Front Page

The people spoke

Prop 2 passed with 80%

HANCOCK -- Proposition 2 in Michigan passed with 80% voting in favor of it. The "Money Out of Politics" proposal would bar corporations or government contractors who receive $250,000 from the state government from contributing to political causes in Michigan. One local advocate who helped collect over 4,000 signatures in Houghton County said change is coming to Michigan.

Hancock resident Audrey Gerard said this ballot measure was widely popular not only within the county, but in Michigan as a whole. "I've been working on getting Michiganders for Money Out of Politics passed for the last four years of my professional organizing life," she said. "I have trained up over 30 volunteers in the Western Upper Peninsula to collect signatures... I am not surprised this legislation passed. It is popular legislation."

Prop 2 passed in Houghton County with 79.9% of the vote. A total of 12,032 Houghton County residents voted "yes" to the measure. Statewide, the proposal passed with 81% of the vote. Less than 1 million Michiganders voted against the proposal.

Gerard said the work she and her team have done had a direct impact on the vote.

"It was time for people to vote on and put their name behind reasonable legislation that make sure it listened to everyday, working people rather than corporate interests," she said. "It just shows that we had a really good idea, that was a popular piece of legislation, that makes it so politicians are listening to their constituents and not the beckoned call of a payout."

Gerard and fellow advocate Lexi Tater were posted nearby Dee Stadium informing people about Prop 2. Gerard said she and Tater talked to 442 people about the proposal on Election Day in Houghton.

"There is no reason that corporations should be funding politicians," Gerard said. "They should be representing us."