UPDATE: The state Democratic Party has sent me a statement from a woman who insists she was blocked from participating in the Snyder town hall on Monday in Kalamazoo. Here’s the quote they provided:

“Snyder canceled my ticket to his so-called town hall in Kalamazoo because I have been an outspoken critic of his retirement tax and it’s impact on seniors like me,” said JoAnne Peterson, a retired teacher from Grand Rapids who pays the retirement tax engineered by Snyder. “A town hall stacked with supporters and purged of critics is not a town hall at all. It’s nothing more than a PR stunt designed to dodge the tough questions, which is what Snyder always does when confronted. He should be ashamed of himself.”
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On Van Dyke in Sterling Heights

As Gov. Rick Snyder prepares for his campaign town hall event  tonight in Troy, you can bet that the Democrats are planning a protest outside the American Polish Cultural Center to stir things up.

Last week, the Democrats, with the help of labor, staged two protests in Macomb County. One was at the Macomb GOP Lincoln Dinner in Sterling Heights where Snyder was the keynote speaker. The other was in Clinton Township, where unionized postal workers and sheet metal workers marched outside of a Republican fundraiser for state House candidate Nick Hawatmeh.

On Hall Road in Clinton Township

The protesters blasted Hawatmeh and the two featured guests, state House Speaker Jase Bolger and Congresswoman Candice Miller.
At a Snyder town hall at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo on Monday, the Michigan Democratic Party arranged a noisy outdoor event where supporters of Dem gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer claimed that the governor’s gathering was “scripted” to such an extent that some people had their tickets yanked because they planned to ask pointed questions of the Republican incumbent. 
That prompted a heated response from Emily Benavides, spokeswoman for the Snyder campaign:

“These events are for undecided voters and the Schauer campaign should be ashamed of themselves for attempting to rob voters of the opportunity to hear from the governor by intentionally disrupting events to serve their own agenda. Mark Schauer wants to send his underlings because he’s afraid to show up himself.  Where are his town halls? We’re holding town halls for undecided voters, not for the  Schauer campaign. These are the antics of a desperate professional politician.” 

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Meanwhile, some Republican activists are wondering why Snyder is holding a campaign event at the same time that a significant party gathering was planned down the road in Livonia. That GOP rally for the “Comeback Team” will feature Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land and will be headlined by 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

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This issue may fade quickly but it is curious that Attorney General Bill Schuette’s campaign has made such a fuss over former Republican governor Bill Milliken’s endorsement last week of Schuette’s Democratic opponent, Mark Totten.
The irony is that Schuette for decades was a moderate Republican who was very much at home with the Millikenites, but has spent much of his four years as AG playing to the tea party crowd. Those tea partiers could care less who Milliken backs but Schuette seems to be offended by the former governor’s choice.

Schuette should be coasting to victory right about now — after all, no sitting attorney general has been defeated in Michigan since 1954 — but Totten is uncomfortably close to the incumbent AG in some polls.

One Republican insider told me that the problem is that “Schuette’s political radar hasn’t been recalibrated in at least a decade. He just doesn’t get that the political winds have changed on things like gay marriage … and other social issues.” 

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