Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel headlined May A2Y Chamber Lunch in the shadow of an intense national spotlight

Earlier this month, our Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber hosted Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for its May 2022 Headline Lunch. [1-3]

After meal service, Chamber Executive Vice President & Director of Government Relations Andy LaBarre introduced her with a blend of professional credential recitation and rundown of the office that our AG currently heads. He also emphasized that, while many politicians try to come across as personable and able to engage constituents with humor, AG Nessel had a natural gift.

He recommended Following her on Twitter. [4]

At the same time, this is an election year and her name will be on the ballot, as a Democrat. Her opponent is Republican Matthew DePerno, whose campaign page features a banner that reads “Endorsed by President Trump.” [5-7]

Whatever the two candidates might have anticipated as issues when this current campaign cycle began, exactly one week prior to her A2Y Chamber appearance on May 10, Politico threw a wrench into those works exactly one week prior, when it published a leaked draft of a possible United States Supreme Court Opinion in the case of Dobs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. [8,9]

If followed through upon without change, that would further mean the overturn of Roe v Wade, returning the question to each of the fifty states — including Michigan. [10]

And that is not only a matter on which Attorney General Dana Nessel has shown herself to be unflinchingly serious, but has taken her opposition to a national stage. [11-13]

Addressing an undoubtedly obvious pink elephant in the room while standing before Chamber Luncheon attendees, she dedicated her first substantive remarks to this topic. Here, her appeal was catered to business interests, and our AG both acknowledged this as a matter with which the Michigan legislature was undoubtedly going to have to deal, and suggested that the way in which legislators did so would have implications for attracting money and talent to this state.

With that, this luncheon might well be most noteworthy for the fact that this topic was not discussed at length here in Ann Arbor.

After briefly making her case re Abortion, she devoted the bulk of her structured talk to discussion in vignette fashion of the core functions of the Office of the Michigan Attorney General, and its accomplishments under her watch.

• Conviction Integrity [14]
• Elder Abuse [15]
• Environmental Protection [16]
• Opioid Abuse [17]
• PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) Contamination [18]

Following perhaps half-an-hour on her own areas of focus (never returning to speak from the podium, nor ever relying upon notes), AG Nessel took a handful of question from the floor — moderated by Mr LaBarre.

Roe was never brought up again.

Hosting government officials in any election year where their name will appear on the partisan ballot can be a bit of a high-wire act. The unprecedented US Supreme Court leak raised the ante; it may have even given pause to those committed to the wisdom of former Speaker of the House Thomas P O’Neill, who famously advised that “All politics are local.” [19]

As it related to the most recent A2Y Chamber Headline Lunch, Dobs was minimally discussed; Attorney General Dana Nessel proved to be the thoroughly enjoyable, engaging speaker that Andy LaBarre has promised.

And the status of =Roe v Wade precedent continues to ramain unchanged as this story goes to publication today. [20]

References

1. A2Y: Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber (home page).
2. “Headline Lunch” A2Y Chamber.
3. “Attorney General Dana Nessel” Michigan.
4. “Halloween is scary. Voting shouldn’t be” Dana Nessel (October 21, 2020) Twitter.
5. Dana Nessel for Michigan Attorney General (home page).
6. Matthew DePerno for Attorney General (home page).
7. “Trump: I’ll appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v Wade abortion case” Dan Mangan (October 19, 2016) CNBC.
8. “Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows” Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward (May 2, 2022) Politico.
9. “Read Justice Alito’s initial draft abortion opinion which would overturn Roe v Wade” (May 2, 2022) Politico.
10. “Part 1 of 3 re Future of Roe v Wade, abortion – and roles of United States Supreme Court, Congress, Michigan legislature” Dell Deaton (May 16, 2022) Saline Journal.
11. “Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on the state’s pre-Roe v Wade abortion law” (May 5, 2022) CBS News (5:10 minutes).
12. “Full Michigan AG: Women ‘Are Going To Die’ If Roe Is Overturned” NBC News (May 8, 2022) YouTube (7:56 minutes).
13. “Michigan AG: If my Republican opponent wins and bans abortions, ‘many women will die’” (May 14, 2022) MSNBC (5:53 minutes).
14. “Conviction Integrity Unit” Michigan.
15. “Elder Abuse Task Force” Michigan.
16. “Protecting Michigan’s Environment” Michigan.
17. “Opioids” Michigan.
18. “Combating PFAS Contamination in Michigan” Michigan.
19. “Tip O’Neill: ‘All politics are local’” RustedTelevisione (August 1, 2021) YouTube (23 seconds).
20. “Supreme Court again declines to rule in abortion case, despite protests” Ronn Blitzer (May 23, 2022) Fox News.