Skip to content
LPBN-Icon-v1 (1)
The Right Coast
A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network

Will Republicans Learn a Lesson from the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative? Gail Heriot

By Thomas A. Smith

This hasn’t been a great week for the Republican Party.  But then again the Republican Party didn’t deserve a great week, so I’m not sure too many people are in a position to complain.

I’d like to add my voice to those who have suggested that the GOP’s problem isn’t its values (at least not as I perceive those values).  Instead, it was the straying from those values that lost the GOP its majorities.  Perhaps a case in point:

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (Proposal 2)  passed overwhelmingly–58% of Michigan voters cast their ballots in favor.  It stood for a principle that most Americans have no trouble subscribing to–that the state should not grant preferential treatment to anyone based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.   

But Michigan’s GOP politicians, notably Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and Senate candidate Mike Bouchard, were falling all over themselves to oppose the measure.  As DeVos put it, Until I feel comfortable with the system we have in place today, I will support affirmative action.

Political experts considered this move “tactically smart.”  The GOP candidates should focus on the economy and jobs, not on issues that may alienate voters or on initiatives that may or may not pass–or so the conventional wisdom ran.  In the end, of course, MCRI passed by a landslide and DeVos and Bouchard were trounced, garnering 42% and 41% of the vote respectively.  The reason?  I’m certainly no expert, but a frequently voiced complaint is that Republican candidates don’t stand for anything but election.  Not fiscal prudence.  And these days not equal protection of the laws either.  Why vote for them?

Interestingly,the exit poll shows that Proposal 2 outpolled DeVos and Bouchard even among non-whites.  Proposal 2 got almost 24% of the non-white votes while Bouchard got 18% and DeVos got 19%.   A healthy majority of women (52%)favored Proposal 2–more than either DeVos (38%) or Bouchard (38%) got.  If the candidates were attempting to appeal to those voters (or not to “alienate” them), it didn’t work.

((Interestingly, the exit poll suggests that Proposal 2 did well among the combined Latino, Asian and “other” non-white vote.  If you back out the black vote (which was very opposed to Proposal 2) from the non-white vote, the exit poll suggests that a majority of non-black/non-whites (i.e. Latinos, Asians and “other”) voted in favor of Proposal 2.  Their numbers are so few, however, that one cannot generalize to the Michigan electorate as a whole from them.  I’m not sure what earlier polls said on this, but I’ll try to find out.))

I’m not saying that DeVos and Bouchard compromised their principles in a misguided attempt to avoid alienating voters.  Maybe they genuinely favor racial and gender preferences.  But either they compromised their principles or their principles are not in sync with the voters on this issue.  Either way, they would be unappealing as candidates to large numbers of voters.