PDF) that those Michigan candidates don't even have to officially file until mid-May and their primary is in August.
I don't live in Michigan, but I work there a lot, all over the state, and I know a lot of good people there. They deserve better than this pitiful, ineffectual GOP show election for the benefit of political consultant wealth and ad dump dollars. Republican governance. Pttui.
7:14 PM PT: Update: Here is an unsourced report of a supposed Michigan GOP delegate division scheme: http://ivn.us/... I've had a deuce of a time finding anything binding or authoritative. Certainly the Michigan election code provides none and Republican resources, online at least, seem rather dense and unhelpful.