A Job Maker

In an election year when voters consistently tell the pollsters that the economy remains the most important issue, Dan Tietema is able to speak to the current crisis here in Michigan.  He isn't some pointy-headed academic, he's a job maker and he knows what it takes to get things done.  After working for the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, six years ago Dan launched his own company, Omni Medical Waste Incorporated.  (It is worth noting, the largest job providers in the district are in the manufacturing and health care fields.)

Omni is the largest medical waste company in the Grand Rapids area.  All hyperbole aside, while the incumbent Democrat votes to kill jobs, Dan is LITERALLY working every day to create them.  But as fantastic as that sort of story and experience are during this sort of election year, they don't come anywhere close to telling the real story about Dan Tietema.  

Family, Community and Character

It isn't his style, but this is a candidate who could take that whole "community service" line on his resume and use it to make other folks look silly and insincere by comparison.  The Grand Rapids native (he's a Catholic Central and Aquinas grad) has been involved locally his entire life.  

Sure, he's got the big fancy credits... things like serving as the vice president of the Grand Rapids chapter of the American Heart Association.  Things like founding the "Swing for DeVos Children's Hospital" Golf Charity.  But it's the more personal things that give you a better understanding of the man.  

Dan has taken a particular interest in helping kids who need positive role models, and not from a distance.  He's worked with Big Brothers / Big Sisters and he's a member of the Sports Mentorship Program at Martin Luther King Park.  For the sake of clarity, that's not typically the sort of program and neighborhood where you'd expect to find your average, white, catholic conservative.  But that's Dan.

Of course, if you asked him personally, he'd tell you that the most important thing anyone could know about him is that he's been happily married to his wife Bridget for thirteen years and that they have three beautiful children.

RIGHT on the Issues

After you get to know the man it isn't a surprise at all to find out he's right on the issues too.  

Dan is a member of Michigan Right to Life and would have not only voted for the recent ban on partial birth abortion, he would have stood up to Andy Dillon as the Democratic speaker stalled and avoided allowing a vote for months.

Dan understands that raising taxes kills jobs and would have voted NO on the $1.5 billion in new taxes Robert Dean helped approve last fall.  

More than that, Dan is on record calling for the abolition of the Michigan Business Tax and is a vocal supporter of the Michigan Fair Tax.  And he goes beyond the easy calls to cut taxes by promising to pair them with cuts to the size of government.

Job makers and business organizations like what they've heard from him too.  While Bob Dean counts on endorsements from Big Labor and their bigger pocketbooks, Dan is being supported by job makers at organizations like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Wyoming-Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce, South Kent Free Enterprise, the Auto Dealers of Michigan, Rental Property Owners Association, and the Real Estate Investors of Michigan.

Citizens for Traditional Values is backing him on the strength of his positions on prominent social issues.

We literally have in Dan Tietema the prototypical small-government, low-tax, pro-life Ronald Reagan Republican.  

The only thing left is to get the man elected.  That's where each of us enters the equation.  Sure, you can scribble a check (a good idea, actually, hint hint) but your time is just as valuable.  So what are you doing this Thursday at 6:00 PM?

This Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 6:00 PM we're going to host our first weekly Right Roots Bloggers Action Day to help a conservative candidate for the House of Representatives.  

Here are the details:

What: Volunteering to help Dan Tietema!
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008
Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Or however long you can make it)
Where: 664 Baldwin Street, Jenison, MI  49428

This office just off of I-196 has a good sized phone bank set-up to help local candidates.  I went by last week and already spent some time there myself.  It is easily the easiest phone script I've ever worked.  Three remarkably quick questions each call and you're done.  Too short for anyone to even get angry with you over the phone.

Two or three hours of your time and you can personally touch a hundred or more undecided voters, to tell them about Dan and his plan to get Michigan's economy moving again.  And it's within driving distance of Grand Rapids, Lansing, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Holland, Hastings... if you're in central or west Michigan you can make it there quickly and easily!

Over the next five weeks we're going to be focusing on five of these opportunities. Each week we'll select one candidate, we'll discuss his or her race and we're going to rally Michigan's Right Roots to come together for a little bloggers get-together / volunteer session.  No excuses.  Thirty-seven days from now there won't be any time left.  I don't know about you but I'm not going to be the guy sitting on the couch on November 5th, lamenting a twenty-vote loss and shaking his head because he went to bed early that night those weeks ago instead of volunteering that extra hour.

You don't want to be that guy (or girl) either.  So consider this an official "pretty please."  Will you help?!  

Email me at RightMichigan@gmail to RSVP and we'll literally SEE you on Thursday!