West Michigan Rising: The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes After The Catastrophe
West Michigan Rising WMR is a community blog for Democrats and progressives in West Michigan. Join up, post your thoughts as comments or diaries, and rise up to build our left coast
The Detroit papers are reporting that Bart Stupak will have a primary challenger. The move is both understandable, but also points to a potential fracturing in west Michigan politics. Connie Saltonstall is a former county commissioner, who ran against Kevin Elsenheimer (MI 105) in 2008.
As she expressed her reasons to the Free Press
"I believe that he has a right to his personal, religious views, but to deprive his constituents of needed health care reform because of those views is reprehensible"
We have largely found a way to keep both wings -- the pro-choice and the pro-life -- talking with one another here in Kent County. The longer Health Care Reform founders, the more the impasse is seen as turning on that of abortion (an objection many observers find unfounded), the greater the risk to this alliance and to our ability to hold the gains we have made.
It will take a great deal of wisdom and common sense for the party to maintain its unity in the light of these outside challenges. We have strong advocates on both sides of the abortion issue. And with the upcoming election we will need everyone working together.
In another ill-kept secret, Steven Heacock entered the race for the Third Congressional Seat. In an era of petulant Republicanism (see Mike Bishop, Jim Bunning), Heacock comes across as something of an adult. Whatever else he is, Heacock is definitely a downtown man -- or perhaps we should say a Pill Hill Man. Oh, let's just say it: he's Establishment.
This candidacy naturally stands in contrast to Justin Amash's Tea Partying. But it also exposes the weakness of the Cultural Warriors to the west. The Grandville crowd are now stuck with the lackluster campaign of Bill Hardiman.
Money, not babies looks to be the dominant issue for the GOP. And that paradoxically opens up another avenue for an enterprising Dem candidates: let's talk about family values. The good news is that we have Democrats able to step up and position themselves as champions of real family values. This is definite good news for Bob Synk, Jim Talen, David LaGrand, and perhaps even the eventual Democratic candidate for the Third Congressional.
Last night's decision to close Stocking School may be one of the last of its kind. Or at least, the last easy step for the GRPS board.
The decision rested on the notion that school buildings make a greater difference than what goes on inside those buildings. Structure before people -- this s the logic of the charter movement. And today, one of the leading advocates just switched sides.
Diane Ravitch, conservative education reformer and long-time advocate for No Child Left Behind and charters, has become in her own words, a "skeptic." This is big news, and a real vote of no-confidence in the semi-private charter school movement. She announces her shift here, and explains it in detail with her new book,The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic Books, 2010).
With West Michigan being ground zero for charters in Michigan, and with GRPS adopting charters as a model for reform -- the shift of an advocate changes the dynamics. A move to community-oriented schools certainly reinforces the position of Tony Baker, Henry Campbell and Wendy Falb in their attempt to keep Stocking School open (and correspondingly, makes the difficulties of John Helmholdt and Bernard Taylor that much more difficult).
As other recent articles make clear, teachers play a far more critical role in the success of our schools. The path that GRPS will need to take cannot be in finding charter alternative models, but in the rebuilding of trust with parents and teachers.
And I can think of one school on the west side where they could start.
Monday morning, it looks as if Rep. Justin Amash will have company in the race for the Third Congressional seat. A Thursday press release (below fold)has an important announcement at Hascall Steel, in Grandville. Definitely outside the district -- sure looks like a campaign announcement.
The Grandville location is also significant, home of Terri Land. It's been apparent for some time that there is a split between the money of Ada, and the social conservatives (and money) of Grandville. While Peter Secchia and the Ada boys may have helped elevate Hardiman, his heart has always belonged with the social conservatives to the west.
If the Land organization is backing him, it certainly puts a crimp into the plans of Steve Heacock. Although the Hardiman candidacy will also rob Amash of some of his Christian High social conservative creds.
In any case, this has become a lot more interesting.
This interview from WOOD-TV makes the case about as well as anything for why Dan Kildee attracts so much attention. Yes, we like our Virg, but this is rather substantive.
Then again, it may be too adult for Michigan politics. We'll see.
Update, Tuesday, 12:03 pm: Kildee Files
From MIRS:
Former Genesee County Treasurer Dan KILDEE announced moments ago that he's filed the necessary paperwork with the state to fund raise and campaign for the office of Michigan Governor.
"What I am hearing from people across Michigan is that Lansing is broken and we need new ideas and a clean break from the politics of Lansing that have kept us from moving forward," said Kildee, who filed today as a candidate in the August Democratic primary election for governor. "The people of Michigan are fed up with business as usual, and so am I. I am inviting citizens to join me in taking back our state."
I suppose it is too much to ask, but shouldn't Peter Hoekstra actually know something about Michigan? In Sunday's Press (conveniently not online), Hoekstra tweets
"People are craving leadership and I'm leading with substance."
Really. For someone running for the Governor's office, the congressman's obsession with terrorism is rather simply missing the point about what is happening in this state. For that we only need to turn from the Regional section to Page 1 and Peter Luke. The column is a horror story of the challenges facing our state, not least the prospect that it will take a generation before the state again reaches its 2000 employment figures. A generation.
Off hand, that qualifies as substance in most people's book.
One would think the first task for any one willing to become governor is to look at our state and say, "here's what I'm going to do." But no. The Congressman, like so many in his party, remains in denial. And the longer the denial, the longer the pain this state must suffer.
So Peter, here's a suggestion: Next time you're tempted to jet off to Yemen? Try going to Detroit, first. Or at the very least, please read your newspaper.
As you know, Congress continues to consider the best way to improve Americans' access to quality health insurance and reduce the cost of medical care. Today, Democrats presented a new 1,990-page bill which was negotiated and written behind closed doors with no input from me or my Republican colleagues.
They're making a deal without him. And he's surprised? This is the difference between politics of West Michigan and those of the nation. While he's been proclaiming his willingness to work on something (if only it would come along), the reality remains that he is part of the Go No plan of the Republicans.
Of course he's not standing still. No sir.
I am working with a group of Republicans on an alternate proposal that would implement widely agreed-upon reforms to our health care and health insurance laws in a fiscally responsible manner. It is my strong hope that this proposal will be considered alongside the Democrats' new bill as we debate how to improve health care for Americans.
This, presumably, is the same set of Republicans that promised a measure in "a matter of weeks" as Rep. Cantor said. Well, Friday will be day number 135 since the promise was made, and still nothing from the Republicans and Vern, except of course for the complaints.
And while I would like to hear some acknowledgment that the CBO has scored the new bill with a $100B cut to the deficit -- well, I'm not holding my breath on that, either.
In a Twit er, tweet, Peter Hoekstra notes that Hospitals in the District cancelled surgeries so docs could protest HB5386 (the medicare tax sponsored by Rep. Cushinberry). Well, while Congressman Twit-er-Tweet gloats,the reality is that healthcare along the lakeshore gets held hostage for doctor pay checks.
Behavior like this only underscores two salient facts: first, that healthcare reform is indeed a necessity. And second, that the Hardiman-Bishop--GOP budget crisis in Lansing needs a serious alternative. And not soon enough.
One has to admire Justin Amash's sheer political consistency, misguided as it is. In last night's vote on proposed Education budget (and with it a $218/student cut in funding), Cascade-based Amash was one of two to vote for the cuts. Two.
A bill so bad, even Dave Agema voted against it, yet evidently the rule for Republicans in the Senate. Through it all, one struggles to make sense of Rep. Hardiman and the Repubican viewpoint generally, that somehow money grows on trees, that these cuts to our schools, to early childhood education are cuts that come at no real social cost, no loss for our future.
(Oh, John Engler trained them well, didn't he?)
The business community has been every bit as bad, insisting that it wants a trained workforce on one hand, but then championing cuts that prevent the development of that very workforce they seek. (And then of course, they will tell us that they have to move since they can't find the workers here in Michigan). What is this attitude except a strip mining of our social capital?
Some people have spoken out. Consider the outrage in the press release from Grand Rapids-raised, Sen Gretchen Whitmer. (She learned real values living in Cascade, a shame that Rep. Amash missed them). The senator's words below the fold:
Of course we didn't need The Press to tell us (we rarely do, as a matter of course), but there was proof positive in Sunday's PolPourri.
"It was a great experience. There were 2 million people there, peacefully protesting this country's slide toward socialism and demanding less government control of our lives," Dykstra said.
He was disappointed, though, in the national media coverage of the event, which he said was nonexistent outside of Fox News.
Huh, could have fooled me. Who knew that Teabaggers don't have internet connections?
(Hey! We've got to get this going. The following is cross-posted from Michigan Liberal)
With all the shouting, the reality of the health care crisis and this economy can get overlooked. The Half Tank blog at The Washington Post stops in at a clinic in Grand Rapids, and the stories flow.
Leading off is that of a good friend of Democrats, Rick Tormala. A former City Commissioner, an aide to Sen. Levin, one of my all time favorite word-slingers, but now under-employed and uninsured. The clinic is literally a life-saver for him.
“I was very close to not coming here, and if I hadn’t, I would have probably stroked out somewhere and my family would be burying me.”
Next is a patient with an infected cat bite on his hand. Why hasn't he treated it? The trip to the hospital would mean absence from work and he fears, the loss of his job.
“Every day,” said clinic director Karen Kaashoek, “every day a person comes in that door that has a story.”
At this point I start getting sick, especially realizing that the clinic is turning away 200 people each week. But there's more, there's a Nate DuVal, 22-year old, diagnosed in the nick of time with Type 1 diabetes. Twenty-two years old. Trying to make it through college, not wanting to burden his already stressed family.
The piece concludes with the Move On rally we had at Rosa Parks Circle downtown. More stories of struggle follow, not least grubbing for cans to pay for meds to keep your bi-polar under control.
And did I mention there were photos?
This is the face of our neighbor, the reason why health care is so critical; why health care is properly a moral and not merely an economic issue.
That's the word from James Epolito, head of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. For the record, he also called our home town "an unbelievable place."
All this and more is in a huge shout out from this morning'sFree Press. The article covers the 1,000+ new direct jobs coming to the area; the 30+ medical device manufacturers; and the entrepreneurial spirit. Even the Mackinac Center has a kind word to say about the developments.
Why this matters It's no secret that Michigan must find a way past its reliance on the auto industry. West Michigan is pointing a way out, and increasingly it will fall upon Democrats to guide the region. The older days of letting the Chamber, or the GOP powers-that-be determine the region's fate are over. That's good news, but it carries a challenge.
Our task going forward will be to develop the policy chops necessary to contribute to the region's growth. We will need to be more passionate that we have good schools and that our graduates have good opportunities. When we were a minority party we could settle for a sort of reactive politics. In the last election voters began entrusting us to help shape our future together. On Tuesday, at the County Commission we will take a big step forward when we seat eight members on the commission. The responsibility is ours. Entrepreneurship is not only for business, it's for our politics as well.
Well, the GOP is certainly making a play for permanent minority status. While a candidate for the chair of the RNC sends out a CD with the ditty, Barack the Magic Negro, a few have seen the error of this effort, including Newt Gingrich and the would-be chair of the RNC, Michigan's own Saul Anuzis. They agree, the song is in bad taste.
And it is.
So why, when they were getting so hammered in the press, did local Republicans decide to be quiet? After a media storm in the past week, they finally speak. The last day of the year.
Now that's a good thing.
But why did they let Saul and Newt object more than a week ago? Just off hand, wouldn't this be something that you would want to be out in front of, especially if you were thinking of a battle for the Congressional seat in 2010?
The delay says everything we need to know about the state of the Republican Party, a party unable to respond to national changes except when they must. The locals waited a week to respond, presumably with finger in the air, waiting to see if they should speak or let Saul take the hit.
That's not leadership.
Thankfully local Dems have been taking the leading on the difficult issues like the auto bailout. Thankfully they've taken the lead in representing our urban areas. Thankfully, they're showing themselves to be the trusted partner West Michigan needs.
The Grand Rapids Public Schools board tonight defeated a motion to layoff teachers mid-year after member Tony Baker said he didn't have enough information about the administration's plan and said such a move would set a bad precedent.
Members voted 4-3 in favor of the plan, but the motion needed five votes to pass. Members Baker, Harry Campbell and Jane Gietzen voted against it.
Putatively advanced in response to changing economic circumstances, the Administration plan would have seen lay-offs in secondary schools across the district.
The plan certainly leaves outsiders scratching their heads, since one of its impacts would have been firing two teachers at the district's top school, City High School.
Yes, students have departed but how this set of drop-outs justifies disrupting the one school with significant out-of-district enrollment -- well, that is hard to say. All the odder, given that two Board members voting for the reduction (McGlynn and Hinkel) have children at City.
Now I do have a dog in this fight -- our daughter graduated from City, and I coach there. Moreover, City is precisely the sort of school the City and the region need if they are to enter the global economy. (See Phil's report, below).
But for now, we can simply say "thank you" to Tony, Jane Geitzen and Henry Campbell for standing up to this poorly-conceived plan.
As Earl (Greee) will tell you, I'm one of them. Yup, a Christian -- worse, a member of the Christian Reformed Church. Yikes.
So the news from Kalamazoo and of course, good old Gary Glenn naturally got my attention.
Just in time for Christmas, unnamed organizers (I love that part, "unnamed") are out collecting signatures in Kalamazoo churches to overturn the recently passed ordinance banning discrimination against gays in housing and jobs. It's always a bit touchy when it comes to rental property, but lets face it, I doubt that the signers are landlords. Instead we have Glenn again looking for a way to continue his crusade against the Gay Agenda, Gay Menace, or whatever they're calling it these days.
So let's break it down: Glenn and his friends want the freedom to collect money -- just not from gays. Coals in the stocking for them, I say.
Fortunately, as the article also points out, the likelihood of rescinding the ordinance is relatively low.
Now it's the media's turn. Gannett cutbacks are going to really change the face of the state and its news civerage.
Adding to Michigan's woes news from The Wall Street Journal reports that the Detroit papers will be stopping home, delivery
The publisher of the Detroit Free Press, the country's 20th largest paper by weekday circulation, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the print edition of the newspaper on most days of the week, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking
The publisher hasn't made a final decision, said this person, but the leading scenario set to be unveiled Tuesday would call for the Free Press and its partner paper, the Detroit News, to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days-Thursday, Friday and Sunday. On the other days, the publisher would sell single copies of an abbreviated print edition at newsstands and direct readers to the papers' expanded digital editions..
As attenders at yesterday's 2009/2010 Economic Outlook heard, the West Michigan economy is decidedly different from that of the East and the State as a whole. Still, the collapse of the news industry in the State is not good news, not only for the pressure that it puts on local media, especially Gannett property WZZM-13, but also how it blinds us to events elsewhere in our region.
What's ahead? The responsibility of our politics must become more local, and also more regional. Lansing, and certainly not Detroit are going to be able to determine our future (or our politics).
City Commissioner David LaGrand is off to Washington on his own dime. As he bluntly tells WOOD-TV, "ten thousand jobs are on the line." Does make you wonder why other local politicos (Vern --wake up!) have been so silent.
The long and the short is this: the future of Michigan politics is being forged by this crisis. Win or lose, the question at hand for both parties will be, "what did you do when GM was slipping under?"
It won't be in the papers, but it's making a buzz in the East: Booth Newspapers is consolidating most of the backroom operations to Grand Rapids. The net impact is to do to the Kalamazoo Gazette, Ann Arbor News and others, what's been done with the Advances: regional news, but one publishing site, one business office, one design.
Now we know better what they were up to building the facility out on I-96.
For the region, this obviously increases the clout, and marks Michigan as more of a two-region state. Around here, it is doubtful how it will change coverage (not that they are that great in the first place), but there is no question that it opens up some serious coverage gaps mid-state.
Update. MLive got hold of it yesterday. Not much there. Better to check in with the Ann Arbor. Chronicle, above. Carty notes national coverage of story today.
Earlier in the election cycle we featured Rose Anger, the lone Democrat running for county office in Barry County.
At the time there was some modest hope about her prospects; she was certainly bringing something the old boy network in Barry had been missing: competence. So did she do?
Shy of Obama but better than the rest. (This is a nice way to say like all Dems in Barry, she lost). But the numbers are encouraging:
The news last night about the west side congressional delegation was mixed. Vern Ehlers and Fred Upton both got the message: Michigan needs the auto industry.
For some one who is even considering leading the state in two years, this is a perverse position.
All the more, since this is the same Congressman who in the heat of the election offered short term relief to the auto industry, and said:
"The federal government can work with the Big 3 on a number of fronts to help ensure that they build new cars in Michigan and not in other states or countries. They are a major component of Michigan's economy, and removing obstacles will help to ensure that they succeed here in the future."
Now, Pete says he won't support financial aid to the automotive industry and thus the State of Michigan unless it called for "fundamental reform" of the auto industry.
And what "fundamental reform" does Pete want?
"Their union relations still puts them at a disadvantage to other people who build cars in the U.S. If they don't fundamentally change some of those relationships, they will never get competitive."
In other words, Pete solution is to bust the UAW and de-middle-class Michigan. See, for wanna-be Governor Hoekstra, the "obstacles" are Michigan workers. That's just typical for West Michigan Paleo-Republicans -- they're also for Right-to-Freeload and in general push for Michissippization.
With the Bush Administration dragging its heels, I suppose it's natural for Hoekstra to go along. In doing so, he only further disconnects himself and the Republican Party from responsible leadership, or for that matter, a path to economic health for our state. With these jokers on the other side, it's no wonder we're a 57% Democratic state.
Michigan State House Candidates
59, 61, 63, 78, 79, 80, 87, 88, 72, 73, 74, 77, 89, 90, 100, 101, 104 District 60 (Kalamazoo) Sean McCann
Chris Praedel District 61 (Kalamazoo) Thomas Batten District 75 (Grand Rapids) District 76 (Grand Rapids) District 80 (VanBuren)
Tom Erdmann District 91 (Muskegon)
Ben Gillette
Branden Gemzer District 92 (Muskegon)
Marcia Hovey-Wright
L. Scott McNeill
Charles Nash Scott Nesbit Sean Mullully
Steve Markel District 101 (Northwest) Dan Scripps
