Clarke gets first of many labor endorsements

The Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 333 announced they are supporting state Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, in his bid to replace Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick in Michigan’s 13th District seat in the U.S. Congress.

In adaptation to the support of members, the local union’s political action committee (PAC) donated $5,000 to Clarke’s campaign fund, the maximum allowed under the law. Clarke said he was honored to receive this strong support so early in his campaign.

“This is the first in many endorsements from organized labor to come,” he said. “Other statewide labor organizations have indicated to me that their official support is forthcoming.”

Clarke will bring some much needed integrity to the seat. He will be at the Democratic State Convention at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit on Saturday April 17 from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to greet supporters. You can find him sharp underneath the picture of former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young.

Election roundup looks bright

Thank God for Rachel Maddow.

I was not feeling too well about Tuesday’s election. But I tuned into her show on MSNBC on Wednesday, and she put it in proper perspective. Now, I’m looking forward to the election in 2010.

Despite losing governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, there are still more Democratic Governors than Republican. The northeast part of the country is even bluer than before, thanks to the race in New York’s 23rd congressional district. Not only that, it shows how much in disarray the Republican Party really is. The extremist, rightwing tea baggers are not just satisfied with hijacking the party, now they want to drive out all the sane, moderates out of the party. Hey, we have a big tent.

Here in Michigan, the news is not as bad either. I’m disappointed that Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, lost the special election for the vacant 19th District Senate seat. However, Michigan Democrats did very well in municipal elections all across Michigan on Tuesday. Mayoral and City Council candidates backed by the Michigan Democratic Party won 65 percent of their races, or 44 out of 68. Ballot questions supported by the MDP such as the Kalamazoo antidiscrimination ordinance and the Macomb County Charter passed.

But the loss in the 19th District really hurt. I personally knocked on doors, he lost by a 2-1 margin and it will be a little harder in 2010 to take back the Senate with a 22-16 GOP advantage. But, after reading some post-election reports I feel much better.

In subscription only Gongwers, Matt Miner, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, was quoted as saying: “When Mark Schauer left, this was our number one priority.” That’s good to hear. Even though Griffin lost by a 2-1 margin, he was outspent by a 4-1 margin. The Republicans had to pay for volunteers, and if this is their best effort and number 1 priority, I feel very good about 2010. In a Republican leaning district, you had to outspend the opponents by a 4-1 margin?

That sure says a lot about the campaigning ability of Congressman Mark Schauer to win twice in that district.

It’s hard to explain how the Republicans are lying about the Michigan State Police HQ in just a sound bite, but we have almost a year to boil the truth down to a one or two sentence response. That’s their big issue.

It was gratifying for Mike’s Nofs own party to also call him out on his lie about the Cobo hall bills that saved the North American International Auto Show for Michigan. Nofs was making a victory lap in the Senate Wednesday, and, according to Gongwer, “He got a pat on the back and a handshake from his new boss, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop.”

“However, about 20 minutes earlier, in Bishop's first floor Capitol office, there was no back patting on the issue of Cobo Hall and the alleged corruption referred to in a widely seen Nofs TV commercial.”

"It is not the source of corruption," Bishop told WLNS TV-6, with Nofs standing to his left. "It is actually the one bright light in Detroit right now that we can all rally behind."

In fact, Bishop helped write some of the bills.

Sen. Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit, got it right: "If you're willing to play those types of politics, it tells me what type of legislator you'll be,” he said. “That means that you are being divisive. You are going into the old playbook of dividing the state. You are trying to gin up fears . . ."

I can’t wait until 2010.

The TV airwaves are being filled with false attacks on Griffin

The TV airwaves are being filled with false attacks on Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, as Nov. 3 Special Election for the vacant seat in the 19th State Senate District fast approaches.

The latest one continues the Republican false campaign issue of trying to claim the layoff of 100 State troopers earlier this year was because of the construction of the new Michigan State Police headquarters. That’s a blatant lie, but that has not stopped the GOP from using this.

The State Troopers were laid off because they refused to take the six furlough days like the rest of the 50,000 state employees to avoid layoffs, and in fact the MSP budget bill passed on Sept. 30 bring back some 54 troopers.

This new ad is even more blatant, and it focuses even more on the lie that the HQ led to trooper layoffs. Plus, it’s not paid for by the GOP candidate Mike Nofs. This false smear is paid for by some group called the “Michigan Jobs and Labor Foundation.”

I have no idea who that is, and I can’t find a web site for them or a campaign finance report. All I could find was a Lansing PO box listed for them via a Google search. There is also no You Tube video like the other ad.

The ad paid for and featuring Nofs, targets Griffin for his vote in favor of legislation that created a regional authority to run Cobo Center in Detroit, ending city control of the facility, and the appropriation of funds to help pay for the aging building's renovation.

There is no You Tube video of this lie either, but in the ad Nofs plays the boogeyman Detroit card that will excite the GOP base. In the ads he says that the rest of the state should not bail out Detroit because of the city's corrupt mismanagement of Cobo.

"We shouldn't be using our tax dollars to fund Detroit's corruption," Mr. Nofs says in the ad.

What Griffin did was save the North American International Auto Show. Officials with the auto show had warned that if changes were not made to the center, they could move the show to Chicago, Los Angeles or another city. The auto show is responsible for as much as $500 million in economic activity annually in southeast Michigan.

As for this alleged corruption, the package of four bipartisan bills will allow for a regional authority to lease the convention center in downtown in order to expand and improve the facility. In other words, sole control is taken away from the Detroit City Council and spread to officials in surrounding counties.

The bills, Senate Bills 586-588, were sponsored by Republicans. House Bill was sponsored by a Democrat. The bills had overwhelming support. The bills passed by votes of, respectively, 91-16, 31-1; 92-15, 32-1; 90-17, 32-1; and 93-14, 32-1. A lot of Republicans join Griffin in those votes.