Wayne County Circuit Judge Diane Hathaway, who was endorsed by the party's influential labor caucus, only narrowly edged colleague Judge Deborah Thomas in voting by delegates.

Poor Deb.  She was actually out their working the delegates, campaigning hard for months.  But the Party big-wigs wanted nothing to do with her.  They anointed Hathaway and Hathaway was going to get the nomination.  That's the way they do things at the Michigan Democratic Party.  Big Labor says jump and the Dems say "how high?"

Only problem this time is that they've been asked to scale an awfully tall building in a single bound.  Diane Hathaway's last foray into electoral politics didn't go the way she would have liked.  In a four-way contest for the Court of Appeals, Hathaway landed a distant third, nearly 113,000 votes behind Kirsten Kelly and about 50,000 votes behind Brian Zahra.

If you're a Democrat, that ain't good.  Court of Appeals is a tough win but the Michigan Supreme Court, that's nearly impossible.  According to the Associated Press:

Judicial candidates appear on the nonpartisan section of the ballot. It's tough for challengers to win because incumbent judges have the advantage of being listed as judges.

Tough is an understatement.  No one has defeated an incumbent Supreme Court Justice since the 1980s.  That's a long time.  Then again, no Supreme Court race has ever featured the kind of cake this one's likely to see spent.  

Radical gay-special-rights sugar daddy John Stryker is said to have allotted $10 million specifically for this race.  Toss in the labor cash, the Brewer attack dog machine and all of the cash that'll be spent on the extremist Reform Michigan Government Now constitutional re-write and the incumbent faces an unprecedented three-front battle.  Which really shouldn't surprise us, the way he's consistently stood up for common sense and the rule of law.

The Southbend Tribune reports:

Democrats are expected to spend a lot of money trying to upset Taylor, who has been on the Supreme Court since 1997.

Taylor said as much when accepting the Republican nomination last month. He said Democrats, trial lawyers and others were giving him "special attention" this election cycle because they want "to go back to the days of frivolous lawsuits."

Cliff Taylor is one of the finest jurists in the United States of America.  Not Michigan.  Anywhere.  He has consistently read the law and ruled accordingly.  No legislating from the bench.  No politics influencing decisions.  No giving in to donors and special interests.  The law.

He does his job and he does it well.  And that's earned him a $10 million-plus bulls-eye smack dab in the middle of his forehead.  

The Dems are looking for that headshot.  If you care at all about keeping an activist judiciary off the Michigan Supreme Court we're each going to have to do more than vote.

You know the drill and I'm not afraid to guilt you about it.  Pony up, boys and girls.  Pony up.