Hi there, election-curious people,
One of the things you’ll be asked to vote on this November is whether to approve a new constitutional convention.
All the political people I know keep referring to it as “Con-Con,” which has honestly become annoying because whenever I read the words, my brain immediately thinks “can-can” and that’s as far as I get. It’s also not super straightforward to research the constitutional convention question because there’s no real movement behind it.
It’s a cyclical question
My smartest political friend, Zoe Clark, said she thinks of the Con-Con question as the cicadas of Michigan politics. Not because everyone forgets about it, like I always forget about cicada broods. And not because of how annoying it is when they/it returns (she would never).
The question shows up on the ballot every 16 years, seemingly out of nowhere, not because anyone proposed it. It’s just there.
Which is honestly the most fascinating part about the Con-Con question. Explaining that is really more about history than politics. And I’ll get to it, but first:
How would a constitutional convention work in Michigan?
Here’s the Con-Con question you’ll see on the ballot:
“Shall a convention of elected delegates be convened in 2027 to draft a general revision of the state constitution for presentation to the state's voters for their approval or rejection?”
You can find the rules for a Michigan constitutional convention spelled out in the state constitution itself, in Article XII, Section 3.
The current Michigan Constitution, which was approved in 1963, requires the constitutional convention question to appear on the ballot every 16 years, starting in 1978.
What happens if a majority of voters say yes to the constitutional convention? Another election!
Within six months after the vote is certified, we’ll vote again to choose the delegates to the convention — one for each of the state’s 110 representative and 38 senate districts. These will be partisan elections. The elected delegates will gather no later than October 2027 in Lansing to start hashing out a new constitution.
The delegates are paid $500 twice a month while they’re working, but they can only earn a maximum of $7,500 under current law. They also appoint their own staff. If any delegate has to drop out, the governor chooses someone to fill the vacancy.
Once the majority of delegates agree on a draft, it then goes back to voters for final approval. If voters say no to the new constitution, the current constitution remains in effect.
But why?
Michigan has had four state constitutions since its founding. The Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan put together this constitutional history, and let me tell you, it is fascinating.
But for the purposes of keeping things moving here, I’ll say the every-16-year-ness of the constitutional question was first added in the 1850 constitution, and has managed to survive every version since.
The idea is to have a regular mechanism in place for citizens to decide whether the state’s constitution truly matches its time.
Yea or Nay?
There are some in Michigan who say the current constitution no longer does match our time.
“After years, you got to change some things,” Republican state House Speaker Matt Hall said on the It’s Just Politics podcast in January. “I support it because they jam so much stuff in this constitution, it doesn’t really look like a constitution.”
Now, one person’s “stuff’ they jam in might be another person’s “Right to reproductive freedom,” amendment, which voters approved just four years ago. So whether the constitution “looks like a constitution” is pretty subjective, but that’s politics, right?
Quite a few groups are lining up to oppose the constitutional convention, arguing that if the entire constitution gets opened up to changes, truly everything will be on the table. Many of these groups have thrown their support behind the organization Protect MI Constitution from Special Interests. They say a constitutional convention opens the door to these “special interests” and lobbyists to enshrine their own pet projects in the constitution.
Not that lobbyists and special interest groups are ever out of political questions around here.
But when it comes to whether to have the constitutional convention in the first place, your vote is the one that matters.
In Sum: Pros & Cons
To Anna, who specifically asked for the pros and cons of Con-Con, it basically comes down to this:
Pros:
- Cleans up any “stuff” that’s repetitive, unenforceable, or no longer fits with the times.
- Allows for an opportunity to make big changes to how Michigan operates, beyond what can be accomplished by simply amending the pre-existing constitution.
Cons:
- Opens the door to lobbying on every aspect of how state government is run.
- Costs money.
- Takes time.
- May end up failing anyway, if voters reject the new draft constitution.
Anna also asked if there are any guardrails in place to limit how far the changes could go, and the answer is, basically, no.
The only guardrails are the voters. They choose which delegates they think would make smart changes and get the final say in whether the drafted constitution should be adopted.
That’s all for the Con-Con. We’ll be back next month on a Tuesday (to take a Labor Day break) with a dive into how to get more young people to vote in Michigan (Spoiler: Michigan is already better than most states at this!)
See you then!
Dustin Dwyer, Reporter
Producer's Corner
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Today’s newsletter was written by Dustin Dwyer, produced by Kalloli Bhatt, and edited by Michelle Keller.
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