by Bruce Walker
A poll released Tuesday by Michigan Rising Action (MRA), a Lansing-based organization dedicated to advancing conservative principles, asserts Michigan strongly supports a ballot proposal to limit the use of gubernatorial emergency powers.
MRA commissioned the poll from Marketing Resource Group, which conducted research between March 15-18, and skews +4 Democrat.
A majority of the 610 likely voters polled within each age group supported restricting the governor’s unilateral use of emergency powers.
Of those polled, 63% favored limiting the governor’s emergency powers; 31.1% opposed limits; and 5.9% said they didn’t know or were undecided. According to the poll, the governor’s orders and shutdowns were highly unpopular with 77% of the 18-34 year old demographic, which MRA said is more likely to vote Democrat. Only 19.8% of the same demographic said they were opposed to limiting the governor’s emergency authority.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s exercise of emergency powers was limited by the Michigan Supreme Court last fall, but she subsequently continued to instate COVID-19 restrictions through the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s clear that a strong majority of Michiganders support limiting Gov. Whitmer’s use of emergency powers that ordered some of the strictest shutdowns and led to record unemployment,” MRA Executive Director Tori Sachs said in a statement.
“As Michigan becomes the nation’s COVID-19 epicenter, it’s worth noting that Whitmer has been focused on the political science and polling data,” Sachs continued. “Whitmer claimed credit for the slowing of cases but refuses to take responsibility for the new outbreak or the economic destruction left in the wake of her strict shutdowns.”
Despite Whitmer and her administration implementing some of the strictest shutdowns in the country, Michigan’s positivity rates and hospitalizations continue to surge to near-record numbers.
New cases and hospitalizations are reaching near-record numbers in the state.
On Tuesday, a reporter for Crain’s Detroit Business tweeted the following Michigan hospitals were at 100% capacity: Ascension St. Joseph, Tawas City; Beaumont, Wayne: McLaren, Port Huron; and McLaren-Oakland; Pontiac. Hospitals reporting 99% capacity are St. Joseph Mercy, Ypsilanti; Bronson Methodist, Kalamazoo; Henry Ford Macomb, Clinton Twp.; and Hurley Medical Center, Flint.
McLaren Hospital, Flint, and Sparrow Hospital, Lansing, both reported 97% occupancy rates. Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, reported 173 COVID-19 cases, or 79% occupancy.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Michigan has recorded 786,000 COVID-19 cases and 17,332 deaths.
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Department of Health & Human Services” CC 4.0.
