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“Sunshine week” comes every March. It’s a week when the journalism community highlights the importance of transparency in government. But, this year, it feels like the week has come a little early. To Lansing, at least.
In the past ten days alone, the Michigan Senate passed bills to open lawmakers and the governor’s office to Freedom of Information Act requests, state House lawmakers adopted new rules requiring earmarks (otherwise known as ‘pet projects’ or ‘pork’) be publicly disclosed early in the budget process, and lawmakers in the state House introduced bills that would prohibit legislators from signing non-disclosure agreements.
All of these bills and rules were adopted bipartisanly. In fact, the non-disclosure agreement bills were introduced and co-sponsored by one of the most far-left and one of the most far-right members of the state House.
It’s been a decade since Michigan ranked last in a national study of state ethics and transparency laws. In 2015 the state received an F grade from the Center for Public Integrity and Global integrity. But that doesn’t mean that lawmakers (certain lawmakers, at least) haven’t, for the past decade, tried to make things more open.
For the past ten years, the political odd couple of progressive Democrat Jeremy Moss and conservative Republican Ed McBroom have tried to pass these FOIA bills. First as state Representatives and, in the last couple of years, as state Senators. In political policy, these two agree on almost nothing.
But open government is something where establishment-skeptical progressives and libertarians can find common ground. “I don’t know what more we could say to make the case for [this legislation], because the bad behavior and the darkness over this Capitol building makes the case better than we can,” Moss said last week in the Senate.
Nevertheless, once the bills passed the Democrat-controlled state Senate last week, Republican House Speaker Matt Hall seemed to put the brakes on progress in the state House – despite the fact that Hall has previously supported similar legislation.
Virtually no one has spent more time and effort chronicling open government efforts in Michigan than Craig Mauger of The Detroit News. Mauger (or, as Zoe called him, “Mr. Lansing Transparency”) joined the podcast this week and we asked him why this seems to be a breakthrough moment for expanding open government rules.
“What's gotten us to this point, where [transparency] is now at the forefront, is we’ve had a number of scandals,” Mauger explained. “Some have led to criminal charges… about how items in the budget are created, how leaders of state government have operated when it comes to lobbyists and money. Keep in mind that the last two Aprils – April 2024, April 2023 – we've had a former House speaker criminally charged. Who knows what will occur in April 2025… You've had these investigations, and you've also had this anti-government sentiment. I mean, this anti-institution sentiment that Donald Trump and Elon Musk might be representations of. And you've got these two things co-mingling, and that's giving this jet fuel to, ‘hey, Lansing needs to do something about transparency.’ And all the ratings and all the studies that are done says that that's also true.”
You can listen to the entire conversation with Mauger on this week’s It’s Just Politics pod.
Digging Deeper: Look. There are many folks who are hopeful that this is the moment FOIA reform actually happens in Michigan. And it could be that this is the year. But, we would be remiss not to reminisce on this headline “Is now the moment for FOIA reform in Lansing?” from a Stateside interview with us about transparency in politics. The story? It was from 2015.
Have questions about transparency efforts in Lansing? Or, just want to let us know what you want more of (less of?) in the newsletter in 2025? We always want to hear from you! Shoot us an email at politics@michiganpublic.org!
What we’re talking about at the dinner table
Gov list expands: The great sorting in Michigan’s big statewide races continues with the announcement Thursday from Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson that he is running for Governor. The Democrat has been on many lists of possibilities in the 2026 statewide race but doesn’t have the same name recognition (or likely financial backing) as other prominent candidates who’ve already announced (Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Republican Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt and Democrat-turned-independent Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan). We're still waiting for other possible candidates on the Democratic side (will Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist jump into the Governor, Senate or Detroit mayoral races?). And what about Mayor Pete? On the GOP side, Anthony Hudson, who ran unsuccessfully in the state’s 8th Congressional District Republican primary last August, announced he’s running for governor on the platform of eliminating the state income tax (and turning the Michigan Legislature into a part-time gig). And this week Semafor reporter Kadia Goba said the quiet part out loud Thursday when she tweeted that she overheard, “Rep. John James, R-Michigan, telling two people last night that he’s running for governor of Michigan.” She went on, “I spoke to some Michiganders who say his potential run is no secret, but he’s still talked about as a potential Senate candidate, too.” Gold is correct.
Matt Hall’s Lansing: The Republican House speaker is the straw that’s stirring the drink in Lansing these days. Between a barrage of policy proposals and weekly sit-downs with the Capitol press corps, Matt Hall has been setting the tone (and, to some extent, the agenda) at the state Capitol since first being sworn in as Speaker almost exactly a month ago. He put a House Republican roads funding plan on the table and dared Governor Gretchen Whitmer to match it. A road revenue plan was not mentioned in the governor’s executive budget rollout this week, and Whitmer was a no-show for the unveiling before the joint House and Senate appropriations committees. Hall declared Thursday that, given his way, “sanctuary communities” that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities will put state funding at risk. And, taking a populist twist, he reiterated this week that given his druthers on aforementioned road revenue, he’d end business subsidies to fund infrastructure. Whitmer is set to deliver her seventh State of the State Address (which usually precedes the budget presentation) this month on the 26th.
Democratic push back: Last week, we pondered the absence of a Democratic resistance to the Trump presidency. Shortly thereafter, others were asking the same question. This week, though, we’ve seen the beginnings of movements, including in Lansing, where, as our intrepid colleague Steve Carmody reported, “Michiganders from different parts of the state and with different causes chanted and waved signs criticizing a wide range of Trump’s policies.” (At one point during the demonstrations, Republican state Representative - and MAGA provocateur - Matt Maddock waded into the crowd.) Carmody reported that many “in the crowd carried signs denouncing Trump and calling for progressives to vote in 2026 state and federal elections.” It also appears that freshman Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin got the memo from Democratic constituents that they want more pushback against Trump. After angry comments on recent social media posts, Slotkin took to the Senate floor, as well as to the airwaves this week telling CNN, after being asked about the president’s Gaza takeover plan, “I don’t know if that’s really his goal… that’s the problem. We can’t tell the difference between where he’s serious and where he’s just saying things off-the cuff… It’s illegal. It’s punitive. It’s a horrible thing for Gaza…”
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Yours in political nerdiness,
Rick Pluta & Zoe Clark
Co-hosts, It’s Just Politics
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