Nuclear weapons were not put in Energy to make the department harder to kill. They’re the reason why the department was created in the first place.
I thought it was to look like the government was doing something during the 1970s energy crisis.
Wikipedia seems to agree:
The 1973 oil crisis called attention to the need to consolidate energy policy. [11][12][13] On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 (Pub.L. 95–91, 91 Stat. 565, enacted August 4, 1977), which created the Department of Energy.[14]
With 14% of precincts reporting:
Whitmer 51%
El-Sayed 33.5%
Thanedar 14.5%
I’m just hoping all the AOC and/or Bernie backed candidates go down in defeat. Whitmer looks like she’d be a fine governor and would be my candidate of choice if I lived up there.
The comment on 538 about it seems cogent: “… while Ocasio-Cortez is new and interesting (so I get why journalists/podcasts/talk shows are booking her), interviewing Pelosi may give you a better sense of where the Democratic Party currently is.”
Looks to be a Whitmer/Schutte contest. So we’ll be seeing misogynist rhetoric rather than Islamophobic. (And no “call-center” jokes, either.)
FWIW, fellow rider / (former?) Michigan politician said it will be a tough race.
Brian
Well, Schutte’s gone with Lisa Posthumus Lyons as his running mate. A DeVos devotee who once referred to public school teachers as “pigs” and “hogs” on the floor of the state house while debating an amendment to fuck over displaced teachers.
I can’t imagine this was a good choice. She’s not going to attract any moderates. Plus, she’s from west Michigan, what Schutte needed to do was pick someone from SE Michigan to help get some votes over there.
It’s being reported that Whitmer is going to announce Garlin Gilchrist II as her running mate tomorrow.
I don’t know much about him, other than what I’ve Googled in the past 48 hours since I’ve heard he was a short-lister.
From what I’ve read, I like this choice, and I think it helps her immensely. He’s young, A-A, a Detroiter who left for a while and then came back, progressive, came up a just a teensy bit short in his grassroots bid to unseat Detroit’s incumbent city clerk last year, a hardcore tech nerd, a political activist (was previously a political organizer with MoveOn.org), yet a political outsider, and millennial-style entrepreneur. Lives in Corktown with his wife and twin four-year-olds. Works at the University of Michigan as the head of the Center for Social Media Responsibility.
Here’s a write-up on him in Crains from back in April, when they were already saying he would make a solid Lt. for Gretchen.
This pick makes me a little more excited about Whitmer.
I agree with both of HL’s posts. Republicans already do very well in West Michigan, guess somebody forgot to tell Schutte that.
Solid pick for Whitmer, if true. Not that running mates make a big difference or that Democratic turnout wasn’t already going to be pretty high this year. I think Whitmer has a solid chance, but fear she’ll be Granholm II since Republicans will surely sabotage her administration from day 1 just as they did for Jennifer.
Bolding your statement if you don’t mind
Thank you. You realized my sentiments exactly. As a proud Michigan resident I recently registered to vote after 20 some years of abstaining.
I have no recommendations as that is your choice, but I am ready to send a message to POTUS that he is a buffoon and an embarrassment to this country. So I will be voting Independent or Democrat. Life long GOP believer here in the ideals of the past, but they all jumped the shark.
They paid the shark a hundred grand not to talk about it.
Wait…
I haven’t my cut of that yet. Dag nabit. 
Republican Governors Association is shifting $1.5 million away from Michigan to other states. It *could *be because they think Schuette has this race safely in the bag, except every poll since June has shown Whitmer up by at least 7. And Gravis’ August poll had her up by 15.
Can’t blame him for that. It probably grows out of Schuette’s prosecutions in the Flint water debacle. Yeah, some folks deserve to be prosecuted for that one, but Schuette clearly overcharged and did so as a grandstanding fashion.
The Grand Rapids Chamber endorsed Schuette (not really surprised a Chamber endorsed a Republican), but a number of businesses, including Founders, are dropping their memberships, citing Schuette’s support for policies that promote discrimination against LGBTQ, women and minorities.
Nice to see businesses on the west side of the state standing up for this. The Chamber has issued a statement that says, “We understand our endorsement decisions do not take place in a vacuum and we are open to dialogue to understand the impact of our decisions.”
Have any other Chambers across the state yet endorsed in the Governor’s race? Has there been any other backlash?
Not that I’ve heard. But, as predicted, most of Schutte’s ads feature mention of Jennifer Granholm, the state’s last Democratic (and female) Governor. The state’s economic performance during her term, which ran mostly concurrent with W’s as the federal level, was less than sterling.
Granted, it’s only one poll, but…WTF, MI?
Races always tighten up at the end.