In politics this week…

Joining this week’s conversation is Mike Madrid a communications expert and a nationally recognized expert on Latino voting trends. He graduated from the Edmund G. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1997, where he wrote his senior thesis on Latino politics and the perspective that politicization of emerging Latino voter groups in Southwestern states was unique in American history. The completion of his thesis at Georgetown University in Washington DC on Latino voters became the basis for his pioneering work on Latino communications and outreach strategies in California, Texas, Florida and nationwide. 

Mike has played a key role in pioneering Latino outreach and communications strategies. In 2001 he was named as one of America’s “Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business Magazine. He is a regular commentator on Latino political issues in statewide and national media publications.

He is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, and author of a just-released book The Latino Century which explores the true meaning of America at a time of rapid cultural change, the founding principles of self-government and individual responsibility, and one man’s journey through a political party that has turned itself inside out.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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In national politics this week:

Also this week: Walt Sorg’s chat with state Representative Penelope Tsernoglou over her bills protecting us humanoids from some very real abuses of A.I.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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We are recording Thursday afternoon on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that saved the world from a narcissistic, paranoid, racist and psychotic would-be world dictator. Our mission 80 years later as beneficiaries of their courage and sacrifice: constantly protect their legacy.

In this week’s political news:

Post-conviction polls

We’re joined by one of the many local officials who have the unenviable task of running elections in an increasingly very hostile environment. Meredith Place is in her first term as Kalamazoo County Clerk and Register of Deeds. Born and raised in small-town Iowa, she is a proud graduate of the University of Iowa where she majored in Political Science, Communication Studies, and earned a certificate in Sustainability. Clerk Place previously served on the City of Portage’s Planning Commission, as Vice Chair of Kalamazoo County’s Environmental Health Advisory Council, and as an active member in the League of Women Voters. In 2018, Meredith was elected to the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioner representing the City of Portage from 2019-2020.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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We recorded this week’s podcast at 5 p.m. EDT Thursday. Minutes before we hit the ‘record’ button, the New York jury handed down its verdict…so Jeff had to put on his Lincoln Project hat. In his absence Walt Sorg joins Mark on a day that will go down in American history. Clearly the guilty verdict on 34 felony counts is our #1 topic, but there are other talk-worthy stories in our political biosphere:

Joining the conversation: Bridge Michigan reporter Lauren Gibbons who has spent the week on Mackinac Island, tracking the many significant policy and political developments that are an annual feature of the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce Policy Conference. Prior to joining Bridge’s Capitol team, she worked at MLive where she led coverage of the state Legislature and the redistricting process, and before that covered the state Senate for the MIRS Newsletter.

Lauren has covered the ins and outs of Michigan politics for nearly a decade and has won awards both for her political coverage and her work documenting the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case. She grew up in the Lansing area and graduated from Michigan State University, majoring in journalism and history. She lives in Ferndale, and … according to her official biography … her party tricks include Irish dancing and telling friends what political districts they live in without looking.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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Lansing has been a cornucopia of corruption, much of it first revealed through the efforts of an excellent band of investigative journalists. One of the best is Craig Mauger of the Detroit News. The Society of Professional Journalists named him Michigan Journalist of the Year in 2022 and this year honored him and Robert Snell for their reporting on a marijuana licensing corruption scandal involving former House Speaker Rick Johnson, Lansing lobbyists and secret payments that flowed to Johnson before he became the state’s top cannabis regulator.

Much of his reporting is built on the advice of Watergate’s famed background source for Woodward and Bernstein, known as Deep Throat, whose mantra was “follow the money”.

Craig follows the money … and quite often, what he finds is pretty shocking.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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Every week it seems politics gets even more bizarre. A week after Kristi Noem destroys her political career by revealing she’s a puppy killer —

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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It’s been a great week for the late night comics: Trump’s courtroom catnaps, Kristi Noem’s one-person animal control program, and Joe Biden’s week-late contribution to the annual 4-20 marijuana celebration.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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Another week, still more insanity…

Also in the news this week:

Our guest this week is the likely Democratic nominee for an open seat on the Michigan Supreme Court, University of Michigan professor Kimberly Thomas. The Michigan Democratic Party’s executive committee has formally endorsed Thomas for the open seat created when Republican nominee David Viviano decided against running for reelection. Thomas is a clinical professor of law, and the director and co-founder of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Michigan Law and also teaches in the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic. She specializes in trial and appellate practice, youth justice, and criminal sentencing law. In 2017, Thomas served as a US Fulbright Scholar at the University College Cork School of Law in Cork, Ireland and is a former editorial board member of the Clinical Law Review. Before joining the Law School faculty in 2003, Thomas served as a trial attorney with Defender Association of Philadelphia.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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Still another week like no other: the previous guy napping at his own criminal trial, the current guy seeing his polling numbers nudge upwards with an economy that the Wall Street Journal calls “The Envy of the World”, and a stunning tipping point in a major Michigan political scandal:

In national political news –

Our focus is the story of the week (and maybe the year) in Michigan: a 13-count indictment of former House Speaker Lee Chatfield.

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This episode is sponsored in part by EPIC ▪ MRA, 

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