By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-928439.mp3
LANSING, MI – There was light turnout at a Tea Party rally at the state Capitol Sunday afternoon. Organizers of the event were using the 10th day of the 10th month of 2010 to stage what was billed as a 10th Amendment rally opposed to federal healthcare reforms.
Organizers expected more than two thousand people - but only about 200 actually showed up. It's not clear if that's because fervor for the movement is diminishing, or if many Tea Partiers just found something else to do on a warm sunny autumn afternoon.
The event was also something of a pep rally for much of the Republican ticket on the November ballot. GOP nominee for attorney general Bill Schuette told the crowd he would continue to pursue a lawsuit challenging the new healthcare law as an unconstitutional expansion of federal authority.
"I will fight that healthcare - big-government, big-spending health care every day as your attorney general. That's where I stand on the 10th Amendment!" Schuette says.
Democratic nominee David Leyton says he would drop the lawsuit. A federal judge in Detroit has ruled the healthcare law does not violate the 10th Amendment.