Jump to full article: MLive blogs, 2008-05-13
Author: Michigan Political Report - Peter Luke
Intro: That was some surprise last Thursday when the Senate, 25-12, approved a total ban on workplace smoking including bars, restaurants and commercial casinos. So on Tuesday, the first legislative day since, many expected a throwdown.
On one side: hundreds of purple T-shirt-clad cancer survivors, care givers and volunteers from around Michigan gathered at the Capitol for the American Cancer Society's annual lobby day. On the other side: a much smaller cadre of business-suited multi-client lobbyists for whom every day is lobby day.
There was an expectation that the House, which passed the smoking ban with a couple of exceptions back in December, would quickly ratify the Senate version and send it to Gov. Jennifer Granholm for her signature.
Problem was, the House didn't have the bill, actual sheets of parchment, in its possession because the parchment was still in the Senate. So the House couldn't vote Tuesday, but may on Wednesday.
Conspiracy theories were offered to explain the unusual, four-day delay in transmission from one chamber to the other. . . .
The second theory, more probable, held that shell-shocked lobbyists opposed to the ban asked for the delay so they could work the House. And take a few legislators out to dinner on Tuesday night?
The third was that with Bishop whacking the smoking ball into his court, Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Twp., wanted to avoid Tuesday's pressures of voting with a House gallery full of health advocates peering down on lawmakers.
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