The Ballenger Report

Question 1): Amazingly, no Michigan pollster has yet asked a question measuring the popularity among the state’s voters of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Can that be determined? Answer 1): In Michigan, no, but it’s certain that any such a survey would find that views of ICE are deeply polarized along partisan lines. […]

“Now the days dwindle down to a precious few …” Cue Frank Sinatra singing the mournful ‘September Song.’ Time to talk about sadness and mortality. And Charlie’s Angels. Not the 1970s TV show, but the famous portrait of Michigan’s Big Three: Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel, posing […]

Michigan’s recently-elected  U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin has already gotten more than her share of attention as a freshman solon, and now she’s getting even more. But is what happened this past week a good thing for her image and career? Sedition, hanging, and mutiny? Slotkin, fellow Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and four Democratic U.S. Representatives […]

Retired attorney Lynn Liberato is the author of the recently published (and acclaimed) “Michigan’s Con-Con 11: Women and State Constitution-making in 1961” (Michigan State University Press, 159 pp., $32.95 but 20% off if promo code MSUP25 is used — see below). Liberato addressed the Michigan Political History Society on Nov. 5 in the State Library […]

Question 1): Could this past week’s vote by a bitterly-divided U.S. Congress to end the 43-day federal government shutdown be a wedge that separates progressives from moderate Democrats?  Answer 1): Before the crucial vote in the U.S. Senate, things were headed that way already, but now the wedge has gotten  wider. There is palpable anger […]

Donald Trump and his reshaped Republican Party got whacked by Democrats all across the country last Tuesday. Voters everywhere didn’t like what they were seeing. Does that mean the President might change his tune about whether there is a way for him to serve a third term in office? Not likely, and his sometime guru […]

ADVISORY TO MEDIA & ALL TBR READERS: Ballenger Eminent Persons Lecture Series Public Forum on the Mundy Township Megasite Development Free and Open to the Public FLINT, Mich. – As part of its commitment to fostering informed dialogue on issues affecting the region, the Ballenger Eminent Persons Lecture Series will host a public townhall-type forum […]

Question 1): When it comes to present-day political campaigns, it’s all about the money. Or is it? Can we assume that whoever raises the most campaign cash will win his or her party’s nomination in the the Aug. 4, 2026, primary and then be chosen by Michigan’s voters in the Nov. 3 general election? And […]

Question 1): Livingston County Republicans pioneered the use of a product called Association Voting to hold their county conventions electronically. The Ingham County GOP followed up and has had great success using the product, reportedly needing only 10 minutes to get a result — not all day, which has been the norm in past state […]