When they go low we lose....

By then it's full swing regular campaign season and they would all be running for the November 2018 election all over again. They wouldn't seat anyone from a special election until May or June probably.

really simple...

Tom Lantos-D California passes away on February 11, 2008

Arnold Schwarzenegger announces special election to be held on April 8, 2008 to fill his now vacant seat, and if no candidate in that election won a majority, then a runoff would be held on June 3, 2008.

In this very Democratic district, Jackie Speier won an outright majority and filled the seat as of April 8, 2008.

So when you say it would take 12 months, that's 100% BS.

That's what happens when you decide things in your mind are more important than facts. They aren't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%27s_12th_congressional_district_special_election,_2008

No.

Every state is different on how they require elections to be handled under state law, in everything from ballot access to filing periods to if a primary is required to how long the period is between filing and a primary and a primary and a regular election.

California’s laws or how long it it takes in California have exactly 0.0000% of anything to do with how long it would take in Michigan.

Your response attacking the poster for “deciding things in their mind are more important than facts” is pretty sad given that you’ve done exactly that in your post, using an example from California where the laws are totally different as a “fact” to say that it can be done at the same speed in another state with totally different laws.

Rick Snyder is doing what's politically expedient for republicans.

I said 4-6 for primaries and a special election. The example you cited in CA has nothing in common with Michigan election processes and laws.

Thadeus McCotter resigned his seat in July 2012. Almost immediately thereafter, the schedule was announced for filling his seat: primaries in early September, election on November 6, 2012, which was the same date as the already scheduled general election. Based on that precedent, there is no reason why Conyers seat couldn't be filled by April.

Keep in mind that, weirdly enough, the special election held on November 6, 2012 to fill McCotter's seat was separate and distinct from the general election to fill that seat held the same day. The republicans ran the same candidate in both the special election and the general election. The Democrats ran different candidates in the two elections. The Democrat won the special election, and served in Congress from November 2012 until January 2013, when the new Congress was seated. The Republican who lost the special election simultaneously won the general election and took office for a two year term starting January 2013.

I'm not sure whether the plan is to do something similar with Conyers seat-- i.e., hold both a special election and a general election in November 2018 -- or to leave it open until January 2019. While there would be costs associated with holding primaries in February and an election in April, that doesn't seem to be a good enough reason, considering the fact that in 2012, they held a separate set of primaries outside the regular schedule.

and the Senate really doesn't care about House issues

I'm afraid in politics, dirty politics wins.

or quasi-royalist authoritarians. Or that any of our many previous generations would have lost our democracy to these same types. Absolutely nothing new about conservative dirty tricks, up to and including murder. Liberals have never been in the same league and never will.

We shouldn't underestimate the gut-level opposition of conservatives to the realities of democracy. The word itself, yeah, sure, sounds good. The reality, dangerous immoral chaos that cannot stand.

For strong conservatives every election for over 200 years has been a passionate battle to defeat the evils of equality and democratic freedoms that justify anything needed to win. Yet, over that period they've overall always lost.

Conservatives were the party of states rights and slavery. Lincoln was a liberal, he was what today we call a Progressive Democrat. The fact that Conyers seat will sit empty for as long as possible is a right wing power play to deny representation. Conservatives did much the same even after they lost the Civil War, they never quit and it's in their DNA to be anti-democratic.

since those seem to mean whatever the individual using them means at the moment. Applying what psychologists know about personality now, liberal absolutely--so many clues to that. Unpolarized Democrat of today yes, progressive yes, but not today's capital-P Progressive.

Lincoln's actions consistently displayed a pragmatic commitment to democracy, which required accepting that people across the ideological spectrum all have the same rights to the vote and to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and that ways had to be found to forge always-imperfect agreements to protect the rights and needs of all while still satisfying most.

Totally predictable.

"Former state Democratic chairman Mark Brewer said on Twitter that Snyder "continues to give the back of his hand to urban areas."

The liberal group Progress Michigan called the decision "another example of Rick Snyder willfully taking away people’s right to elected representation in a prominent community of color."

You realize they laugh their asses off at the Democratic Party, don't you?

they won't seat Franken's replacement...and now the push will be on to get Franken out before the tax bill too.

They're only as successful as we allow them to be. Michigan Democrats should organize protests and maybe figure out a court challenge since they won't be represented in Congress for more than a year.

And again, we get railroaded. He should have fulfilled the rest of his term and then never returned.

We're such idiots. I'm starting to wonder if we have pretenders in our so-called leadership or if they really are this wimpy and stupid.

Is it achieving us any tangible results? Legislation? Policy? Votes?

It's the dumbest strategy ever, because it won't translate into votes. We have Republican voters very proud to vote for a pedophile. They don't care because there's an "R" beside his name. They proudly support the p*ssy-grabber in chief.

They care more about getting their policy implemented and we sit by and watch them do it without so much as trying to put up a fight.

Should Snyder have ignored the recommendations of the local Democratic leaders and insisted on a special election against their wishes? That seems to be what people are proposing.


From the Detroit News


"Jonathan Kinloch, who chairs the Democratic Party in the 13th District, wanted Snyder to set the special election to coincide with the regularly scheduled election dates in August and November, even though it leaves the seat vacant for months. He said the district offices remain open to serve constituents in the meantime.

“This seat only becomes available once every 50 years,” Kinloch said this week. “We all know that in those special elections that are called outside the normal election cycle that voter turnout is less.”

Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton noted that Kinloch had recommended the dates, and that the governor’s office also consulted with Wayne County officials and the City of Detroit before making a decision.

Fred Woodhams, spokesman for the state Elections Bureau, said Snyder’s use of the regularly scheduled 2018 election dates will save local communities an estimated $2 million."