Picking your fights: Every few days I get e-mail blasts or Facebook postings from those trying to recall the governor. Sometimes they are full of frustration; last week someone complained that people weren't showing up to circulate petitions.

Well, of course they are going to have trouble. For one thing, it is summer. For another, those in the know understand that collecting the estimated 1.1 million signatures is an almost impossible task. 

Yet those who loathe the governor's policies are missing a major opportunity to really make an impact. The most unpopular of the governor's reforms is the new law giving Emergency Financial Managers enormous new powers. 

Getting rid of that would be much easier. Legally, all you would need is the signatures of 161,304 registered voters to get a repeal on next year's ballot. Naturally, some are always disqualified, so you'd have to have extra, but 220,000 or so ought to get the job done. 

That is an easily manageable goal. If that ever gets on the ballot, the governor's law is probably toast. A new EPIC-MRA poll done for the Gongwer News Service indicated people would toss it out by a 53 percent to 34 percent margin. Accomplishing that would also send a strong signal to the Legislature that the people are paying attention.

You don't hear much about this, because going after a law isn't quite as sexy as going after a governor. Politics is, however, the art of the possible. Rick Snyder knows that; his opponents should too.

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