john conyers – Moe Lane

John Conyers loses appeal to be put on Michigan primary ballot.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, No. 2 in seniority in the House, lost his appeal Friday to get on the August primary ballot after Michigan election officials found problems with the Democrat’s nominating petitions.

The Secretary of State’s office affirmed a decision by Detroit-area election officials to keep Conyers off the ballot.

But the decision does not necessarily end Conyers’ 50-year career in Congress as his campaign manager has said Conyers would mount a write-in effort if necessary in the heavily Democratic district.

But I have a serious question: John Conyers is 85 years old. He’s been doing this for fifty years. His district will almost undoubtedly elect another Democrat. Why doesn’t he just… go home and sit in the sun?

Via Hot Air Headlines.

John Conyers may be… off the ballot in Michigan-13?

What on Heaven goes on, up there in Michigan?

Veteran U.S. Congressman John Conyers does not have enough signatures to get on the Aug. 5 primary ballot, according to Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett.

Garrett told Local 4 on Friday that the signatures of two of Conyers’ circulators appear to be invalid.

This happened last cycle, only to our side: there are still Republican operatives who wince at the name “Thaddeus McCotter.” I do not think that this is actually political shenanigans, though. When McCotter abruptly resigned in 2012 over, ah, ballot signature irregularities the seat was ultimately retained by the GOP: very few people actually expect that the Democrats will lose a D+34 district for anything less than, say, finding out that a Congressman had stashed 90 grand of bribe money in his freezer*. But Conyers is apparently at real risk here, prior reports to the contrary: they’re going to make a final determination next week. Continue reading John Conyers may be… off the ballot in Michigan-13?

Michigan redistricting makes John Conyers cry.

Elections have consequences.

Or at least scream: it turns out that the redistricting map for Michigan signed off on by Republican governor Rick Snyder last week seriously discombobulates long-time Democrat and House Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers. The new map (which, incidentally, handles Michigan’s loss of a Congressional seat by effectively eliminating Democrat Gary Peters’ seat and making the rest more party-friendly) pretty much took Conyer’s MI-14 seat and redrew it until he had roughly 20% of the same constituents that he started off with.

If you’re wondering why the Republicans think that they can get away with that – particularly since Conyers is an African-American with a majority-minority district – it’s because the Michigan GOP was very careful in drawing this district (and, apparently, MI-13). As I understand it, the new district is in point of fact drawn to reflect the racial gerrymandering requirements of the Voting Rights Act: which is to say, it’s still majority-minority. It’s just no longer friendly to Conyers specifically… which is not the Republican party’s problem. Or the courts’. Or Michigan’s, really. Or possibly even the Democratic party’s: Conyers may have run unopposed in the 2010 primary, but that’s apparently not going to happen now… Continue reading Michigan redistricting makes John Conyers cry.

The true John Conyers scandal.

Background: back over Thanksgiving weekend John Conyers III (the son of Rep. John Conyers) reported a theft of computers and concert tickets from the car that he was using. The problem? John Conyers III was using the car unlawfully: it was leased to his father’s Congressional office as an official vehicle, and Conyers was not using it in an official capacity. And it wasn’t anything like an one-time event, either: John Conyers III also got a speeding ticket on the car back in September. The behavior was so egregious that Rep. Conyers isn’t even trying to fight it: he’s just swiftly reimbursing the government as comprehensively as possible before the 112th Congress gets sworn in.

None of this is the true scandal. The true scandal is that we’re only hearing about this now. Rep. Conyers – who is, by the way, still the JUDICIARY CHAIR – has a history of abusing official resources. His wife is in jail for bribery. There is thus zero excuse for the media not to jump on this with both feet… and if the man had an R after his name, they would have. Then again, if Rep. Conyers had had an R after his name the media would have destroyed him years ago.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I think that the new Ethics Committee leadership should look into this – and that they should not give this the same wrist slap in 2011 that their Democratic counterparts did in 2007. I am tired of Democratic politicians thinking that they can get a pass on not even having to care about propriety; I am even more tired of them having any practical justification for thinking that way.