A Michigan representative caught Democrats and Republicans alike off guard Tuesday by abruptly switching his allegiance to the opposing party just in time for the filing deadline.

Longtime Democratic Rep. Roy Schmidt, R-Grand Rapids, withdrew his filing papers just before the Tuesday deadline to reregister as a Republican, provoking

Schmidt, who is running for a third term in the House, acknowledged that the timing of the switch could have been better, but said it wasn’t intentional.

Schmidt’s new Republican colleagues are pleased with the switch, saying Schmidt always was moderate and approachable.

But his former Democratic colleagues and staff are less enthused by his switch, which state Democratic party chairman Mark Brewer called an “opportunistic move at the 11th hour.”

Some people angry with Schmidt’s decision said it was a ploy to guarantee reelection because no other Republican was registered.

Bobby Schostak, state Republican chairman, applauded Schmidt’s decision to switch to a party that puts its constituents first and focuses its efforts on Michigan’s economic comeback.

“But, make no mistake, the parties could not be any more different,” he said.

State Sen. Minority Gretchen Whitmer , D-East Lansing, called into question State Rep. Bob Genetski’s ability to set MSU’s budget as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education, as a result of his arrest on the MSU campus in January.

The Democratic leader questioned Genetski’s decision to remain chairman, and Speaker of the House, Jase Bolger for not pulling the Republican from the seat, in an interview with The State News on Tuesday.

“I do think the chairman is compromised, he got busted on MSU’s campus for DUI,” Whitmer said. “I don’t think he should be in a position of authority determining the (university’s) budget.”
Whitmer said if she were in Bolger’s position, she wouldn’t allow Genetski, R-Saugatuck, to play a role in MSU’s budget, at least appointing someone to temporarily take over the seat.

Genetski has said his actions as chairman and his arrest are unrelated.

The West Michigan Republican still is awaiting trial in East Lansing’s 54-B district court, already having his license suspended for a year after being arrested on the MSU campus for drunken driving in January following Gov. Rick Snyder’s State of the State address at the Capitol.

On Friday, Genetski passed a budget incentive that would require MSU to remove its health care mandate or face losing additional funding from the state.

Whitmer blasted the committee’s actions in the recent debate, characterizing it as created by Republican legislators “with personal axes to grind” micromanaging MSU and encroaching on university autonomy guaranteed under the Michigan constitution.
“It’s maddening to watch it happen to be honest,” she said.

Gov. Rick Snyder is globe trotting once again, this time to Europe.

The trip is part of an eight-day trip to two countries to encourage investment partnerships with Michigan companies.

He has universities in mind as well. Today Snyder traveled today to Pfintzal, Germany on the second day of his eight-day tour, where he pushed for partnerships between businesses and Michigan universities.

“Our best talents are discovering new things, making things and making things work,” Snyder told leaders at the Fraunhofer Institute according to a press release, which focuses on transportation technologies.

The stop was to preside of a signing of a partnership letter between the institute and the University of Michigan.

The institute, which already has partnerships with MSU and Wayne State University, currently is focusing on developing electrical storage systems for cars.

Snyder arrived in Turin, Italy on Sunday, and will tour Germany meeting with government and economic leaders until Saturday.

Snyder visited Asia in October 2011 to encourage business investment as well. Snyder has said he plans to return this year.

The contentious debate on role of race in college admissions is once again headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, paving the way for what would be another landmark legal precedent on the issue.

On Tuesday, the court agreed to hear a case regarding a white female applicant to the University of Texas, who said she was a victim of the policy, which includes race as an admissions factor.

The result of the case could undo a 2003 ruling regarding the University of Michigan Law School, which said schools can’t use a point accumulation system but can use more vague factors of race to draw a diverse student body.

The issue of race in admissions has been highlighted in recent months, after President Barack Obama issued a letter to university presidents calling for more diversity in student bodies. He argued that rather than using race as an outright factor, universities should focus on using surrogate strata such as geographic area economic status to draw a wider range of races.

Even if a new precedent on the federal level did materialize, administrators have repeatedly said they still see MSU as constrained by a statewide ban on affirmative action.

“We’ll take a look at it to see if there’s something that might be applicable to our efforts,” Director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives Paulette Granberry Russell said in December when Obama announced the new guidelines. “For the most part, we are still constricted by (Proposal) 2.”

This time, it’s personal.

At least, that’s what Mitt Romney said in his latest Michigan-centric advertisement, which began airing across the state Tuesday.

“How in the world did an industry, and its leaders and its unions, get into such a fix that they lost jobs, that they lost their future?” Romney says in the commercial, driving a car through a middle-class neighborhood that resembles Detroit. “President Obama did all these things that the liberals have wanted to do for years.”

Romney was born in Michigan, and his father served as the state’s popular moderate governor during the 1960’s.

The advertisement includes shots of abandoned homes and ‘50s era General Motors cars and is sprinkled with images of iconic city images like the Renaissance Center. “Michigan’s been my home — and this is personal,” Romney says, the commercial closing with old photographs of him as young boy sitting in (a presumably American-made) car, and as a young man with Ann Romney before they were married.

The advertisement was released on the same day The Detroit News ran an op-ed column written by Romney, which argued the Detroit Automakers should have been restructured through bankruptcy rather than a bailout like the one Obama pushed for.

Detroit’s auto industry has made a comeback since the bailout, which Obama has hailed as a victory for the state. Former President George W. Bush and Gov. Rick Snyder also have shown support for the decision.

The ad comes just after new polls show Romney falling behind former Sen. Rick Santorum — a loss for Romney in his home state would be a colossal blow to the campaign.

Meanwhile, Santorum also has two advertisements airing in Michigan.

Romney will speak in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, while Santorum will give the keynote address Friday at the Michigan Faith and Freedom Coalition rally in Shelby Township, Mich., on Friday.

Gay marriage is almost certainly on its way to a supreme court ruling after a California federal court ruled the ban unconstitutional, arguing it does nothing than “lessen that status and human dignity,” of the gay community.

The voter-passed ban known as prop 8, passed by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin, has become a hallmark of America’s hotly contested marriage issue.

The court ruled today the ban violated the 14th amendment — the same piece of the nation’s constitution that outlawed school segregation in the 1963 Brown v. Board of Education decision — arguing ban unfairly discriminated against a group of people, namely the gay community.

Michigan’s 2004 voter-approved gay marriage ban passed with 59 percent of the vote in 2004. The state supreme court has interpreted it to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships.

The state legislature recently banned government employers from offering domestic partner benefits.

“We’re hopeful the more dialogue we have about this type of thing, the more dialogue we have about discrimination against gays and lesbians in our society I think the better, and that will eventually lead to marriage equality,” Denise Brogan-Kator, executive director of Equality Michigan, told the Huffington Post on Tuesday.

Although we’re not sure just what he’ll say, here’s a few things the governor might go after:

Higher Education funding: This issue that arguably affects students most, at least in the short run. Although his budget proposal isn’t out until Feb. 9, the governor might drop some hints in regard to higher education funding. Last year, Michigan universities were cute by 15 percent. In his first state of the state speech just a few weeks before, Snyder assured “It’s time to start talking about P-20 instead of just K-12.”

The issue is in the spotlight again after Senate Democrats introduced an ambitious economic development package this week focusing on providing nearly free college to in-state students.

Transportation: Want some cool new high-speed busses? How about some light rail system on Woodward Avenue in Detroit? Or maybe even just some nice, smooth new roads.

Snyder has been a proponent of re-developing the state’s infrastructure in Detroit and across the state. We’ll see if he takes the public transportation kick to a new level. Maybe a push for more high-speed trains near East Lansing, perhaps?

The bridge: The Detroit International River Crossing, a new proposed bridge between Windsor and Detroit, has been a personal mission for Snyder during the last few months. In October 2011, he came to the Kellogg Center and backed the project in a speech to U.S. and Canadian diplomats.

But it didn’t stick with Senate Republicans — the project died before leaving committee.

But things might be different after Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun’s trip to jail.

Perhaps Snyder will use the spotlight to resurrect his loss.

Sticks and stones, Michigan politicians.

An ugly little feud has erupted between state Democrats and Republicans after Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, likened PR executive Kelly Rossman to a “hooker,” who only works for the highest-paying clients.

“As an elected Senator I am honored to fight on behalf of my constituents for the best public policy. Unfortunately Kelly, like a ‘hooker’, works for whichever client hires her, policy be damned,” Jones told MIRS on Dec. 28.

Jones argued he wasn’t the aggressor in the dispute — Rossman previously ranked him as one of Lansing’s biggest losers.

“He’s unavoidable for comment,” She told MIRS “He is all about the media release rather than the public policy.”

Then State Sen. Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, got in the ring, using the incident as the main anecdote in a column outlining what she described as rampant sexism at the state Capitol.

Sen. Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, then tried to smooth out the controversy, which blew up on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.

“I don’t appreciate Kelly Rossman-McKinney’s assessment of Sen. Jones and his motives, but I certainly don’t condone the use of the word ‘hooker’ against any of our professional colleagues — and I would consider Kelly to be one of our colleagues,” Richardville told MIRS.

MLive reports Jones has agreed to attend an Eaton County Young Democrats comedy fundraiser event, which Rossman is hosting. The Roast of Rick Jones?

Watch what you post on Facebook. Kids often hear it from adults; public officials should take note, too.

The new Mayor of Troy, Mich., Janice Daniels, had a Facebook post go viral on Friday afternoon, attracting a flood of opposition from gay rights activists and community members.

A June 25 status update, posted while campaigning for mayor, reads:

“I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.”

The post was circulated a widely on Facebook and Twitter.

“I probably shouldn’t have used that kind of language, but I do believe marriage should be between one man and one woman,” Daniels told MLive on Friday.

Daniels said on Monday “she would not resign”: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/12/protesters_to_call_for_resigna.html, although she apologized for the post.

“I love my new role as mayor, and I’m not going to resign,” Daniels told Patch. “I love my new role as mayor, and I’m not going to resign.”

Daniels’ comment was met with protests at city all and at Monday’s city council meeting

An East Lansing community development leader will begin his service as the emergency financial manager of Flint on Thursday, after being appointed to the position by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Michael Brown, director of East Lansing’s Prima Civitas Foundation, was appointed Tuesday and will be charged with stabling financial turbulence that has left the city strapped for cash.

Increased powers granted to emergency financial managers under Snyder have caused controversy throughout the state, sparking some of the largest protests at the capitol in state history and a failed attempt to recall Snyder. The new powers give emergency managers the ability to break union contracts and override local officials such as a city council and mayor.

The governor’s appointment followed the recommendation of Flint’s financial review team, which consists of eight representatives from both the public and private sectors.

Prima Civitas — started in part by MSU — is a nonprofit organization that focuses on community and economic development throughout Michigan.

Brown is a Flint native, and served as its acting mayor for six months in 2009 following the resignation of the city’s previous mayor.

“I believe we can work together to resolve Flint’s financial emergency,” Brown said in a press release following the annoucement. “This is my hometown, so this is a personal task. With the available tools, I am optimistic we can work cooperatively to restore fiscal stability to Flint.”

Snyder has said an emergency manager is necessary to regain control of the city’s finances, after reviews showed failure to follow through on deficit reduction plans.