HB5225 - State House votes to end the pistol permit system!

This took over 80 years to fix. The state house, led by Paul Opsommer, Ray Franz, and Richard LeBlanc all came through for the 2nd Amendment by repealing the worst of Michigan's gun control laws. This puts the pistol system in line with federal law. The NICS checks would still be in effect if it passes the state senate.This would eliminate the pistol purchase permit requirements. There's still some registration, but this also requires MSP to destroy records within 6 months of passage.

This was a somewhat bipartisan effort. All republicans voted correctly on this, along with 11 democrats. I'm a little surprised at some of the dem votes both for and against.  I expected better from Hammel, Constan, Kandrevas, and Clemente. Downriver and Flint burbs have usually been favorable to 2a. Interestingly, this August will have a primary race between Liss and Switalski. If you are a 2a supporter of any party in parts of Warren, then remember that election time. I'm slightly surprised in a good way with Oakes (in Mike Hanley's old district?), Slavens, Schmidt, and Dillon (Man oh man have things changed in Kent County the last 15 years on this issue - in a good way), but that's largely due to the districts more than anything else.

There's three Republican votes that surprised me. I won't mention who because they did the right thing. I don't want to put doubt in minds of readers when reps vote correctly. Heise is a big improvement over the last two republicans in that district.

From Michigan Votes:

IN FAVOR

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Brunner (D)	Byrum (D)	Dillon (D)	Lane (D)	LeBlanc (D)
Liss (D)	Oakes (D)	Schmidt, R. (D)	Segal (D)	Slavens (D)
Smiley (D)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS

Agema (R)	Bolger (R)	Bumstead (R)	Callton (R)	Cotter (R)
Crawford (R)	Daley (R)	Damrow (R)	Denby (R)	Farrington (R)
Forlini (R)	Foster (R)	Franz (R)	Genetski (R)	Gilbert (R)
Glardon (R)	Goike (R)	Graves (R)	Haines (R)	Haveman (R)
Heise (R)	Hooker (R)	Horn (R)	Hughes (R)	Huuki (R)
Jacobsen (R)	Jenkins (R)	Johnson (R)	Knollenberg (R)	Kowall (R)
Kurtz (R)	LaFontaine (R)	Lori (R)	Lund (R)	Lyons (R)
MacGregor (R)	MacMaster (R)	McBroom (R)	McMillin (R)	Moss (R)
Muxlow (R)	Nesbitt (R)	O'Brien (R)	Olson (R)	Opsommer (R)
Ouimet (R)	Outman (R)	Pettalia (R)	Poleski (R)	Potvin (R)
Price (R)	Pscholka (R)	Rendon (R)	Rogers (R)	Schmidt, W. (R)
Shaughnessy (R)	Shirkey (R)	Somerville (R)	Stamas (R)	Tyler (R)
Walsh (R)	Yonker (R)	Zorn (R)

---

AGAINST

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Ananich (D)	Barnett (D)	Bauer (D)	Bledsoe (D)	Brown (D)
Cavanagh (D)	Clemente (D)	Constan (D)	Darany (D)	Durhal (D)
Geiss (D)	Greimel (D)	Hammel (D)	Haugh (D)	Hobbs (D)
Hovey-Wright (D)	Howze (D)	Irwin (D)	Jackson (D)	Kandrevas (D)
Lindberg (D)	Lipton (D)	McCann (D)	Meadows (D)	Nathan (D)
Olumba (D)	Rutledge (D)	Santana (D)	Stallworth (D)	Stanley (D)
Stapleton (D)	Switalski (D)	Talabi (D)	Tlaib (D)	Townsend (D)
Womack (D)

It's on to the State Senate. It should pass there if it goes up for a vote. Richardville isn't reliable on fiscal issues all the time, but he's solid on 2nd Amendment issues. Hopefully Snyder will sign it. I don't think he has that strong of opinion on this issue one way or the other, but I don't think he'd stand in our way with it if it heads to our desk.

State House Redistricting - District 101 (HD-101)

State House - District 101
Current Rep - Ray Franz (R - Onekama Twp)

Candidates:
GOP - Ray Franz (R-Onekama Twp)
Dem -  Allen O'Shea (D-Copemish)

Update 5-27-2012 - Interesting matchup here. Scripps doesn't want a rematch, which makes things easier. Bailey was originally going to run against Benishek in CD-01, but didn't want to face McDowell in a primary, which is a smart move since he's a troll below the bridge. However, there's still a big geography matchup here. Bailey is from Leelanau County, and O'Shea from Manistee County. Fallout from that could help Franz. I'd still rate this a tossup. Nothing Up North comes easy.

Update 8-30-2012 - O'Shea won the primary narrowly. He lost Benzie and Leelanau counties to Bailey, but won Mason county and won big in Manistee County. 

Old District (101st)
Ray Franz -19,386
Dan Scripps- 18,495


This district remains unchanged for the 2nd straight redistricting cycle and is a swing district that flipped twice in 08 and 2010. The district covers the Lake Michigan Coastline. Manistee, Mason, Benzie, and Leelanau Counties. All the counties can be competitive, with Manistee County the most democrat leaning with some union leanings. There's a bit of a Chicago influence on the coast itself here, particularly Ludington and Leelanau County. Leelanau County has been treading democrat lately as well, I suspect from Ann Arbor/Chicago retirees and some overlap from Traverse City yuppies. It's no longer really a GOP base county, although certainly winnable.



From 2002 to 2008, the district was held by David Palsrok. Dan Scripps won the open seat flipping it to the dems. Ray Franz won a rematch with Scripps in 2010.In 2000, David Mead won his third term by 6000 votes, but lost Mason County, normally the most Republican county in the district. Mason County went for Bush that same year. In 2002,  Palsrok won the open seat by 3000, but lost Mason County. Palsrok swept the district in 2004, winning by 5500. 2006 was a close call against Dan Scripps. Palsrok won by 1600, losing Leelanau County, and barely winning Manistee and Benzie Counties. Mason was the big county for Palsrok. Scripps absolutely demolished Ray Franz in 2008, but lost to him in 2010 once Scripps got himself a voting record.

Presidential wise, this district went for Bush twice and Obama once. Manistee County voted for Gore, Bush, and Obama. The rest of them went for Bush twice and Obama.  I don't know how this one is going to go in 2012. I'm adding the 2008 numbers for St House here as well as 2008 and 2010 were a matchup with the same people. Ray Franz and  Dan Scripps.

This is going to be a district to watch in 2012. Nothing up North comes easy, although much of this district has very different types of up north voters than the ones in Sheltrown's old district.

	McCain	Obama	Total	Diff	GOP	DEM	Diff
Benzie County	4687	5451	10138	-764	46.23%	53.77%	-7.54%
Leelanau County	6936	7355	14291	-419	48.53%	51.47%	-2.93%
Manistee County	5510	7235	12745	-1725	43.23%	56.77%	-13.53%
Mason County	7147	7817	14964	-670	47.76%	52.24%	-4.48%
			0	0	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!
			0	0	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!
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Total	24280	27858	52138	-3578	46.57%	53.43%	-6.86%
	Bush	Kerry	Total	Diff	GOP	DEM	Diff
Benzie County	5284	4393	9677	891	54.60%	45.40%	9.21%
Leelanau County	7733	6048	13781	1685	56.11%	43.89%	12.23%
Manistee County	6295	6272	12567	23	50.09%	49.91%	0.18%
Mason County	8124	6333	14457	1791	56.19%	43.81%	12.39%
			0	0	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!
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Total	27436	23046	50482	4390	54.35%	45.65%	8.70%
Last St House	GOP	Dem	Total	Diff	GOP	DEM	Diff
Benzie County	3791	3704	7495	87	50.58%	49.42%	1.16%
Leelanau County	5881	5433	11314	448	51.98%	48.02%	3.96%
Manistee County	4483	4576	9059	-93	49.49%	50.51%	-1.03%
Mason County	5231	4782	10013	449	52.24%	47.76%	4.48%
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Total	19386	18495	37881	891	51.18%	48.82%	2.35%
2008 St House	GOP	Dem	Total	Diff	GOP	DEM	Diff
Benzie County	3962	6108	10070	-2146	39.34%	60.66%	-21.31%
Leelanau County	5896	8120	14016	-2224	42.07%	57.93%	-15.87%
Manistee County	5093	7694	12787	-2601	39.83%	60.17%	-20.34%
Mason County	5827	9062	14889	-3235	39.14%	60.86%	-21.73%
			0	0	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!
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			0	0	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!
Total	20778	30984	51762	-10206	40.14%	59.86%	-19.72%