Advocacy

(GRAND RAPIDS) - Bill Schuette and Gretchen Whitmer verbally battered each other in Friday's first general election gubernatorial debate, with familiar charges of the Democrat's alleged "extreme agenda" and the Republican's perceived tendency of only doing his job when the "cameras are rolling."

Two of Michigan's leading small business organizations announced the creation of a new health insurance program, known as an Association Health Plan (AHP), that they say could actually lower rates for small businesses.

Marijuana use among teenagers did not increase the year after the states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize recreational marijuana, according to fact sheets supplied by the health departments of both states.

Sen. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake), the likely next Senate Majority Leader if Republicans maintain control, has heard the bleak forecasts about Democrats possibly riding a blue wave into majority this November. He's not buying it. 

If elected, Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Schuette said Michigan will have a policy in which there's no "discrimination of anybody whether it's on race, color, creed, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, you name it." 

The self-proclaimed leading national organization against legalizing recreational marijuana is putting a "six-figure investment" in defeating Proposal 1 this fall as new polling from Target Insyght, commissioned by MIRS and Governmental Consulting Services Inc. (GCSI) show the ballot question down 41 to 47 percent.

Voters are supporting the redistricting reform ballot question, Proposal 2, at less than 50 percent when voters read the actual ballot language and asked to indicate how they'd vote, according to new polling commissioned by MIRS and Governmental Consulting Services Inc. (GCSI).

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