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Voters really think about the constitution
as different than regular laws.
They think about the constitution sort
of the way they think about the U.S. Constitution,
a bare bones framework for government and not something
that a lot of special interest laws ought to be included in.
And so that was really the message that those opponents
of those measures put out there in their small amount
of advertising and in the news media and that really seemed
to resonate with voters that the constitution is really not the
place for these laws.
Certainly in the case of the bridge,
there have been many attempts to do all sorts of things,
trying to block laws in the legislature and push laws
and the governor have taken steps and so on.
So there is really no easy solution but it is pretty clear
that end-running the legislative process and trying
to go directly to the voters was not a successful strategy this
time around.
About $150 million was spent in total and on all sides
for the six measures that were on the ballot.
Now the measure for which the most was spent
by a single side was Proposal 6, which was a bridge proposal,
in which the proponents spent $33 million
to try to pass the measure.
Of course, the measure failed.
The emergency manager law was a referendum
on a measure the legislature passed several years ago giving
the Governor's office and his team powers
to replace the elected government in a city
to help solve their budget crisis,
to help balance their budget and reduce some of their costs.
The opponents really framed this as a sort of a power grab
by governor and folks in governors office
to take over city government.
The supporters really framed it as an endorsement
of Governor Snyder so I think
in the voter's mind it really came down to just that.
There were certainly in the media discussions
about how many measures there were
and all these special interests trying to put more stuff
in the constitution so certainly the information was
out there the message was out there to voters
that this is just too much and given that none
of the constitutional amendments passed,
it appears that maybe there were.