Fundraisers on tap this week

Campaign season is in full swing with lots of fundraisers, and I just wanted to give a shout out to some of my friends.

Livingston County Democrats had the most candidates file for the nine-member Livingston County Board of Commissioners since at least 1998, and Kelly Raskauskas is one of the most qualified. She is running in the 7th District, which includes the city of Brighton and part of Genoa Township. She has been a leader in the community, serving as president of the Friends of the Library in Brighton. She has a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

She has a fundraiser set for 6 p.m. Thursday, July 15. To RSVP and for directions, call (734) 878-6792.

My friends at the Monroe County Democratic Party are holding a campaign kickoff at 5 p.m. this Saturday, July 17 at UAW Local 723, 281 Detroit Ave. in Monroe. For $15 you get a steak dinner and soft drinks. Tickets can be ordered online.

Come out and enjoy some great fellowship and good food, and many of the candidates will be there. Monroe’s two House seats are under attack, and Republicans are targeting the seats in the blue collar, union town.

House Majority Floor Leader Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, is term-limited, and Bedford resident Mike Smith is running for the seat against a large field of Republicans. Rep. Kate Ebli, D-Monroe, is running against a well know Republican, and she can use your help.

We need your help, and I will see you there.

Don’t forget the fundraiser for Jim Delcamp, the Democratic candidate for the 66th h Michigan House District, that will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Brighton House Restaurant, 10810 Grand River Road, Brighton.

House Speaker doles out committee assignments

Livingston County lawmakers received some good committee assignments after Michigan House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, announced committee assignments on Monday.

Freshman Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, was named to the important Appropriations Committee. The appropriations committee is broken down into 19 smaller sub-committees that approve the budgets for each state department, but that list was not yet promulgated or announced.

Freshman Rep. Cindy Dendy, R-Handy Township, was named to four committees. She was named minority vice-chair of the Insurance Committee. Her former boss, term-limited Rep. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township, served on that committee, and was briefly the chair. The former Handy Township Supervisor and Clerk was also named to the Committee on Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs, the Committee on New Economy and Quality of Life and the Health Policy Committee.

Dillon also announced the chairs of the 24 committees, and only seven are returning to the same committees thy chaired last session. Among the most interesting, at least to me, was the assignment of Majority Floor Leader Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, from the chairmanship of the Health Policy Committee to the chair of the Ethics and Election Committee. I'm a little biased because I once worked in her office as the world's oldest intern, but she has a well-deserved reputation for getting things done. Rep. Mark Corriveau, D-Northville, takes over the chair of the Health Policy Committee.

Rep. Kate Ebli, D-Monroe, who I campaigned for, gets a chairmanship for the first time with the important Tax Policy Committee.

Republicans celebrate and worship another convicted felon

Republicans sure love their convicted felons. It seems kind of ironic that they claim to be the party of law and order, but they worship, adore and hang on to the every word of convicted felons like Oliver North, Scooter Libby and G. Gordon Liddy.

In a case of you are who you associate with, State Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, is taking time out of his busy schedule to appear with Watergate burglar and convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy at a breakfast Saturday morning arranged by local members of the motorcycle group ABATE, business owners and the Monroe County Republicans. According to the Monroe Evening News, when asked if he would have an issue with being associated with Liddy's strongly conservative viewpoint, Richardville said no. They should have asked him if he would have an issue being associated with a convicted felon.

I personally know how much in demand and how full the schedule is for each of Monroe’s – where I was born and raised and most of my family lives - two state Representatives, especially now that they are both committee chairs and in the majority. Richardville is in the same position in the Senate where the Republicans control that house, but he is also responsible for twice the people and land area as Reps. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, and Kate Ebli, D-Monroe, are. Logic says Richardville should be in twice the demand as they are, so this is a rather curious choice for Richardville to put on his schedule.

Liddy is the former FBI agent and White House aide who helped plan the Watergate break-in of DNC headquarters that led to the cover-up and resignation of former President Nixon. According to Wikipedia, Liddy then worked for Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign, known as CREEP, in order to extend the scope and reach of the White House "Plumbers" unit, which had been created in response to various damaging leaks of information to the press. Liddy concocted several plots, some far-fetched, intended to embarrass the Democratic opposition. Most were rejected, such as firebombing the Brookings Institution, but a few were given the go ahead by Nixon Administration officials, including the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.
At some point, Liddy was instructed to break into the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel. For his role in Watergate, Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping, and received a 20-year sentence. He served four and a half years in prison before his sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.

It was obviously a mistake because the Liddy still refuses to take responsibility for his illegal behavior, which has served him well as a conservative talk show host and poster boy for the right. Liddy has launched a ridiculous conspiracy theory – isn’t there a conspiracy theory for everything – that a then 21-year-old secretary – who is now a dean at a community college in Louisiana – was operating a call-ring out of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate. He claims the plumbers broke in to get pictures out of the secretary’s desk of the fictional prostitutes clad in see-thru nightgowns.

Richardville should feel right at home. It seems fitting that Richardville is appearing with Liddy now when we have a president in the White House who shares some of Nixon’s beliefs that he is above the law and the Constitution’s restraint and guarantee of personal freedoms for citizens are rights Bush does not have to heed. In Nixon’s case, he was held accountable, but in Bush’s case they just change the law for him.

Unity dinner urges Monroe County Democrats to take back the White House and move forward

There was music, dancing, good food, pats on the back for a good job and pep talks for the 2008 election at the Monroe County Democratic Party's 20th annual Unity Dinner at Leroy's Hall Saturday night.
There were even jokes - some funny and some not so much - and some much-deserved criticism of the opposition.
“The worst thing about political jokes is some of them are elected as Republicans,” said Monroe County Community College Professor William McCloskey, who served as the master of ceremonies.
Debbie Dingell was the keynote speaker. She is a recognized national advocate for women and children, a member of the Democratic National Committee, a trustee at Wayne State University and a senior executive at General Motors. She is also the wife of U.S. Rep. John Dingell. She said her husband could not attend because he is in Washington, D.C. gearing up for a fight that will have a huge effect on Michigan: higher corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards. The Democratic leadership in the House wants higher gas millage standards, and Dingell wants more time for the Big 3 to meet those higher standards.
“That’s the fight we have in Washington,” she said. “It can bankrupt the auto industry; it’s not fair to the domestic auto industry.”
Dingell said the Bog 3 automakers have spent millions of dollars - more than any other industry - in research and development. She criticized the Bush Administration for not enforcing the free trade agreements that give foreign manufacturers an unfair advantage over the Big 3. Democratic leaders say the current tax policies, unfair trade polices and lack of enforcement of trade polices by the Bush Administration is making it impossible for U.S. automakers to compete globally, and foreign governments are helping foreign auto companies compete by providing health care for employees and even manipulating currency to make their cars cheaper and U.S. cars more expensive.
“Domestic manufacturers have fought, and fought and fought to compete with foreign manufacturers who enjoy unfair advantages,” she said. “Our manufacturers are not just competing against foreign manufacturers, they are competing against foreign countries.”
Dingell said Bush’s decision to ignore and refuse to even meet with the Big 3 executives, the largest manufacturers in the country, has led to the loss of more than 3 million good-paying manufacturing jobs.
“It was not so long ago in the Clinton Administration that we actually added manufacturing jobs,” she said.
Dingell also praised the leaders elected in November, and urged the party to work even harder next year to solidify the gains made in November and to add even more.
“We need to make the White House blue again, and we also need to protect our local officials,” she said.
Democrats in the state House went from having a six-vote deficit to gaining a 58-52 majority following the election last November, and one of those newly elected was Rep. Kate Ebli in Monroe’s 56th District. Ebli said the House has worked hard to erase the deficit it inherited by the mismanagement of the Republicans, and the House just reached a deal for a new and improved Single Business Tax (SBT).
“It rewards those companies that invest in and create jobs in Michigan,” she said
Ebli also outlined the victories and campaign promises the House has accomplished in the short time Democrats have been in the majority, such as ethics and eliminating the drug company immunity against lawsuits.
“We sent a huge signal that Michigan is putting people ahead of huge profits for drug companies,” she said.
Ebli said she has teamed up very well with Monroe’s other Representative, Rep. Kathy Angerer, who represents the 55th District.
“It’s very unusual that you walk into a job and are able to work with someone you trust,” Ebli said. “We have that.”
Angerer could not attend because she was attending a family wedding out of town, but she was represented by her Chief-of-Staff, Eric Candella.
“Kathy understqands she can’t do the important work she is doing in Lansing without the work you did first,” he said. “Your hard work had to proceed her hard work in Lansing.”