Tag: Pete Hoekstra

Michigan Senate Results: County Map

This race was sadly reminiscent of the 2006 senate race. Back then, Keith Butler was recruited to run.  After running for a while, someone in Washington recruited Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard to run.  Jerry Zandstra also jumped in, though he was eventually disqualified for not getting enough signatures.  The primary absorbed money and time that could better have gone into other races.  Bouchard won, but he had trouble raising enough money to be competitive.  He ran a lackluster campaign and failed to take the conservative position on the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.  He lost 41.3%-56.9%.

This is an overview of competitive November 6 general election races in Michigan in 2012.  More detailed profiles of some of the races are linked within the article.

President (Michigan) Leans democrat
Michigan leans slightly to the left in Presidential elections. This means that democrats need to win Michigan to win the White House, but Republicans don't. Michigan still has a weak economy thanks to eight years of democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm. Mitt Romney can still win here (current RCP average is Obama +4), but if he does, he's already won elsewhere.

First off, any conservative who thinks that we should do anything else but vote for Pete Hoekstra, and Mitt Romney is off their nut.  There are absolutely differences between those two and their opponents.  The damage brought about by twelve years of Debbie Stabenow type thinking in the US Senate, and a mere three and a half years of Barack Obama as commander in chief is Awesome. And not in a good way. Their mindset and ideals are incompatible with a Republican form of government guaranteed by Article 4, Section 4 of our constitution.

Incompatible with a country ruled by law, not men.

Today's paper highlighted however, the unfortunate condition of our candidates vying for those positions of such importance; President, US Senator, and Michigan Supreme Court.

With the carefully placed articles in the local papers, we have a problem. Articles about how Romney is failing to Obama in 'key' states, and George Weeks inflating Pete Hoekstra's record so he could pop it like a balloon, to a Lessenberry column 'introducing' Bridget Mary McCormack's message to a state that doesn't know who she is:

"Nor is she a traditional candidate. Most Supreme Court nominees have been former senators, governors, or appellate and circuit court judges. McCormack is a popular law professor at the University of Michigan and director of the school's legal clinics.

"I have always been concerned with the legal profession's impact on real people," said McCormack, a young-looking 46-year-old who her law school dean described as having, besides an infectious grin, "an infectious commitment to her craft, a subtle, powerful mind (and), an astonishing work ethic." Not to mention, time management skills; she and her husband, White House senior counsel Steven Croley, have a commuter marriage and a "blended family" of four teenagers."

Not much of a soft sell eh?

Never mind the fact that the left is would up like a nine day clock in support of her candidacy. she is ALL Hollywood folks. In fact they have already put out a viral video where the former cast of an NBC show (West Wing) is actually referring to McCormack as "Hot". By golly! If that is the best qualification for the Michigan Supreme Court? Then rule-of-law be damned.  Stake out the local "Toddlers & Tiaras" competitions for the next generations of our top legal referees!

The House approved Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act, H.R. 459, in a bipartisan 327-98 vote. The vote split Democrats almost evenly -- 89 for and 97 against -- while only one Republican, Rep. Robert Turner (R-N.Y.), voted against it.

In Michigan's case, we have a Junior Senator who needs to be unseated, and we are one of the eleven "battleground" states in the contest to unseat the President (the others being: CO, FL, IA, NC, NH, NV, OH, PA, VA, & WI).  Yet, judging by some of the posts and comments on this site and elsewhere in the week since the August primary, we seem to be more interested in undermining our own nominees than we do in taking down the incumbents.  That's gotta stop.

OK maybe a lot.

Gary Glenn announced last night that he would withdraw from the race and endorse charter school founder Clark Durant.  Citing Hoekstra's voting record, Hoekstra's record on right to work, and the ability for Durant to reach out across lines to a greater base in the general, Glenn made it clear Hoekstra was not the best choice to oppose Debbie in November:

"To help save our country from the brink of bankruptcy, our highest priority must be defeating big-spending liberals like Debbie Stabenow.  I've grown more convinced over the course of this campaign that because of the obvious vulnerability of his own big-bailout, big-debt, big-spending record, nine-term Congressman Pete Hoekstra can't beat Stabenow."

"Since Pete Hoekstra can't beat Debbie Stabenow, my sense of duty requires me to step aside and assist the conservative candidate whose broad and growing range of support from all corners, financially and otherwise, makes him clearly more likely to defeat Congressman Hoekstra in August so we have a chance to defeat Sen. Stabenow in November. That's clearly Clark Durant."

A point man who had passed Right-To-Work in Idaho along with Charlton Heston, Glenn made specific reference to a comfortable relationship with Jimmy Hoffa JR by Hoekstra.  That comfortable relationship insinuated along with a record of Hoekstra opposing RTW.

More than 40 tea party groups throughout Michigan had recently selected Glenn as their preferred candidate through the Michigan For Conservative Senate campaign. Glenn was identified through a series of debates and events as the most conservative,  yet the cost of a statewide campaign proved to be too much in the end.  Hoekstra's visible absence from most of the events where the other candidates attended will likely mean those groups break for Durant or Hekman, rather than the man who seemingly didn't consider their effort to be worth his time.

Durant was well received in those events as well making him a likely favorite for their efforts going forward.  Randy Hekman may receive considerable support as well, given his recent endorsement by tea party favorite Dave Agema, who recently defeated Saul Anuzis for Republican National Committeeman.  Anuzis, an NPV supporter backs Durant.

I don't doubt the ability of the tea movement to shoulder once again, a myriad collection of RINOs, power hungry moderates, and mislabeled Republicans this election.  I expect them to once again carry across the finish line, the standard bearers of establishment elitism and compromise. But there is something else that we will see.

They will have replaced a few of those along the way.

And it starts with the victory of Richard Mourdock over Richard Lugar in the Indiana Republican US Senate primary.  Tea party grass roots ultimately helped by favorites such as Palin, and Club for growth, to overcome the entrenched RNC financed defense of "Obama's favorite Republican" made the Bob Bennett loss of a couple years ago more real.  It took it from fluke status to a legitimate answer for politicians who pander too far over to the left for their own good.

Fair play,and a good game.  Play to win, and when we don't, we plod forward to the next election.