A love of the law and public service leads Whitmer to run for AG

LANSING – State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, has stood up for consumers and the vulnerable in the Senate, and now she wants to use the power of the law to stand up for those taken advantage of as she stumps for the nomination for Michigan Attorney General.

She is making the rounds of the grassroots party organization because the nomination is made at the Democratic Party convention, and she spoke at the quarterly meeting of the 8th Congressional Democratic District Committee earlier this week. The AG office has been in Democratic hands from 1961 until 2002, and over the years it has built up perhaps the best consumer protection record in the country. But that changed with the election of Republican Mike Cox.

Whitmer - who considers former AG Frank Kelley who held the post for 37 years a mentor and friend- wants to change that.

“After seven years of Mike Cox, we need to take it back and we need change,” she said. “The Attorney General is the people’s lawyer, and that’s how I see it.”

Cox has gutted consumer protection, and he has also quietly eliminated the hate crimes division.

The state’s economy has taken a beating as the auto industry almost went into bankruptcy, and Whitmer said she wants to take on the greedy special interest that try to profit off the economic crisis.

“People need to feel inspired and hopeful, and as we go into 2010, we need to focus on the future,” she said. “The challenges our state has faced have been big, and that’s an understatement; we need leaders that are independent and not controlled by special interests.”

Whitmer has been in the Legislature for the past 10 years, and she is a leading advocate for empowering consumers. She most recently fought to enact legislation cracking down on massive predatory mortgage lending scams, and is now working to outlaw those who want to exploit victims of foreclosure through fraudulent “rescue” services.

She has also fought to ensure citizens; are safe, and for that effort she was recognized in 2003 as the “Legislator of the Year” by the Michigan Sheriff’s Association.

She has introduced legislation that would end immunity for drug companies if their drugs kill or maim the people who take them, and it would repel the current ban enacted in 1996 designed to shield huge pharmaceutical companies from any responsibility. Michigan is the only state in the nation with that kind of drug shield law.

“We don’t have the right to sue like people in the 49 states,” Whitmer said. “We have Bill Schulte (One of the GOP candidates for AG) to thank for that.”

Whitmer earned her law degree from Michigan State University, and she worked in private practice until she joined Dickinson Wright, one of Michigan’s oldest and most respected law firms, as a corporate litigator. She specialized in regulatory and administrative law, arguing in both Circuit Court and before the Michigan Public Service Commission.

She has always had a love fort he law and public service because of her parents. Her father is an attorney and her mother was an assistant Attorney General for many years.

Whitmer said it was a case she worked on at Dickinson Wright that made her realize she was doing the wrong thing with her law degree, and it led her to give up the large paycheck she was earning for public service. She said an elderly couple was fighting a $40 overcharge they received on a utility bill; only she was working for the utility company.

“I realized as I was writing a brief; I went to law school to help people out, not to squash them,” she said.

Whitmer has been traveling around the state seeking grassroots support. In fact, she will be at the Livingston County Democratic Party’s holiday party this Saturday Dec. 5 at 4 p.m.

Her campaign is gaining steam, and she expects a new web site to go up soon and to open a campaign office. She has also hired Mark Burton as her campaign manger. He was the successful campaign director for the Michigan Stem Cell Ballot Question Committee last year, and he has worked on many other successful campaigns.

To volunteer for the campaign call (517) 372-5454 or email info@GretchenWhitmer.com.

Senate Republicans’ action in Senate session demonstrate lies and hypocrisy

LANSING - If you looked up the word hypocrisy in the dictionary you might find the Republican Party’s platform and a photo of Alan Cropsey.

Senate Democrats attempted to discharge the package of bills previously approved by he House that would end immunity for drug companies that was defeated along party lines on Tuesday, and Cropsey had the nerve to accuse Democrats of playing politics; apparently because General Motors had just declared abruptly. Senate Republicans have been using the excuse of the budget crisis for their failure to act on any meaningful legislation, yet the session on Tuesday lasted just an hour.

The bills would end immunity for drug companies if their drugs kill or maim the people who take them, and it would repel the current ban enacted in 1996 by then Gov. John Engler designed to shield huge pharmaceutical companies from any responsibility.

Democrats tried to discharge it from the Committee on Government Operations and Reform, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop on April 30. That committee never meets and it’s where bills are sent to die, but Republicans postponed it until June 2. They did so again today. Michigan is the only state in the nation that shields big drug companies that make and sell harmful products from giving legal recourse to victims and their families.

“Michigan’s one-in-the-nation drug industry immunity law treats Michigan victims like second-class citizens, a status that’s further reinforced every time the Senate Republicans delay even discussing this issue,” said Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing. “While Mike Bishop and his colleagues cowardly hide behind the argument that this issue is not germane to the budget and economic issues before us, they take up legislation to address double-crested cormorants or create more specialty license plates.”

Sen. Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit, noted that Bishop finally referred House Bill 4377, the workplace smoking ban that was approved with bipartisan support last month, to a committee, but it was the committee where bills go to die.

“I’m praying and I’m hoping that our Majority Leader had this bill referred to his committee because he wants to stand up and take leadership on this issue,” Hunter said. “I am hoping that he referred it to his committee because he intends on holding hearings; he intends on hearing from the Michigan citizens and their families who are affected by all of the awful diseases that have resulted in death because of smoking.”

But Bishop said he has no intention of moving it, despite overwhelming support for the ban from the public.

Cropsey then pulls out his standard budget excuse for only bringing up legislation addressing specialty license plates and double-crested cormorants, and he then has the guts to accuse Democrats of playing politics.

“Once again today, I hate to say it, but the other side of the aisle has been trying to play partisan politics in a very serious situation in which they seem to totally ignore the fact that General Motors has declared bankruptcy,” he said.

At the height of hypocrisy, he then blames the lack of a smoking ban on the House Democrats, and then he outright lies when he says the House failed to take up the version the Senate passed last year that had no exceptions to a ban.

“I would also like to remark that certain people have tried to say that the Senate needs to be working on a smoking ban,” he said. “The Senate did work on a smoking ban and passed through a complete smoking ban last year. It was the House of Representatives that failed to take that up.”

That is a lie. In September of last year the House took up the version the Senate passed, and it got the majority of votes; but it was not the majority of those serving. The Senate only took up one version.

Cropsey was assigned to the conference committee last December that is supposed to work out a compromise between the two versions, but he refused to compromise and admitted it.

Michigan House moves forward with the passing of the gavel to Andy Dillon

Lansing – I was one of many people lucky enough to witness an historic event today at the State Capitol when Gary Randall, the Clerk of the Michigan House of Representatives, handed the gavel over to new Speaker of the House Andy Dillon and with it Democratic Control of the House.

The Capitol was awash with the family, friends and supporters of the 110 members of the House as they took the oath of office, chose their seats on the House Floor, elected leadership and set the session days. It was really a day of celebration as the Democrats celebrated their return to power in almost a decade by virtue of their control of the House by 58-52 margin with quiet dignity and a helping hand across the aisle to their Republican colleagues.

The Redford Township Democrat pledged an end to partisan bickering, politics as usual and getting Michigan back on track in his speech on the House Floor today. With a budget deficit looming and the early expiration of the Single Business Tax (SBT) with no replacement on the horizon, Dillon plans to work hard on solutions that move Michigan forward, and toward that goal he has increased the work week of his colleagues by adding Monday session days.

Although it was a day filled with ceremony, tradition and celebration, the Democrats also got to work immediately by introducing the legislation they promised to address in the campaign and netted them the majority in the House.

Democrats introduced a bill that would end immunity for drug companies if their drugs kill or maim the people who take them, and it would repel the current ban enacted in 1996 by then Gov. John Engler designed to shield huge pharmaceutical companies from responsibility. The Democrats also addresses voter’s concerns about Canadian and out-of-state trash streaming across our borders to the tune of some 6.2 million tons of out-of-state-trash in 2005 alone, and legislation introduced would ban any landfill expansion until 2011.

The next session of the 94th Michigan House of Representatives will be Monday, Jan. 22.