The campaign behind a successful Michigan ballot measure wants to defend its work in court.
If it stands after election results become final and legal challenges run their course, the policy will limit campaign donations from regulated utilities and large state government contractors. It will also set new transparency rules for political messaging.
Public utilities and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are both suing in federal court to stop it from taking effect. They’re citing First Amendment free-speech concerns.
The lawsuits name Michigan government officials as the defendants. But the Michiganders for Money out of Politics campaign argues it should have a say in defending its work — a process called “intervening.”
“The proposed intervenors have very distinct interests that are not the same as the state because they are regulated by Proposal 2, and they participate in the political process that’s going to be governed by Proposal 2,” the group’s lawyer, Sam Bagenstos, said Tuesday.
Money out of Politics, sometimes referred to as Mop Up Michigan, filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in both cases this week. The group is including Democratic state Rep.-elect Joanna Whaley as part of its filing.
Bagenstos said that because the incoming lawmaker and the members of the coalition groups personally deal with the political system, they’ll bring a perspective the state can’t offer.
“They want to have access to the disclosures of independent expenditures that will be required by Proposal 2. They want to participate in the political process where regulated utilities can’t skew that process,” Bagenstos said.
While Bagnestos is arguing for intervention, attorneys for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy don’t see a need.
Patrick Wright is the center’s vice president for legal affairs.
“Once the law becomes the law, it’s the state of Michigan’s law. It’s no longer Mop Up Michigan’s law, or it doesn’t have really any ownership stake in it anymore,” Wright said.
He argued it shouldn’t matter that Michiganders for Money Out of Politics sponsored the law change.
“There is really nothing unique that any of these groups that are attempting to get in offer that the attorney general’s not going to argue in defense of this law,” Wright said.
The judge in the Mackinac Center lawsuit is asking for a reply by November 20.
A state elections board is scheduled to meet on November 23 to finalize the results of the election.
The measure is written to become law 10 days after its win at the ballot box is certified. That means, without a court delay, it could begin taking effect as soon as early December.
The utility-led lawsuit has already asked the courts to temporarily block the proposal from being enforced. Wright said the Mackinac Center plans to do the same.
