Detroit Free Press Nancy Kaffer column

Aug. 22--It's got all the makings of a tense political thriller: This weekend, the upstart tea party arm of the Michigan GOP will attempt to deliver a stinging public rebuke to Gov. Rick Snyder by replacing his lieutenant governor of choice, Brian Calley, with Livingston County businessman Wes Nakagiri.

It's an effort likely doomed to failure -- but it points out, in stark terms, the schism within the Republican Party.

Nakagiri is a tea party adherent, and though Calley is a conservative, party extremists have sworn to unseat Calley. Snyder, with whom the tea party's complaints really lie, is untouchable -- as sitting governor, the Republican gubernatorial nomination was his for the taking. So tea party members are stuck with Snyder.

Calley's not so safe. If you're not familiar with this process -- lucky you! -- here's how it works. Each political party elects delegates, at the district and county level, who attend the statewide convention. (The Michigan Republican Party's is this Saturday, in Novi.)

At that convention, delegates vote to nominate candidates for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Michigan Supreme Court justices, state Board of Education members, and members to the Wayne State University Board of Governors, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, and the University of Michigan Board of Regents. The office of lieutenant governor is the only seat that isn't directly elected -- while voters choose a governor and lieutenant governor, they're a package deal. And, as every political observer will tell you, no one votes for lieutenant governor.

Why are tea partiers fussed with Snyder? They think he's too liberal, a charge that might cause some Democrats to guffaw, loudly -- this is the same governor who shepherded in right-to-work, has signed anti-gay rights legislation stopping same-sex partner benefits for state employees, refused to take a stand on gay marriage, has shifted a good chunk of state revenue collection from businesses onto seniors and the poor and seems open to an extreme (right-wing) re-envisioning of the public school system.

But because Snyder supported the Common Core educational standards and Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, some tea party activists view him as the second coming of Barney Frank.

In the run-up to Saturday, GOP tea partiers have tried to dominate the selection of delegates, mounting insurrections at county conventions, such as the one in Oakland County last week, at which establishment GOP leadership hired Waterford police to enforce order.

It's hard to calculate exactly the results of the tea party's county-level push -- the group won 120 Oakland County delegate spots, but lost 160. More than 2,000 delegates will vote Saturday. Calley also has worked to shore up support on the tea party side of the aisle, campaigning with U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Cascade Township, appearing at a fund-raiser for 36th District state House candidate Stan Grot of Shelby Township, and asking party leaders not to bar tea party delegates from Saturday's convention.

In Michigan, the lieutenant governor's power is granted at the governor's discretion. Calley, in his (successful) push to reform autism insurance laws, operated with the full authority of the governor's office. How much power would Snyder give a lieutenant governor who had been foisted on him? I can't imagine much, and the only power Michigan's constitution hands to the lieutenant governor in his or her own right is the duty to preside over the state Senate and cast a tie-breaking vote, if necessary.

"My sense is they see this as the opportunity to have a statewide platform to advance these positions that the tea party wing of the GOP wants to support," Republican consultant Paul Welday said. "I think he believes that if (Nakagiri) were to do this, he would have a platform, that he'd have to be taken seriously."

Still, longtime Republican strategist Richard McLellan said that if Nakagiri becomes lieutenant governor, Snyder's mobility could be sharply constrained during a second term.

"The governor wouldn't be able to leave the state for four years," McLellan said. "He'd have to be very careful, because the moment he stepped out of the state, the lieutenant governor would be able to appoint judges" and sign and veto bills. "The acting governor has all the powers of the governor. It's not purely symbolic."

I'm not sure what any of this says about Snyder's chances in November, when he faces Democratic challenger Mark Schauer in the general election. If Snyder's pick for lieutenant governor were supplanted by a tea party favorite, it'd be a sign of weakness that Schauer and the Democrats could exploit -- in addition to the presence of an even more right-wing name on the ballot.

From a purely political standpoint, this dissension in the GOP ranks is great news if you're a Democrat. But it's bad for Michigan.

Tea party legislators have spent the last four years gumming up the legislative works, blocking a health care exchange and trying to obstruct the state's Medicaid expansion -- both pointless stalling tactics (Michigan had to sign onto a federal exchange, and while the Medicaid expansion finally passed, some Michiganders were in danger of a lapse in coverage). Or a last-minute attempt to derail the Common Core educational standards, vetted and approved by the Michigan Department of Education, and supported by a wide swath of Democrats and Republicans.

The inability to corral the more extreme elements of the GOP has dogged state House Speaker Jase Bolger, and Snyder himself has been stymied by the tea party's recalcitrance.

This is the same Legislature that can't get a roads package through, never mind that Michigan's roads are in horrid disrepair, and most Michiganders want them fixed.

Intransigent extremism can offer obstruction for the sake of ideology. But can it move Michigan forward? Not so far.

Contact Nancy Kaffer: [email protected].

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