TitleBytes News & Happenings

November Election Just Around the Corner

By Cami Pendell, MLC

Because of the upcoming November election, the Legislature has had a very disjointed Session schedule during the month of September. However, even though they didn’t have a lot of Session days, there was still a considerable amount of legislative work taking place behind the scenes. As a matter of fact, MLTA has been working with the Local Government Committee Chairman, Rep. Jim Lower, and other stakeholders to put the finishing touches on a substitute for SB 671. That bill is MLTA’s initiative that will clarify the Marketable Title Act by requiring that a document carrying forward a prior property restriction would have to reference the book and page where that restriction is recorded in the register of deeds records. During our last conversation with Chairman Lower, he stated that he intends to take up this legislation before the end of the year so we can have the opportunity to seek its passage by the full House and move it to the Governor’s desk.

In addition to our legislative work, we are watching the upcoming elections very closely. There is a great deal of talk about a “blue wave”, but it still appears that the Senate Republicans will maintain their majority. It will be a smaller majority compared to the supermajority that they currently hold, but it appears that it will be enough to keep them in power in the Upper Chamber. The House of Representatives is a bit more difficult to predict. The House Democrats have said that they have an 85% chance of taking majority, while the House Republicans are confident that power won’t be wrestled away from them. Like the Senate, they are expecting to have a smaller majority, but retain overall control of the People’s Chamber. With so many House and Senate races being extremely close, it’s important that everyone votes on Nov. 6th. You never know, it may be your vote that ultimately puts someone in office.

When it comes to the Governor’s office, the Democrats are much more confident that they will take that seat. Sen. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) poll numbers have been consistently stronger than Attorney General Bill Schuette’s (R) going back to mid-August. The race for Attorney General is more difficult to predict because Dana Nessel (D) and Speaker Tom Leonard (R)’s numbers have been within the margin of error. Currently, Nessel appears to hold a slight lead, but Speaker Leonard still has a significant amount of funds in his campaign account to get him through this final month on the campaign trail. With this race being too close to call, expect to see a lot of ads on tv, social media and receive political flyers in the mail.

Once the November election is over, the House and Senate will hold their internal leadership elections for the 2019-2020 election cycle. By the next edition of TitleBytes, we should know who the future Speaker and Senate Majority will be. I’ll be sure that share that information with you, along with the biographies of those selected individuals, so you can get to know them better.