After faltering in the Wisconsin Senate Republican recall elections, national union groups can turn their attention to Michigan, where Republican state Rep. Paul Scott, chair of the House Education Committee, likely faces a recall election this November after a union-backed petition drive provided enough signatures to put him on the ballot for supporting an education reform agenda by Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., that cuts education spending, changes teacher tenure rules, and ends the “Last in, First Out” policy that fires teachers based on seniority.
The group behind the petition drive submitted approximately 12,200 signatures to the Michigan Bureau of Elections in support of recalling Scott. Though not yet verified, the petitioners should have at least the minimum threshold of 9604 signatures.The Recall Paul Scott Facebook page attacks Scott as “a massive opponent of teachers and fails to recognize public sector workers as a part of the working class.”
Scott describes the recall campaign to The Washington Examiner as a “classic battle between the past and policies that didn’t work and the future.” Denying charges that he’s anti-teacher, Scott says that “we’re moving education reform [in Michigan] towards emphasizing merit rather than seniority.”
At this point, the recall drive is analogous to the union-targeting of the Wisconsin state senators. The Michigan Education Association (MEA) spent $25,000 to fund the recall drive and organized training sessions for activists to collect signatures against Scott. Similarly, the physical address provided on the anti-Scott Facebook page leads to a local chapter of the United Auto Workers union.
Scott recognizes that he could have a tough race ahead of him, given that he represents a swing district with a high concentration of union members. He also recently had a child out of wedlock. And Scott won’t have an opponent to campaign against this fall. Unlike the partisan elections in Wisconsin, the Michigan recall ballot will give voters a simple “yes” or “no” choice on whether to retain or recall Scott. If a majority votes “yes,” the governor would call a special election to replace him. “I’m going to be aggressively communicating with my constituents, telling them about the issues,” Scott said.
Perhaps any politician would say the same thing in Scott’s position, but in Michigan this year, a close look at the issues by the voters might save Scott’s job.
For instance, Fitch Ratings revised Michigan’s bond outlook to “Positive,” citing the state’s “prudent budgeting” and nascent economic recovery this year. Snyder attributed the positive news to “Michigan’s hard work and commitment to returning our state’s fiscal integrity and fixing our structural [budget] deficit once and for all while starting to pay down our long-term debt and save the future.”
MEA’s resistance never reached the levels seen in Madison against Gov. Scott Walker’s reforms, but the union criticized Snyder’s “historic cuts” to education spending in Michigan while trying to impeach Snyder’s claim that the cuts amounted to “shared sacrifice.” They decried his teacher tenure and layoff legislation as “veil[ed] attacks on public school employees, their collective bargaining rights, or their unions.”
As an alternative, MEA has proposed their own education agenda, replete with bromides about “increased accountability” and “increased efficiency,” but no education spending cuts. MEA blames the “decade-long budget crisis” in Michigan on an “antiquated tax code,” and so recommends tax increases to bridge the budget gap. To prop up their collective bargaining contracts and education funding, they propose an expanded sales tax and a “graduated income tax.” Most incoherently, they would raise taxes on companies “that are failing to create and retain jobs.”
Now that the union’s ability to outsource its unsustainable cost to companies and taxpayers in a struggling state is threatened, they’re targeting legislators for interfering with the gravy train. If Scott can keep the focus on the issues, he might well survive this year.
