About 10 years ago, as metro Detroit's real estate market imploded, the realtor who was helping my then-fiancee and me find a new home invited us to visit a house that had come on the market for a fraction of what its previous owner had paid.

The house boasted impressive curb appeal, at least from a distance. But once inside, we noticed gaping holes where appliances and built-in shelving had been ripped from the walls. Upstairs, someone had dumped paint on the hardwood floors, and exposed electrical wires dangled from ceilings where light fixtures had hung.

"Unfortunately," our realtor explained, "it's not unusual for foreclosed owners to vandalize a property they've been forced to leave."

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I never found out anything more about the family who had lost title to the house, but their rage was manifest in the destruction they left behind. So, too, is the resentment of the Republican state legislators whose party was evicted from Michigan's executive branch last month after eight years of GOP control.

Scorched-earth strategy

If outgoing Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) and House Speaker Tom Leonard (R-DeWitt ) have their way, the three Democratic women poised to succeed Gov. Rick Snyder, Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson on Jan. 1 will inherit offices whose authority has been diminished by the GOP's legislative vandals.

The most conspicuous targets, so far, are incoming state Attorney General Dana Nessel, who beat Leonard, and Secretary of State-elect Jocelyn Benson.

Although the administration of state elections and the enforcement of campaign finance regulations are two of the secretary of state's principal duties, none of Benson's three Republican predecessors have shown much enthusiasm for reforms that would make it easier to vote or that would require dark money donors whose financial support plays an ever-expanding role in Michigan elections to disclose their identities.

Benson is an enthusiastic supporter of both initiatives — which explains the Republican Legislature's haste to circumscribe her statutory authority before she takes office.

Senate Bill 1250, sponsored by term-limited Sen. Dave Robertson (R-Grand Blanc), would transfer oversight of campaign finance from the secretary of state's office to a new, bipartisan panel whose Republican members could effectively block any enforcement effort. (Robertson himself has been a frequent target of sanctions for campaign finance violations.)

A second measure, incoming Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey's SB 1176, would prohibit the secretary of state from requiring non-profit groups who bankroll "issue ads" to identify their owners. In recent election cycles, special interests have used such groups to avoid public scrutiny of their political spending.

Robertson's bill advanced to the Senate floor Wednesday on a party-line vote. Shirkey's has already passed the Senate and been referred to the House, where the votes of lame duck Republicans promise quick passage.

Neutralizing Nessel

Also advancing this week is HB 6553, which would guarantee that either the Senate or the House could intervene in any legal dispute if it disagreed with the position of Michigan's attorney general, whose constitutional prerogative it is to represent the state in court.

The bill's sponsor, term-limited Rep. Rob VerHeulen (R-Walker), insists the bill would not encroach on the prerogatives of the Democratic AG-elect. But VeHeulen and his fellow GOP vandals are still stinging from a recent court decision rejecting their attempt to intervene in a lawsuit in which the League of Women Voters has challenged the constitutionality of a Republican-led gerrymander. If the challengers prevail, Michigan could be ordered to reconfigure its legislative and congressional boundaries before the 2020 election.

Republicans are probably correct in suspecting that AG-elect Nessel won't be very aggressive about defending the gerrymander, which flagrantly trampled the rights of Democratic voters.

But elections have consequences (as a certain Republican president is fond of pointing out), and VerHeulen's bill is all about ignoring the voters' express judgment that Nessel, not her Republican opponent, should make that call.

It isn't clear yet whether Michigan's Republican lawmakers will go as far as their counterparts in Wisconsin have to clip the wings of Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers, who defeated GOP incumbent Scott Walker last month. Walker, who will leave office Jan. 1, is poised to sign legislation that would limit his successor's authority to make appointments or suspend partisan lawsuits initiated on Walker's watch.

So far, Michigan's GOP majority's most direct attack on Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer's prerogatives is SB 1107, which would limit her discretion in selecting the next head of the Michigan State Police.

Securing the property

It's obvious that each of these bills would subvert the voters' will in the interests of advancing partisan Republican interests. But what's striking is the juvenile, taking-my-ball-home attitude that pervades all of them. This is the short-sighted work of sore losers, lawmakers acting out their juvenile resentments with no regard for the constitutional processes they're sabotaging.

What remains is for Gov. Rick Snyder to decide whether his interests lie in abetting that sabotage or in preserving the integrity of the offices Republican lawmakers seek to diminish.

I hope Snyder will model his actions after those of a responsible bank officer who tries to preserve a foreclosed property's market value and protect it from its vengeful former owners. Because it would be embarrassing to watch the governor who has always considered himself the grown-up in the room align with the juvenile vandals laying waste to Michigan's executive branch.

Brian Dickerson is the Free Press' editorial page editor. Contact him at bdickerson@freepress.com.