Freshman State Representative Jennifer Conlin, who represents Lyndon Township, Dexter Township, Webster Township, Northfield Township, Ann Arbor Township, and part of the City of Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County, ran as a moderate, but has since come out as a partisan extremist in Lansing.
In the Washtenaw County Republican Party's flier, we present some of the most radical actions taken by Rep. Conlin.
Let's review each statement and provide more details:
1. This is the repeal of Michigan's Right to Work law, which prohibits workers from being fired for not paying tribute to the labor union. Jennifer Conlin, along with 50 other House Democrats, introduced House Bill 4004 and voted for its passage. It became law on March 24, 2023.
2. Jennifer Conlin and 38 other Democrats introduced House Bills 4616 and 4617, which passed with unanimous Democrat support, to ban so-called "conversion therapy" which includes therapy for "detransitioning" children and adults that wish to revert to their biological sex after experiencing harm from sex-change operations. This threatens the free practice of medicine and doctors seeking to help these patients could lose their license to practice medicine. To drive their point home, Democrats unanimously rejected an amendment to the bill to prohibit sterilizing children without their parents' consent.
3. The first bill introduced this year was House Bill 4001, which includes $1.5 billion for corporate welfare, including the first installment of a $500 million ongoing source of revenue for the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve, the SOAR Fund Michigan uses to make the handouts. There is another $150 million for politically connected donors.
4. House Bill 4145 through 4148 comprise Michigan's "Red Flag" law, which was passed with unanimous Democrats support and unanimous Republican opposition, to strip gun owners of their right to bear arms without due process of law, based on unsubstantiated accusations from disgruntled family members, neighbors, co-workers, and/or current or ex-romantic partners, or roommates. These laws rely on the issuing of ex-parte (one-sided) orders authorizing law enforcement, including SWAT teams, to immediately seize firearms from the subject of the order without notification or right to an attorney. Similar legislation was recently struck down in New York in a case in which an abuser obtained a "red flag" law against an ex-girlfriend who had obtained a restraining order against him. We await the day Michigan's new Red Flag law is struck down as well. Jennifer Conlin also supported and voted for other assaults on the Second Amendment, including universal gun registration and "lock up your safety" legislation.
5. House Bills 4759 through 4761, introduced by Jennifer Conlin and 33 other Democrats, would mandate Michigan produce 100% of its energy from "renewable" sources by 2035. Since Michigan only uses 11% expensive renewable energy now, this would require replacing 89% of Michigan's energy sources, causing energy prices to skyrocket and causing rolling blackouts and other severe problems caused by "renewable" sources, such as dam bursts, extermination of whales, and toxic chemicals in solar cells leaching into the environment.
6. Repealing Michigan's 3rd grade reading law was a priority for Democrats. Senate Bill 12 was passed by the House on March 3, 2023 with unanimous Democrat support and was signed into law on March 24. Under the bill, schools may now advance children beyond the 3rd grade who cannot read, ultimately making higher learning impossible and allowing schools to paper over their own failings. Jennifer Conlin also introduced House Bill 4058, which would have done the same thing.
7. Jennifer Conlin voted to pass Senate Bill 147, which would define abortion as a civil right and thereby require employers that offer health coverage to pay for their employees' abortions. This includes all forms of abortion, including late-term abortion, dismemberment abortion, and poison abortion.
8. Michigan's film subsidy program was launched in 2008 and terminated in 2015 after proving a colossal flop. After delivering hundreds of millions of Michigan taxpayer dollars to film studios, there were 102 fewer film industry jobs in this state, according to federal employment statistics. Other states' film incentive programs have also been shown to be a waste. Jennifer Conlin introduced House Bills 4907 and 4908 to reinstate this proven failure and waste of taxpayers' money to benefit Democrats' friends in Hollywood.
9. Jennifer Conlin voted to pass House Bill 4695, which would mandate an extended "early voting period" that would render citizen oversight such as poll watching and poll challenging so impractical as to be impossible. To add insult to injury the legislation also allows for "ballots on demand" to be printed that include no serial numbers. Democrats have consistently voted to remove every safeguard against election fraud in Michigan -- for obvious reasons.
10. Jennifer Conlin and other Democrats introduced and passed House Bill 4007, to mandate government contracts pay "prevailing wage" rather than competing wages. In conjunction with other bills, such as 4231 that would repeal fair and open competition in governmental construction (which Jennifer Conlin also introduced), competition is effectively eliminated in government contracting, resulting in massively higher costs for taxpayers.
Side Two restates some of the issues on Side 1, although it also mentions Jennifer Conlin introducing legislation to impose a parental mandate that they send their children to kindergarten in a public school, House Bill 4059.
