In final lap, campaign for Prop 1 road plan takes strange turn

With a week to go before Election Day, the campaign for Proposal 1 has taken a strange turn that may backfire on those who support the road funding tax plan.

Cynical anti-Prop 1 voters are keeping an eye out for road-related items that seem to be timed to coincide with the upcoming May 5 vote. In Macomb County, barriers suddenly appeared last Friday on 27 Mile Road indicating that the bridge west of Romeo Plank  is no longer safe and the road is closed.

One resident, suspecting the county Department of Roads was engaged in a political ploy, put up his own sign. In orange spray paint, the plywood sign reads: “NICE TRY
WE'RE STILL VOTING NO”.

Meanwhile, in Genesee County the newest effort to drum up support for the Prop 1 sales tax hike is a school bus with a prop – a concrete piece of a broken bridge abutment -- smashed through the windshield.

The latest poster child in the campaign for safer roads and bridges is basically a traveling re-enactment of what would have been a horrible tragedy that likely would have killed the bus driver and possibly many of the kids on board.

Is this any way to sell a ballot proposal?

MLive reported that on Monday morning the bus was parked on the main thoroughfare of downtown Flint, the first stop on the statewide, "Getting Schooled in Infrastructure" tour by representatives of Laborers' International Union of North America and other Proposal 1 supporters.

Beyond this strange 11^th hour bid to generate support, one survey shows that turnout may be as low as 20 percent next Tuesday.

On one side, we have voters who are fed up with the pothole-filled roads but are skeptical of the ballot proposal’s complexities. The phrase you hear often is, “Hold your nose and vote ‘yes.’” That’s hardly the type of atmosphere that will encourage people to go to the polls.
On the other side, we’ve witnessed a grassroots anti-tax effort to defeat Prop 1, which would raise the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent.  These voters seem far more energized and eager to cast a ballot. In some areas of the state the opponents are apparently organizing a get-out-the-vote effort and they will be campaigning at the polls, encouraging a “no” vote.

At this point, my prediction would be that the proposal loses by landslide proportions, perhaps even a 3-1 margin.



Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel and union construction workers are all smiles as they pose with the newest pro-Proposal 1 prop – a school bus crushed by a piece of bridge concrete. MLive photo