By Zachary Gorchow
President of Michigan Operations
Posted: December 11, 2017 3:46 PM

As the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal has metastasized, the criticism of Michigan State University’s handling of their former employee and resolute insistence to this day that “no MSU official believed” Mr. Nassar committed sexual abuse before the first news reports in 2016 has intensified.

There have been calls for MSU President Lou Anna Simon to resign. The Lansing State Journal Editorial Board said if Ms. Simon does not resign, then the MSU Board of Trustees should fire her.

But so far, the board has rejected calls for Ms. Simon’s ouster.

In 2018, two of those trustees – Brian Breslin and Mitch Lyons – will be up for re-election.

Typically, the statewide education board races, the MSU board included, always favor the party having the better election year or some other macro-trend. Voters tend to know nothing about the candidates or their positions on the issues, so they default to their basic partisan instinct.

And that surely will hold true again next November.

But what about the nominating process? The political parties will each nominate two candidates for the MSU board at their conventions next summer, and it if the Nassar scandal is going to play a role in the election, that’s when it would happen.

If Mr. Breslin and Mr. Lyons run for re-election, will they secure renomination or might one or two challengers, unhappy with their handling of the Nassar scandal and Ms. Simon, decide to give them a fight?

And on the Democratic side, given the party’s effort to harness the energy among liberal and moderate women revolted by President Donald Trump and the push in the party to oust those accused of sexual misconduct (see John Conyers, Al Franken et al), might Michigan Democrats nominate two candidates pledging to bring dissenting voices to the board and question the university’s approach?

Once the nominations are set, that’s when the prevailing political winds will likely take over.

But if the MSU board remains steadfast in its support of Ms. Simon, those who think the board is making a mistake will have their best chance to effect change next August when each party’s most devoted activists gather to make what usually are very low-profile nominations.