By Christopher Klaver
CIO
Posted: September 27, 2017 1:22 PM

The Clean Michigan Committee has people around the state collecting signatures to put a part-time legislature on the ballot, though more quietly than it did earlier in the year.

The group that made a splash at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference in May was quiet at the Michigan Republican Party’s Leadership Conference at the same venue last week. The move in a way was not surprising given what the group spent on its first foray to collect signatures that were invalidated weeks later when the committee revised its petition language.

But in a way it was surprising since the Republican event also should have been a prime place to recover some of those signatures and to broadcast that the effort was still going strong.

A variety of sources contacted by Gongwer News Service have also seen little evidence of circulators at big events around the state over the summer.

A handful of people have reported seeing supporters gathering signatures.

Some circulators are out working, and the campaign provided evidence earlier this week.

Somewhere in the state, on September 25, there was a table with hand-made signs calling for passersby to sign the petition.

“We are everywhere…including today,” Matthew Dobler, spokesperson for the campaign, said in answer to questions about where the petitions were circulating and sent the photo above. Mr. Dobler declined to indicate how many the effort had collected and whether there was yet a planned submission date.