It appears Republican Joe Hune has a challenger as the heir apparent for the state Senate seat in the 22nd District.
The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is reporting that former Howell Mayor Paul Rogers intends to run for the seat that covers all off Livingston County, Shiawassee County and part of Ingham County vacated by term-limited Valde Garcia, R-Howell. Rogers is not related to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, or his brother State Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, or the P & A would have already endorsed him.
It will be a primary challenge to Hune; even though no where in the article does it mention his party affiliation. Rogers has a ton more experience than Hune even after Hune was term-limited in the House.
Rogers served as the city's mayor from 1997-2000 and has spent more than a decade on the City Council. Those positions are nonpartisan. In addition to this stint on the City Council, Rogers, according to the P & A, has held leadership roles with the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce, Howell Education Foundation and Livingston County United Way campaign. He's also been involved with the Howell Area Fire Authority, the school-to-work steering committee for the Livingston Educational Service Agency and the Livingston County. He is also a small business owner.
That’s in sharp contrast to Hune, a really nice guy who did little more than show up everyday in Lansing. He has a near perfect, if not perfect, voting record, but his list of accomplishments is very thin. That’s not always a bad thing because the party who holds the gavel will often block any legislation of someone from the opposing party they do not like, are targeting or think is a rising star; like the Republicans did to Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, and Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee.
But Hune doesn’t have that excuse because his party held the gavel for four of his six years in office.
Hune won his seat in 2002 in the newly created 47th District by a mere two votes in the primary election over a large field of more experienced and better known candidates. He was term-limited last year, and after being out of office a mere month, he announced he was running for the Senate in February of last year.
The Republicans have gerrymandered the district to make it a safer Republican seat, so the race will more than likely be over after the primary. It’s nice to see someone a little more moderate and may actually vote how he feels and not how parity leadership tells him to vote. No Democrat has yet announced they will run.
No comments:
Post a Comment