TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Robert F. Bauer
RE: Michigan Primary
DA: March 19, 2008
In the short time available, I have reviewed the proposed legislation to establish the June 3, 2008 primary, considering primarily those issues that bear on the central question of whether this election can be conducted successfully without undue risk of legal challenges, including those challenges arising out of errors or other breakdown induced by the schedule the State has proposed.
No one disputes that the election will have to be hurriedly prepared; and it is further accepted that it is, in material respects, unprecedented in conception and proposed structure. Michigan will be, for example, the first to state to have re-run an election in circumstances like these, to redress violations of party rules, and it will be the first to do so with the state supplying the legislative and administrative support but with private parties underwriting the costs with "soft money". Whether the state can achieve its goals here depends on the nature and seriousness of the legal and administrative questions presented by this initiative—questions that, raised after the election, could put at risk the running of the election, undermine acceptance of the results if the election is held, and in both cases effectively deny Michigan voters, a second consecutive time, meaningful participation in the nominating process.
For the reasons discussed briefly below, there are such questions and they are serious both in nature and in their potential, if not likely, impact on the June election. . . . proposal.
The argument Bauer outlines may convince you. It does not convince me. But one thing is clear - Barack Obama blocked the revote in Michigan. You may believe he did so with justification or without justification. But let no one say he did not block the Michigan revote.
