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.

Video highlights Griffin’s bipartisan support

Supporters of Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, have been working hard to make up for the massive amount of money spent by his opponent to buy the vacant seat in the 19th state Senate seat with hard work.

Although Griffin does not have the money to buy TV time like his opponent, the campaign has put together an excellent video that really displays the wide and bipartisan support Griffin has. It talks about his values with some of his many supporters, and it does not attack or push lies like his opponent’s TV ads do.

Some of the money used to purchase the false TV ads came from the biggest GOP benefactor, the DeVos family. The attempt by Dick DeVos to buy the governorship in 2006 failed, so they are trying to purchase a Senate seat.

“This is politics as usual for the DeVos family,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “They’ve sent our jobs to China and now they’re sending them to Costa Rica at a time when our state can least afford it. Now they’re giving money to Mike Nofs, who will protect their interests in Lansing and will help to send Michigan jobs overseas.”

The campaign and volunteers are hard at work at the all important “get-out-the-vote” effort. The conventional wisdom is that elections are won by the candidate who gets his people to the polls, and they can use your help over the next five days.

Call (517) 392-0800 or (269) 425-4333 to help.

Calling all cars: its crunch time in the 19th District

It’s crunch time. The Nov. 3 Special Election for the vacant seat in the 19th State Senate District is less than a week away, and Michigan and Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, need our help.

The campaign is gearing up for the all important “get-out-the-vote,” and special elections are won by the candidate who gets his people to the polls. The Republicans are spending money like a drunken sailor to win the race, and as a former drunken sailor, I know of what I speak.

They are paying for volunteers, and you can’t turn on a Lansing or Jackson TV station and not see a TV commercial from the GOP opponent. He has at least two different commercials, and all are complete lies. He’s floating the lie that the new Michigan State Police building had something to do with the layoff of state Troopers. Expect that lie to be used next November, too. He’s also pushing the Cobo Hall tale, and he’s even trying to acciuse Griffin of voting for federal legislation.

The Griffin campaing is asking people to volunteer beginning on Friday to Election Day on Tuesday. They need people to go door-to-door, make phone calls or any other task needed.

Sign up today.

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.

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

GOP following the script in the Senate race in the 19th District

Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, called it right back in July when in a letter to the House GOP caucus he pushed for the Michigan State Police headquarters to be the major campaign issue in the 2010 election.

Mike Nofs is following that advice like a script in the race for the vacant seat in the 19th State Senate District next month that will be a preview of the 2010 race. Nofs is running against Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson.

Nofs is running a TV commercial on Lansing TV stations staged with the under construction MSP HQ in downtown Lansing in the background where he spouts the lie that the layoff of 100 State troopers was because of the project.

That is simply not true, and he knows it.

The Republicans are trying to rewrite history and ignore the facts. They are completely ignoring the history of the project. The HQ was first requested by former GOP Gov. John Engler. The original draft of the project, under Engler, drew initial opposition from State Police and Military and Veterans Affairs officials some 10 years ago because the proposal attempted to move some of the emergency management operations into downtown Lansing but did not provide room for the vehicle and other storage needed. It was also too large and luxurious.

After changes were made to make the building smaller, it met the approval of State Police Director Peter Munoz, and Governor Jennifer Granholm requested the building.

The project was then approved on a bi-partisan vote by the Joint Capital Outlay Committee in 2007, as are all state building projects that do not require specific legislation. The committee consists of members from both parties from both the House and Senate. The lease was then approved by the State Administrative Board. Munoz said he supports project, as does the State Police Troopers Association.

The State Administrative Board consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Director of the Department of Transportation. The State Administrative Board has general supervisory control over the administrative activities of all state departments and agencies, including, but not limited to, the approval of contracts and leases, oversight of the state capitol outlay process and the settlement of claims against the state.

The project also brings the State Police into compliance with a constitutional provision requiring that state departments be headquartered in Lansing and with Governor Jennifer Granholm's executive directive (2003-22) that state offices, where possible, be located in central business districts. Michigan State Police want the building back where the majority of the MSP is currently headquartered. Michigan State University wants the building back where the majority of the MSP is currently headquartered.

Nofs then pushed the standard GOP lie that the lease for the new, modern HQ will cost taxpayers $4 million a year more than the current HQ, but that lie ignores two facts. It ignores the fact that it costs in the millions to maintain the current HQ MSU plans to tear down as soon as the MSP leaves, and that the plan is to now buy the building with bonds.

Vote for Martin Griffin on Nov. 3 for some honesty.

Nofs needs Senate seat to pay for green fees and vacation home

Mike Nofs - the Republican candidate for the Michigan Senate’s vacant 19th District seat against Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson - continues to pull the wool over people’s eyes and continues to sell the myth that he is a regular guy and pro-worker.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer held a press conference in Battle Creek Thursday and reveled regular guy Nofs purchased a Lake Michigan beach front home in South Haven, primarily from the proceeds from a sweetheart deal when he sold his land for a dump to BFI Waste Systems of North America for an undisclosed amount of money that he referred to as “higher than market value” when he was a Calhoun County Commissioner.

But his reason for running for the seat is to serve himself not the residents of Jackson and Calhoun Counties. He told the Battle Creek Enquirer when he announced in April that apparently his two public pensions weren’t enough to maintain his lifestyle.

“I felt for the first time how hard it is to live on a fixed income while your expenses keep going up,” he was quoted as saying in an article. Apparently, those expenses include playing golf at the Battle Creek Country Club and beach front vacation homes.

“With two taxpayer-provided pensions, windfall profits from the sale of his land to a garbage dump, and a new vacation home in South Haven, Mike Nofs doesn’t understand the challenges facing the financially struggling families of the 19th Senate District,” Brewer said. “And with wealth like that, it’s no wonder Mike Nofs opposes government reforms such as the disclosure of financial assets of candidates and elected officials.”

Nofs doesn’t want people to know his sources of income. Nofs was one of just 19 House members to vote against a bipartisan public official asset disclosure bill, House Bill 4285, in 2007.

“Nofs has spent his career lining his pockets and putting Lansing special interests ahead of his constituents,” Brewer said. “His advocacy for the garbage industry and for companies which outsource Michigan jobs has paid off handsomely for him, while hurting the people of Calhoun and Jackson Counties.”

Union endorsement in Senate race is anti-worker

Michigan Senate Republicans have been waging a war against Michigan workers and collective bargaining, so it was with shock and disbelief that I learned that Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Michigan State Council had endorsed the Republican in the race for the vacant 19th Senate District over Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson.
I emailed them for an explanation and to voice my objection, and to point out the fact that Senate Republicans have been pushing the union busting “Right to Work for Less” bills, and to let them know that increasing their thin majority will ensure the bills will move. But Mel Grieshaber, the Executive Director of SEIU Local 526M that represents prison guards, assured me that was not the case.

“Mike Nofs has signed the laborers pledge and we have seen it,” he wrote. “He does not support right to work, nor will he vote for it if it comes up in the Senate.”

He was so adamant to defend the misguided endorsement that the word “signed” was in all caps. I beg to differ. The Senate Republicans owned a 21-17 edge when now U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, held that seat. Giving them a 22-16 edge with a special election win in November and a leg up in the 2010 election will only embolden them to push RTW. I’m sure when the Republican Caucus gets Nofs behind closed doors and twists his arm the pledge will not be worth the paper it’s written on.

Proponents of RTW claim the law would do away with the requirement that workers must be in a union to be employed at a union shop. However, federal law already protects workers who don't want to join a union to get or keep their jobs, and gives workers the right to opt out of a union. But they must still pay union dues. RTW would give them the option of not paying dues while still enjoying the benefits of being in a union.

Unions in RTW states are required by law to defend non-dues-paying members involved in a dispute or charged with a grievance at work, but even those employees do not have to contribute dues. The simple fact is RTW does not give workers more rights, but instead it weakens unions and their ability to bargain for improved benefits and working conditions, which they call the real intent of RTW. The union, by law, must represent all workers equally.

Last session, there were RTW bills in both the House and Senate that did not get out of committee. The Senate version was introduced by Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi. This session, there is only the House version: House Bill 4081 introduced by Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy. I’m sure Cassis will be reintroducing the Senate version soon, especially if the Republicans increase their majority this November.

I also got a response from SEIU political director Vaughn Thompson, who assured we that Nofs, as well as Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, are both “pro-worker.” I about fell out of my chair when I heard that one. I don’t yet know a whole lot about Nofs’ record, but I’m familiar with the record of the man from my hometown of Monroe. He is anything but pro-worker, and I don’t understand how he got that undeserved reputation.

“We all know that Right to Work is wrong for Michigan and so does Mike Nofs and some others pro-worker Republicans like Randy Richardville,” Thompson wrote.

Perhaps he forgot about Senate Resolution 16 that was approved with every single Republican, including Richardville, voting yes in February that asked the U.S. Congress to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Under the EFCA an employer could only challenge a card check petition if fraud or illegal coercion was alleged, and not automatically call for an election when the majority of workers say they want a union by signing pledge cards.

Perhaps he forgot about the vote on House Bills 4785-86 that would provide unemployment benefits to individuals who are only available for and seeking part-time work and those in an approved job training program who have exhausted their regular benefits that would pump $140 million in federal funds into Michigan. Every Republican voted against it, including Richardville.

Perhaps he forgot about Richardville, chair of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, stripping out a provision in Senate Bills 4453-4455 that would help workers having their homes foreclosed on. The provision would have stipulated that if at the end of the 90 days a homeowner is eligible for a loan modification, but the lender does not give it to them for whatever reason, then the lender would be forced to take the foreclosure through the judicial process. That provision passed the House, but it was striped out and approved along party lines in the Senate with Richardville standing up for banks against workers.

You need to reconsider that endorsement.

Senate candidate dumps on Michigan

LANSING – Michigan House Democrats have been working for the last nine years or so to address the complaints of Michigan residents over out-of-state and Canadian trash filling up Michigan landfills, but one former state Representative who profited from it wants to join the Senate in blocking legislation addressing the problem.

Mike Nofs - the Republican candidate for the Michigan Senate’s 19th District - has been dumping on Michigan for years – all while making a profit and protecting the interests of the garbage industry at the expense of Michigan and its residents.

While serving as a Calhoun County Commissioner in the 1990s, Nofs pushed for the expansion of a garbage dump onto land he owned in Convis Township. Once the Commission approved the expansion, Nofs sold his property to BFI Waste Systems of North America for an undisclosed amount of money that he referred to as “higher than market value.” While he skipped town with his profits, his neighbors were left with a dump in their backyards which takes foreign garbage.

Nofs has also taken campaign contributions from the garbage industry and, as a state representative, he continually voted to allow foreign trash to be dumped into our communities.

Nofs is running against Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, for seat in the 19th District that represents Calhoun and Jackson counties that was vacated with the election of Sen. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, to the U.S. House last November.

Canadian and out-of-state-trash from as far away as Florida makes up nearly a third of the trash dumped into our landfills. In addition to the capacity imported trash is eating up, it has also caused some much more serious problems that have cost taxpayers money. Trash haulers have brought in hazardous waste, radioactive material and raw sewage. Two garbage spills by out-of-state haulers in Wayne County’s Huron Township in 2006 cost taxpayers more than $200,000 to clean up.

One of the most effective ways to combat this problem is through economics, and having the lowest dumping fees in the Midwest has made Michigan a magnet for other people’s trash. A perfect example of what the Griffin and the House are trying to accomplish with the fee increase occurred in 2002 when Pennsylvania raised its fee from $3.25 a ton to $7.25 a ton and saw trash imports fall from an all-time high of 12.6 million tons to an annual decrease to a low of just 9.6 million tons in 2006; the first time in more than a decade imports fell to below the 10 million ton mark.

“Mike Nofs is not the type of person we need representing the 19th District,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Nofs has personally profited from garbage companies and time and time again has voted to protect the garbage industry and greedy corporations – putting them ahead of his constituents. Foreign trash is ruining the health and beauty of this great state and Mike Nofs is one of the reasons why.”

One extremist endorses another extremist

Apparently, the right is all atwitter that extremist rightwing Republican Tim Walberg is endorsing Mike Nofs for the vacant state Senate seat in the 19th District.

The seat was vacated when U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, unseated Walberg in November when voters rejected his extremist views, and the 19th Senate seat was vacated with Schauer’s move to Washington, D.C. Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, has also filed to run for the seat that represents Calhoun and Jackson counties. Griffin is a moderate who will better represent the residents of that district over the extreme GOP views that voters soundly rejected in November and have led to defections from the GOP as it continues its veer to the right.

This is little more than political payback because Nofs endorsed Walberg last year. Any endorsement from an extremist like Walberg is good news for the Democrats and the residents of Michigan.

Griffin set to run for Schauer's Senate seat

Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, officially filed to run for the 19th District Senate seat vacated by Sen. Mark Schauer's, D-Battle Creek, election to the U.S. House.

Griffin was elected to his second term in the House earlier this month representing the 64th District, which includes the city of Jackson, Concord, Hanover, Napoleon, Parma, Pulaski, Sandstone, Spring Arbor and Summit townships. Senate District 19 covers Calhoun and Jackson counties. Griffin won his House seat (Correction) by unseating incumbent Republican Rick Baxter in 2006, and he will need that experience to win the swing 19th District.

Griffin has an impressive resume of government service at all levels. He served as mayor of Jackson from 1995 - 2006. Prior to that, he was a staffer in the Michigan Legislature for 12 years, as well as a staff member for five years with former U.S. Congressman Carl Pursell.

So far, Griffin is running against Rep. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, who is term limited. It's unclear if there will be a primary. Rep. Mike Simpson, D-Liberty Township, has been mentioned as a possible candidate, but he has not formally announced or filed a committee.

It's unclear when the Governor will call a special election, but the already short-handed Senate Democratic caucus will be even smaller after January when Schauer officially resigns to take his new seat.