Jack McHugh, Senior Legislative Analyst [Mackinac Center]

Jack McHugh is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s senior legislative analyst and editor of MichiganVotes.org, a unique Web site that puts the activities of the Michigan Legislature at citizens’ fingertips. Since the site was launched in 2001, McHugh has written or edited concise, plain-English descriptions of every bill, vote and amendment in the state House and Senate: 12,000 bills; 10,000 roll call votes; 8,000 amendments; and 2,400 new laws. These can all be searched and sorted on the MichiganVotes.org Web site.

McHugh’s experience prior to joining the Center is wide and varied. He has been a floor trader in the treasury bond and gold futures “pits” of the Chicago commodity exchanges, writer and real estate developer. He entered the Michigan political and public policy scene in 1994, spending six years as a legislative chief of staff in the House of Representatives.

McHugh has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in political science from Central Michigan University (where he completed two highly relevant research projects, “Analyzing Michigan House Voting Records Using the ‘MichiganVotes.org’ Database” and “Analysis of Appropriations to Michigan’s Public Four-Year Universities, with Recommendations”).

Jack McHugh’s essays on public policy issues have appeared in The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, The Oakland Press, The Grand Rapids Press and many other newspapers. He is also co-author of a book on Midwest mountain bike trails.

Bernero or Snyder: Which Way Could the Public Policy Winds Blow?

Published on Aug. 15, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Analysis: Michigan Primaries a Tea Party Failure?

Published on Aug. 11, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Angelo M. Codevilla — Our Era's Tom Paine?

Here's how important I think Angelo M. Codevilla's American Spectator article is: It makes me think of Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
Excerpt: "Our ruling class's agenda is power for itself. While it stakes its claim through intellectual-moral pretense, it holds power by one of the oldest and most prosaic of means: patronage and promises thereof." … more

Published on July 27, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Cost to Revive Economy With Battery Plant Subsidies: $5 Trillion

Yesterday, President Barack Obama and Gov. Jennifer Granholm came to Holland bearing gifts: cash subsidies for an electric car battery plant owned by the Korean firm LG Chem. The federal contribution is $151 million in "stimulus" money, and Michigan taxpayers are kicking in another $100 million. This means that each of the plant's approximately 400 jobs will cost taxpayers $625,000. At this rate, it would cost $5 trillion to provide employment to the approximately 8 million Americans who lost have their jobs in the current downturn. … more

Published on July 18, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Michigan Taxpayers Writing Check to Second Electric Car Battery Maker for $100 Million

Published on July 17, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Candidate Questionnaire for Tea Party Activists: 2009-2010 Edition

Published on July 12, 2010

Analysis: Michigan Taxpayers to Write $100 Million Check to Korean Battery Maker

Published on July 2, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Analysis: Gutted School Pension 'Reform' Could Come Back to Bite Schools

Published on June 29, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Michigan’s Borrow-and-Spend Politicians Eye Kids’ Piggybanks

Published on June 22, 2010

Analysis: 'Jungle Primary' Proposal Won’t Get Michigan Out of the Woods

Efforts to break the political stranglehold by rearranging the institutional furniture at best consumes energy better spent striking at the real root of our problems. … more

Published on June 14, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

15 Specific Ideas to Move Michigan Forward

Published on June 7, 2010

Analysis: Senate GOP Fumbles, May Approve $25.9 Billion Taxpayer Liability to Satisfy MEA

Published on May 10, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Michigan’s Best State Laws

Published on May 10, 2010

MEA Wounds Governor’s School Pension Reform

Published on May 1, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Analysis: What's Next for Michigan Tea Parties?

Tax Day Tea Party rallies were held across the state and nation last week, with mixed results in turnout. Regardless of the exact attendance, the movement represents a potent new force on the American political landscape. Its leaders and members are currently focused on changing the composition of Congress in November, but their real challenge will be finding ways after the election to pressure the political class — especially Republicans — to stick to the fiscal restraint promises made in the heat of the campaign. … more

Published on April 20, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Analysis — 'Up North' Grass Roots v. MI GOP Establishment: Echoes of 1992 in Stupak Seat Race

In 1992, incumbent Republican Congressman Bob Davis chose not to run for re-election in the Michigan 1st District because he was one of the top five politicians implicated in the House “check kiting“ scandal. Davis had represented the district covering the northern Lower Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula since 1978. Poor decisions made then by a state Republican establishment alienated many grass roots “true believers” in the district, opening the door for a former one-term Democrat state Representative, who won and went on to an 18-year Congressional career.
Fast forward to 2010: The 1st District seat has once again become open due to a misstep by the incumbent, that once little-known Democrat who won the seat in 1992. His name, of course, is Bart Stupak, and the misstep was his vote in favor of President Barack Obama’s health care bill. And once again, members of the Republican establishment are making moves that could diminish grass roots support for the party’s eventual candidate in the November general election, potentially leading to the ascension of yet another Democrat “dynasty” in the 1st District. … more

Published on April 15, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Analysis: Government Employee Political Clout Obstructs Budget Reform

The Legislature returns today after a two-week break to take up perhaps the greatest challenge facing state government since 1983: an estimated $1.5 billion budget shortfall. Making this all the more difficult is the apparent inability of lawmakers to adopt what most struggling private-sector workers and small-business owners view as modest reductions in state employee pay and benefits. That failure was highlighted in three separate events just before the break. … more

Published on April 13, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Federalized Health Care and Our Bad Habits of Democracy

Published on March 24, 2010

The Plain Language of the Law: Senate Fails to Reject Government Pay Hike

Excerpts from Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 35, which would have rejected a 3 percent state government employee pay hike for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2010:
(Roll Call Vote Details here.) … more

Published on March 3, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

"Larry the Liquidator" on Senate Bill 1174

Published on Feb. 28, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Spending Tobacco Revenue Like There’s No Tomorrow

Published on Dec. 18, 2009

GOP Senators, SEIU Taxpayer Giveaways, Campaign Cash and More, OH MY!

On Aug. 5, 2009, Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, introduced Senate Bill 731, which would give statutory cover to a scheme transferring approximately $6.6 million in taxpayer money annually to the SEIU government employee union, one of the parents of ACORN. Wendy Day of Common Sense in Government has reported on Facebook that Allen was the recipient of a $2,000 campaign contribution from the SEIU on June 22, six weeks before SB 731 was introduced. In another post she hints that the bill was related to SEIU support of former state representative Mike Nofs in a November 2009 special election. The SEIU endorsed Nofs on August 22nd, two weeks after SB 731 was introduced, and sent four full-time workers to help on his campaign. … more

Published on Dec. 15, 2009 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

It’s From the Children

A review and analysis of important state legislative policy issues that do not always receive attention from the general media. Michigan Capitol Confidential will make it easier to keep tabs on your elected representatives in Lansing. … more

Published on Oct. 27, 2009 – Michigan Capitol Confidential