Newspaper endorses conspiracy theorist over businessman

As expected, the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus endorsed former State Rep. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township, for the open 22nd District State Senate seat, but it has to be the most wishy-washy, weak endorsement I hare ever read.

The paper endorsed Hune over the Howell City Councilman and businessman Paul Rogers simply because he vowed to never, ever raise taxes under any circumstances, and the fact that he has apparently matured since he was elected to an open State House seat by two votes in 2002, making him one of the youngest ever to be elected.

“Still, Hune gets our endorsement partly because he has clearly matured since the callow young man who was elected to the state House in 2002 at the age of 21.”

I liked him better when he as “a callow young man.” He was always an extreme conservative, being named among the top 10 most conservative House members consistently by subscription only MIRS and Michigan Votes, but he was at least reasonable. However, since leaving the House in 2008 and beginning his Senate campaign, he has thrown in with the extremist fringe and sometimes racist Republican teabaggers.

The paper had to hold their nose to endorse him, and you had to read seven paragraphs down to find out that that they had endorsed him.

Hune's answer in a debate sponsored by the newspaper earlier this month that the United Nations was coming for his guns caught the paper’s editors so off guard that they saw fit to do a follow up story. Despite that outrageous comment, the paper endorsed a conspiracy theorist over an established businessman.

“Often, Hune's position is simplistic, shrill and even a little conspiratorial, such as his worry that the United Nations is poised to overturn the nation's Second Amendment protection of citizen gun ownership.”

One of Hune’s most ridiculous answers in the debate that the newspaper continues to ignore is his vote on the bipartisan package of bills aimed at attracting the film industry with incentives in March of 2008. Hune said in the debate that he would not vote for the package, but when Hune was asked why he voted for it, he tried to claim he didn’t know or understand the package included a tax rebate.

He has to be the only person in the State of Michigan that didn’t know the package include allowing production companies a 40 percent rebate on the Michigan Business Tax (MBT). He either cannot read a newspaper, didn’t watch TV news, didn’t read an analysis the bill from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, didn’t watch the committee hearings like I did, was asleep in the Republican caucus, was playing a video game on the House floor when the debate was going on or had an incompetent staff.

We want to send a guy back to Lansing who does not even know what he’s voting on?

We need to send someone like Green Oak Township Democrat Chuck Fellows to Lansing. He is a planning commissioner, and as such, he knows how to do his homework and knows what he’s voting on. He has the experience, knowledge and common sense to get things done.

Teabagger Senate candidate still clinging to myth that black helicopters are coming for his gun

Republican State Senate candidate Joe Hune’s offhand remarks about the United Nations and the 2nd Amendment in a debate last week surprised and caught so many people off guard that the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus decided to do a follow up story on that remark.

Hune and his GOP opponent for the open 22nd District seat, Howell City Councilman Paul Rogers, squared off in a debate last week sponsored by the paper. Hune was asked a follow up question as to why he thought the 2nd Amendment is more important than the 1st Amendment, and did he believe the 2nd Amendment was under attack and by whom. Hune’s reply flabbergasted the paper’s news editor and publisher.

“We have consistently heard, time and time again, that there are folks who are absolutely concerned about the United Nations nuke treaty - I believe exactly what it is - trying to essentially give some of our rights away to the UN, which is exactly the wrong place to go,” Hune said.

Hune’s belief that black helicopters are coming for his handgun is a long held anti-government, Michigan Militia belief, and Hune’s embrace of the racist and anti-government teabagger movement is showing.

That would be bad enough, but it appears that those extremist views are beginning to be held by the majority of the Republican Party that has steady moved to the right; so much so that it has fallen off the cliff and driven all moderates out of the party.

What Hune is misrepresenting and lying about is the UN Small Arms Treaty. What it basically does is combat the illicit global trade of small arms. In fact, the treaty would not hinder the right to produce, export or import arms, and it is aimed at ensuring common international import and export standards to prevent illegal trafficking. It also includes not only the illegal trade in guns but the sale of fighter planes, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles and light weapons.

The fact is this has nothing to do with the sale or manufacture of guns in the U.S., and no President can ever ban handguns in the U.S. through the signing of an international treaty.

Chuck Fellows, the Democratic candidate for the 22nd District that includes Livingston County, Shiawassee County and a southern part of Ingham County, injected some sanity in the follow up, saying Hune is making "fear-mongering" remarks.

Fellows told the paper that he fully supports gun-ownership rights under the Second Amendment, but the proposed UN treaty has absolutely nothing to do with handguns in the U.S. Not only that, a draft treaty isn't expected to be written before 2012, and all international treaties require the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate before they are considered ratified and in effect. Michigan is just coming out of the Bush recession - the worst since the Great Depression - and needs jobs right now, not false fear-mongering.

"He's bringing forth issues that really have nothing to do with the state of Michigan,” Fellows told the paper. “The state of Michigan has one major problem, and that's jobs.

Even after having a few days to think about it, Hune is sticking to that lie. He claims this is a big issue with people in the district. That may be the case with a few fringe teabaggers, but not the majority of voters. I know you have to tack right to win a primary election and play to the base, especially in predominately county like Livingston, but Hune has gone off the cliff.

GOP Senate candidate envisions black helicopter coming for his handgun

HOWELL -- Republican candidate for the 22nd State Senate District Joe Hune has drunk so much tea lately that he thinks a black helicopter from the UN is coming for his gun.

Hune and his opponent in the Aug. 3 GOP primary, Howell City Councilman Paul Rogers, squared off in a debate Thursday night sponsored by the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. It’s tradition to play to the base in a primary election, but Hune has gone off the rails in his mad sprint to the right. He apparently is now subscribing to the philosophy of the Michigan Militia.

The seat is open because of term limits, and the winner of the Aug. 3 primary will face off against Democrat Chuck Fellows of Green Oak Township.

“There are conversations going on today at the U.N. (United Nations) to turn that (2nd Amendment) right over to the U.N,” Hune said.

Basically, Hune tried to go as far to the right as possible, by saying no to any and every possible tax increase and throwing out every single talking point and applause line that gets teabaggers fired up. Hune has been seen at many extremist “tea parties.” He calls taxes that pay for the roads, our police and fire, parks and his salary “stealing.”

“I’m a conservative; both socially and fiscally,” Hune said. “Lansing needs to rein in spending. We need to get government out of the way.”

That’s just ridiculous. The fact is tax cuts are not the solution, and if it were we would not be in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Michigan has cut taxes continuously in both good times and bad times, and taxes have been cut 30 times since 1993. Michigan has less state government employees now than it did in 1973.

Rogers, a businessman and former Howell Mayor, also played to the base, but he also said Lansing has been broken for the last 10 years. The fact is Hune was in Lansing for six years – four of those when his party controlled both the House and Senate – and has nothing to show for it and no solutions.
The debate was an unusual format, and it resembled a newspaper editorial endorsement interview. The paper’s publisher and news editor asked questions and then as many follow ups to get a straight answer. That was difficult with Hune, who stuck to his talking points and teabagger applause lines, like his response to gay marriage.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman. Period," he said. "Period; I don't need to explain further."

He stuck to that talking point even when he was asked what was a bigger threat to his marriage: no fault divorce laws or gay marriage.

Predictably, both candidates were against the historic health care insurance reform bill passed in March that will give 32 million Americans life saving health coverage and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says cuts the deficit by $130 billion in the first 10 years. However, after much discussion they conceded Americans should have access to health care, but they never defied what access meant.

Hune has bashed state workers at every opportunity, and he didn’t disappoint last night. He ignored the fact that state employees took six unpaid days off to help make up the deficit last year and we also have less state employees now than we had in 1973. State employees have made concessions that have saved the state more than $3.7 billion since 2001.

Michigan spends more for prisons than it does for higher education because Michigan’s incarceration rates were the 2nd highest in the 12-state Midwest region, and our rate is the 11th highest in the nation. Instead of addressing why that’s the case and look at reforming sentencing guidelines, Hune wants to privatize Michigan’s prisons.

“No one wants to use the word privatize,” he said.

Both candidates said they would not vote for the film incentive package passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature in March of 2008, but when Hune was asked why he voted for it, he tried to claim he didn’t know or understand the package included a tax rebate. Is he serous? He’s either lying or doesn’t read very well, but it was clear in the testimony in committee that it included a rebate. Howell has been the beneficiary of some film production, and Rogers acknowledged that.

“I don’t think I would have voted for it in its current form, but the film industry is worth having,” he said.

Both candidates tried to out conservative each other, coming out against issues that have a lot of support. But Hune clearly won that dubious honor. Hune came out against a graduated income tax despite the fact that a majority of Michigan residents support it, according to a poll by EPIC/MRA for the Detroit News, WXYZ, WOOD, WILX and WJRT television stations.

Both are against the popular workplace smoking ban passed last December. Both supported the package of bills introduced by Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, to place restrictions on stem cell research that critics have said places so many restrictions on stem cell research that it will effectively kill it. George was the chief spokesman for the opponents of Ballot Proposal 2 that will allow embryonic stem cell research and was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2008, and the bills are his way to kill it.

Hune went so far as to say the voters were full of crap, and he is so anti-choice he doesn’t think it should be allowed at all.

There is a race for the 22nd State Senate seat

It appears Republican Joe Hune has a challenger as the heir apparent for the state Senate seat in the 22nd District.

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is reporting that former Howell Mayor Paul Rogers intends to run for the seat that covers all off Livingston County, Shiawassee County and part of Ingham County vacated by term-limited Valde Garcia, R-Howell. Rogers is not related to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, or his brother State Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, or the P & A would have already endorsed him.

It will be a primary challenge to Hune; even though no where in the article does it mention his party affiliation. Rogers has a ton more experience than Hune even after Hune was term-limited in the House.

Rogers served as the city's mayor from 1997-2000 and has spent more than a decade on the City Council. Those positions are nonpartisan. In addition to this stint on the City Council, Rogers, according to the P & A, has held leadership roles with the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce, Howell Education Foundation and Livingston County United Way campaign. He's also been involved with the Howell Area Fire Authority, the school-to-work steering committee for the Livingston Educational Service Agency and the Livingston County. He is also a small business owner.

That’s in sharp contrast to Hune, a really nice guy who did little more than show up everyday in Lansing. He has a near perfect, if not perfect, voting record, but his list of accomplishments is very thin. That’s not always a bad thing because the party who holds the gavel will often block any legislation of someone from the opposing party they do not like, are targeting or think is a rising star; like the Republicans did to Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, and Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee.

But Hune doesn’t have that excuse because his party held the gavel for four of his six years in office.

Hune won his seat in 2002 in the newly created 47th District by a mere two votes in the primary election over a large field of more experienced and better known candidates. He was term-limited last year, and after being out of office a mere month, he announced he was running for the Senate in February of last year.

The Republicans have gerrymandered the district to make it a safer Republican seat, so the race will more than likely be over after the primary. It’s nice to see someone a little more moderate and may actually vote how he feels and not how parity leadership tells him to vote. No Democrat has yet announced they will run.