A ballot campaign plans to launch in July to ask voters to ban political donations from committees affiliated with utility monopolies and from businesses with substantial state contracts.
A coalition of progressive organizations are behind the campaign for a voter-initiated law to reign in the influence of utilities and insurance companies with market dominance as well as contractors that do more than $250,000 in business annually with the state, which would appear to include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan — a prolific political donor.
“This isn’t just another policy tweak,” said Sean McBrearty, Michigan director for Clean Water Action, one of the groups backing the proposal. “It’s a line in the sand. We want to stop corporations from buying off our democracy.”
The Michiganders for Money Out of Politics campaign said Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, in particular, have used their clout to fend off efforts to award bigger paybacks to customers for power losses.
“One of the biggest reasons we don’t see progress in Lansing is because too many politicians are bought and paid for,” said Ken Whittaker with Michigan United. “The political will to fix this mess just isn’t there, but that’s by design. We’re not new to this.”