GOP pulling out all the stops and cash to capture 19th District seat

With just 15 days left until the Nov. 3 Special election that will send Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, to the Michigan Senate to fill the 19th District seat vacated by the election of Congressman Mark Schauer, the Republicans are pulling out all the stops to capture the seat.

The Republicans are paying for transportation and the hotel accommodations for any person willing to volunteer for the GOP candidate, Mike Nofs. It’s unclear if alcohol is provided to those underage volunteers with their hotel accommodations like they did at the so-called “GOP Leadership Conference” on Mackinac Island last month. They are also putting out a TV commercial where they are outright lying. Now, they are using an “Online Phone Bank” with the goal of making 19,000 calls by Nov. 3. So far, they have just 486 calls.

It really is a great idea, and they are going so far as to actually list by name with a running total the top callers and the top counties. The most calls, as of today, came from predominantly Democratic Ingham County with 188 calls. The 19th District covers the Counties of Jackson and Calhoun. It speaks volumes that only three calls were made from Jackson County and none from Calhoun where Nofs lives.

The argument can be made that all of the calls by Calhoun County residents are being made there, and there is no reason to list them. The argument can also be made that those callers aren’t really volunteers. But here are the counties, and Ingham has an insurmountable lead, 188-62.

Top Counties
Ingham County has made 188 calls
St. Clair County has made 62 calls
Allegan County has made 50 calls
Bay County has made 48 calls
Oakland County has made 44 calls
Monroe County has made 24 calls
Sanilac County has made 23 calls
Leelanau County has made 21 calls
Midland County has made 6 calls
Grand Traverse County has made 4 calls
Alcona County has made 4 calls
Jackson County has made 3 calls
Branch County has made 3 calls
Macomb County has made 3 calls
Alger County has made 2 calls
Clinton County has made 1 call

Ingham County has such a big lead because the person with the most calls, Amanda Rheaume with 157 calls, lives in Ingham County on the Michigan State University campus. She has a huge lead, with triple the calls by her nearest competitor.

Top Callers
Amanda Rheaume has made 157 calls
TJ Campbell has made 50 calls
Michelle Mcquiston has made 48 calls
Christine McCoy has made 33 calls
Ragina Smith has made 30 calls
Kathleen berden has made 23 calls
Ruth Wisz has made 21 calls
Michelle Johnson has made 20 calls
Helen Hermes has made 19 calls
Anthony Markwort has made 19 calls

MDP calls for investigation of GOP underage drinking

LANSING - The Michigan Democratic Party is calling for an immediate and thorough investigation of the underage drinking that took place at the so-called “GOP Leadership Conference” on Mackinac Island last week.

Central Michigan University College Republican Vanessa Oblinger blogged about the weekend’s events, and she wrote that the students “were rewarded with open bars and free dinners” just for coming. Underage drinking is all too common among college students, but the problem is the illegal alcohol was provided by Republican candidates for Governor and Attorney General. Of those candidates, one is the top law enforcement officer in the state one is the sheriff of one of the county’s most popular counties and another is a former judge who wants to be the top law enforcement officer in the state.

To compound the problem, the party took place just three days before the deadline to approve a state budget.

“This wasn’t a so-called ‘policy conference’ – it was ‘Animal House on the Island’ for three days sponsored by the Michigan Republican Party and its candidates,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Mike Cox and Mike Bouchard are officers of the law.
“Bill Schuette is a former judge, and he and Mike Bishop want to become Attorney General.,” Brewer said. “For them to ignore and even condone this illegal behavior is shameful and irresponsible. There must be a thorough investigation of this illegal activity on the Island.”

Positive news from conference depresses GOP

If the Pistons loss in double overtime that put them on the brink of elimination didn’t place enough of a pall over the entire state, Michigan Republicans are even more depressed to hear the news coming out of the annual Detroit Regional Chamber Conference on Mackinac Island.

Subscription only Gongwers reports “A solid majority of business executives polled by the Detroit Regional Chamber believe that Michigan's business climate will be stronger in five years.”

Sad, sad news for Michigan Republicans who are so quick and so enjoy pointing out the state’s high unemployment rate, the foreclosure rate and lowered bond rates. They, of course, ignore the fact they are primarily responsible for the bond rating, the person in the White House has lost 3 million jobs by refusing to enforce trade agreements - most of those jobs from the largest employer in the state - and the unemployment rate was at double digits under a Republican governor. That’s when I left the state to join the military, but despite the GOP constantly running my state down, I’m staying. Isn’t sad that the Republicans are pulling against Michigan and bashing it just to get back the political power they lost?

“The poll was done of 211 senior-level executives by John Bailey & Associates for the Chamber, and 74 percent believed the business climate would be improved in five years.

I think it’s patriotic to question and criticize the government, but this constant Michigan bashing is just ridiculous. It’s like telling your wife you love her, but she’s fat, ugly and lazy.

If Republicans didn't need any more bad news, Gongwers says a report released at the conference says Michigan's three largest universities outperform some of the best-known university research systems in other states.
The study looking at the university research corridor was commissioned from Pat Anderson of Anderson Economic Group. Mr. Anderson said the three universities spend a total of $6.5 billion, which amounts to 2 percent of the state's total economic activity, and together account for $1.3 billion in research and development funding.
The total quantified earnings of all the alumni of the three universities living in Michigan is more than $24 billion.
The study compared the total spent by the Michigan universities on research to universities in Massachusetts (Harvard, MIT and Tufts), North Carolina (University of North Carolina, Duke and North Carolina State) and Pennsylvania (Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University), and Mr. Anderson said he was surprised to see that Michigan schools outspent the schools in those states.

Even more bad news for Republicans: Republican and Democratic leaders say they've reached a consensus on two tough items that have divided them in replacing the Single Business Tax.

Some Republicans even criticized Democrats for going to the conference; ignoring the fact that Republicans were there too. The biggest complainant was that the Democratic-controlled House did not hold session on Thursday to go to the conference in the face of the budget crises while the Republican-controlled Senate did. This, of course, ignored the fact that the House has held sessions on Monday where the Senate does not.

It also ignores the fact the Senate met for about 65 minutes on Thursday, and all but 10 minutes of that were spent listing to a Teddy Roosevelt look-alike give a speech he gave 100 years ago in the Senate chamber.