Armed Self-Defense

Looks like another case of self-defense with a gun, this time in the Edison neighborhood.

Man shot while trying to break into home in Edison neighborhood, police say
Kalamazoo man, who told police he shot intruder in his Edison neighborhood home, not in custody

Another Candidate in 60?

The democrat primary in the 60th district may be even more contested.

Kalamazoo Township Trustee Pamela Goodacre considering 2014 state House run

Goodacre, who works as an intermittent lecturer for the University of Michigan, said she has spent much of her life campaigning for different social issues as a citizen. When she was elected to the township board last year, she saw the need for more elected officials like her.

People who run for office usually do.

"We need a very strong woman and person of color with a voice," Goodacre said.

Primary for Buskirk

Dave Buskirk may not have a free ride after all.

Jon Hoadley announces state House bid; will face Buskirk in primary

Hoadley, a Democrat, first moved to Kalamazoo in 2009 when he was recruited by United Way to lead the campaign for local human rights ordinances. However, this will be his first campaign as a candidate.

Is Cooley Good for Western?

Here's an interesting article on the WMU/Cooley Law School affiliation.

WMU-Cooley law affiliation: Will the deal help or hurt Western Michigan University's reputation?

Related:
So You Want to Go to Law School
Don't Go to Law School -- find out why

Check Again

The crisis at Western continues...

Western Michigan University delays issuing gender equity adjustments to female faculty

"Hundreds of faculty women campus-wide, who were eligible for equity increases, have seen no adjustments, even though the adjustments were to have been made by the beginning of their Sept. 10 paychecks. They received no warning that they should not expect the promised adjustments. They just opened their checks and were disappointed once again," Bill Warren, secretary of the WMU's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said at the WMU Board of Trustees meeting this week.

At Western, employees get paid via direct deposit, so there are no paychecks to open.  So this didn't happen once, much less hundreds of times.

The union pointed out in a letter to its membership dated Sept. 18 that the signed 2011 contract requires that the administration take action. In the letter, Minnick also took issue with the fact that faculty were not notified directly about the delay. 

"Of course the administration should have communicated this to the faculty (along with an explanation) in advance of the first Fall 2013 paychecks, rather than just leaving everyone wondering, not to mention leaving a lot of significantly underpaid colleagues devastated when they saw no adjustment in their September 10 paychecks and believed they'd been passed over," the letter reads. "The good news in all this is that there is still hope for these colleagues, but I wish they could have been spared the unnecessary hurt in the meantime."

They were devastated! They were hurt!  But there's still hope!

Pathetic.

Previous: Western Pay Gap?

Wenke Running for Senate

Oh, Great.

Former state Rep. Lorence Wenke announces state Senate bid

Wenke is a good example that being more moderate doesn't necessarily make you more electable.  Let's review his recent electoral track record.

Wenke ran for state senate in 2010, losing to Tonya in the primary.

Incredibly, Wenke did not win a single precinct of his former district. He didn't get as much as 40% in any of them. Perhaps this shouldn't be so surprising though, as Wenke lost the Kalamazoo County portion of his old district in 2004 and 2006, the last two times he ran for election. Both times he was saved by the Calhoun County portion of the district. He survived by fewer than 100 votes in 2004 after voting against an initiative to correctly define marriage, and won by a few points in 2006. In both cases he beat former Rep. Jerry VanderRoest, outspending him by huge margins. Evidently he remains unpopular in his own district, and was overwhelmed by a candidate who could match him dollar-for-dollar.

Wenke did win six precincts (K Twp 1, Kalamazoo City 3, 8, 14, 17, 23) in the 60 district. He tied Tonya in four others, Cooper 5, K Twp 2, Kalamazoo City 5, 19.

Was his problem just in the primary?  Wenke then ran for Gull Lake School Board in 2011. The results:

Laura Burr: 39.4%
Loyal Eldridge: 36.8%
Lorence Wenke: 13.7%
Paul Foust: 10.0%

The candidate Wenke beat was a college student.

A year later, Wenke ran for school board again.

Lin Marklin: 58.4%
Lorence Wenke: 41.6%

The voters don't like Lorence Wenke.  They haven't since at least 2006.

But now he's running for state senate again.  If he can't beat obscure school board members, how is he going to beat Margaret O'Brien or Sean McCann?  He won't.  But he will waste another couple hundred grand in the process.  If he runs a negative campaign like he did in 2010, he could hurt Margaret's chances in the general.

Previous:
Money On Fire Update!
Analysis of the 20th Senate Primary
Gazette on Wenke
Wenke for Senate in Kalamazoo
Wenke for Senate?
The Latest from Lorence
Wenke Supports Hate Crimes Law
Wenke/VanderRoest

Tax Increases Aren't Fair

Internet Sales Tax One Step Closer to Reality in Michigan

Rep. O'Brien said the bills are reasonable.

"The conservative policies guiding taxation are based on [the] simplest, broadest and fairest tax," Rep. O'Brien said. "Enforcing existing laws supports Michigan job creators and ensures a competitive playing field for all businesses.

"Anyone saying this is a tax increase, expansion, or new tax is in reality supporting the non-compliance of existing tax laws and is being dishonest about the issue," she continued. "The evasion of taxes is never a platform I will promote and I'm shocked by some who have suggested it is good policy."

You can argue whether this is technically a tax increase, but it isn't arguable that the result of this bill would be to take more money away from taxpayers.  That is not a goal that any conservative should support.  This bill is being sold in the name of fairness, but there is nothing fair about taking more of people's money from them.

Aside from that, the politics of this bill are just terrible.  Does anyone other than a few big retailers support this?  Hopefully the legislature has the sense to kill this.

Tonya Makes Her Move

The long-anticipated announcement is finally here.

---------------------------

Senator Tonya Schuitmaker running for re-election in new 26th District

Paw Paw, MI -State Senator Tonya Schuitmaker announced today she will be seeking re-election to the Michigan State Senate in the 26th District, which includes Van Buren County, Allegan County, and Kentwood and Gaines Township in Kent County.

“I am a lifelong resident of Van Buren County and I am not going to move for political purposes. It isn’t right for my family and it isn’t right for the citizens of Michigan,” Schuitmaker said. “The people of West Michigan have created a great place to live, work and vacation here along the beautiful lakeshore and I look forward to representing such a wonderful community.”

“Michigan is on the road to recovery, but we’re not there yet,” she said. “Lower taxes and less regulation have driven our recovery. We cannot go back to the failed tax-and-spend policies of the past. Hard work and innovation-not government-will continue to lead Michigan to renewed prosperity and a brighter future.”

Schuitmaker currently represents the 20th Senate District, which includes all of Kalamazoo County, as well as Paw Paw and Antwerp Townships in Van Buren County. After the 2010 census, district lines were redrawn and Schuitmaker’s family home in Lawton is now included in the 26th District.
Schuitmaker was first elected to the Michigan Senate in 2010. She is the current President Pro Tempore of the Senate as well as Chairperson of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education.

During her first term Schuitmaker sponsored legislation improving government transparency, increasing penalties for elder abuse, holding universities accountable for the tax dollars they receive and requiring prisoners to provide DNA samples, which led to numerous cold cases being solved.
Prior to serving in the Senate, Schuitmaker served six years in the state House of Representatives and as an attorney in her family’s practice in Paw Paw. She lives in Lawton with her husband and two children.

A campaign website is now up and running. Voters can find more information about Tonya and the campaign by visiting www.votetonya.com.

-----------------------------

The announcement was expected around this time.  Sean McCann's announcement may have sped things up.  Now we'll see how long until Margaret O'Brien runs for state senate and causes more dominoes to fall.

UPDATE: This blog beat the Gazette to the story by two hours.

Previous:
McCann Running
Schuitmaker Starts the Dominoes

Primary Challenger to Upton

There will be a contested primary for Congress in 2014.

Dowagiac's Jim Bussler to challenge U.S. Rep. Fred Upton in Republican Primary

He seems to be a Tea Party/Ron Paul type candidate.

About 30% of the Republican primary electorate in the 6th district is anti-Upton, and has been since he was first elected.  Getting much above that has been the challenge for Upton's various primary challengers over the years.

Minority Enrollment Grows at WMU

Some interesting tidbits in a report on enrollment at WMU:

Western Michigan University sees new freshman enrollment climb 5.1 percent

Minority student enrollment also continues to grow, Dunn told the trustees. Minority student enrollment now stands at 19.5 percent of WMU's total student body, according to the fall count, compared with 11 percent in fall 2007. The total number of minority students has increased by nearly 2,000 over the past six years.

...

A 2 percent overall increase in minority student enrollment was led by a 5.7 percent increase in the number of Hispanic students and a 1.8 percent increase in the number of African-American students, WMU said.

Hmmm.  What happened around six years ago?  The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) was passed in 2006.  One of the criticisms of racial preferences is that they misdistribute college applicants, so minorities end up at schools that are too tough, and many fail.  Thus minority enrollment at top schools (UM and MSU) is down, but at second-tier schools like Western is up.

McCann Running

In the least surprising news of the year...

State Rep. Sean McCann announces he will run for state Senate

“With a toddler and a three-month-old child at home, it wasn’t an easy decision to run for the State Senate," said McCann, D-Kalamazoo, in a press release.

Sure it wasn't. That's why you spent the last year planning to run.

"But, I am convinced we need a healthy dose of bipartisanship at all levels of government. Commonsense problem-solving is sorely missing in the legislature and I believe my moderate, thoughtful, pragmatic style will be successful in getting results for families in Kalamazoo County and around the state."

This stunt was hardly bipartisan: Sean McCann's Smear Campaign

“Kalamazoo County is a leader for Michigan," McCann said. "Our commitment locally to equal access to high quality education for our young people and innovative economic development ideas that drive job creation are a recipe for the entire state. Billions in cuts to education, new taxes on seniors and giveaways for corporations aren’t moving our state in the right direction. As our next state senator, I will put the people in our community over special interests.”

Have you never voted for 'giveaways for corporations'?  Sounds like a research project!

We'll see how long Tonya drags things out before making an official announcement.

Previous:
Sean McCann Wants Unaccountable Redistricting
Sean McCann's Smear Campaign
The Struggle for Sixty

No War for ???

America should stay out of the Syrian civil war.

Some people seem unable to comprehend that just because one side in a war is bad, it doesn't mean the other side is good.  In this case, Assad, the secular dictator, is bad.  The rebels, including various Islamic terrorist groups, are worse.

It is now alleged that Assad used chemical weapons.  But while it seems to be generally agreed that chemical weapons were used, what is the evidence that Assad was the one to do so?  What reason did he have to do so, when he had already killed plenty of people without them?  In contrast, the rebels, or someone supporting them, would have had every reason to use them if they could provoke an American attack on Assad.

The arguments for war have been all too typical of democrat-led campaigns.  Illogically limited, with no clear objective or plan.  Even if striking Assad would be a good idea in principle, Obama and Kerry can't be trusted to pull it off right.

It would be different if there were a real chance of getting a better government in Syria.  But there isn't.  The slaughter in Syria is terrible.  But the sad fact is that nothing is going to stop it.  Stay the hell out.

Racial Profiling in Kalamazoo?

A 'study' has found that blacks are twice as likely as whites to be stopped by police in Kalamazoo.

Kalamazoo Public Safety officers target black drivers in traffic stops, racial profiling study concludes
Racial profiling study results not a surprise but still 'troubling,' Kalamazoo city commissioners say Chief Jeff Hadley: Public safety officers have 'mixed emotions' to racial profiling study

Does anyone ever stop to consider the possibility that there may be a legitimate reason for the disparity before jumping to the conclusion that police are 'targeting' blacks?  Blacks commit crime at significantly higher rates than whites, so it wouldn't be surprising if they did more things to justify being stopped by police.

The commenters on the articles raise many valid questions about the 'study'.

Medicaid Expansion passes the Senate

Medicaid expansion passed the state senate yesterday with a bare minimum 20-18 vote.  All twelve democrats and only eight of 24 Republicans supported it.  Majority leader Randy Richardville violated the "Hastert Rule" by pushing a bill that did not have majority Republican support.

Of the eight supporters, Richardville and Roger Khan are term-limited, and Howard Walker is retiring.  The other five, Tory Rocca, Jim Marleau, Mike Kowall, Geoff Hansen, and Tom Casperson, may face Tea Party-backed primary challenges.  Casperson switched his vote after initially voting against the bill.  He got an amendment to the bill which will require that it go back to the House.

The bill was sold free due to money from the federal government, but this comes at the cost of adding to the national debt.  Its fiscal liabilities are already unsustainable; this will only a little more to the national debt.

Awkward!

David Buskirk is running for the democrat nomination in the 60th state house district, and he didn't bother to wait for current Rep. Sean McCann to announce whether he will seek another term.  Awkward!

Kalamazoo County Commissioner David Buskirk announces 2014 state House run

Armed Self-Defense in Iowa

This except from A Zeal for Christian Education: The Memoirs of BJ Hann relates a story of armed self-defense at a Christian school in Sully, Iowa during Woodrow Wilson's war socialism:

During World War I, a strong anti-German, anti-Dutch feeling prevailed.  Church services were only allowed in the American language, and the Christian school was threatened because it was a so-called "Dutch school".  The supporters of the school were accused of being anti-American, unpatriotic, and even subversive.

One night the Christian school in Peoria, only each night with guns.  One night the guards decided to go home early.  The enemies of the school, who were constantly waiting for the right opportunity, quickly a few miles from Sully, was destroyed by fire.  For a long time after the incident, members of the school society, by turns, guarded the Sully Christian School moved in and set the building on fire.  Fortunately the minister, Rev J Haverman, had arisen early to study for a funeral sermon since it was difficult for him to preach in English.  He could see the school from his study.  Looking out, he saw the fire in the basement of the school.  At once he and his wife aroused my parents.  Together, with the help of my oldest brother, Enno, they formed a relay team, pumping water and passing the buckets along.  The school was saved.

Notably, it was average citizens who guarded the school, not police or professional guards.

Sean McCann Wants Unaccountable Redistricting

Democrat state rep Sean McCann has a new hobby horse as he plans his run for state senate.

State Rep. Sean McCann proposes independent commission to draw state's legislative districts

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Saying that voters should pick their politicians, not politicians their voters, state Rep. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, introduced legislation Thursday that would change the way Michigan draws legislative boundaries.

McCann proposed creating an independent commission that would be charged with drawing legislative districts in the state. Under his plan, the commission would be comprised of citizens rather than elected politicians, party officers or lobbyists. He said it would help eliminate the issue of gerrymandering, in which district lines are redrawn to favor a particular political party or candidate.

"Independent" commissions gerrymander just as much as legislatures.

"Michigan voters deserve political districts that are contiguous and competitive, not districts that are drawn to ensure one party always has a political edge on Election Day," McCann said. "When voters head to the polls, they should be picking their politicians. Unfortunately, we now have a system where politicians pick their voters."

All the districts are already required to be contiguous.  Most natural geographic districts will not be competitive.  If you want a lot of competitive districts, you have to gerrymander to get them.  I explained this in my criticism of the Center for Michigan report on redistricting.

Analysis and Rebuttal of the Center for Michigan Redistricting Study

Gerrymandering -- aside from being a perennial on spelling bee lists -- exacerbates partisan gridlock in both Washington and Lansing, McCann and supporters of the measure said at a press conference in Kalamazoo Thursday morning.

When districts are drawn to create "safe" seats, the real election happens in the primary, catering to the fringes of both parties, he said. McCann argued that gerrymandering also discourages lawmakers from working across the aisle on legislation, creating gridlock and "a cycle of broken relationships."

Quoting the CFM report:

Brittany Galisdorfer, Earhart fellow with the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council, notes that academic research has been inconclusive about the effects of more competitive seats.

"The general theory is that competitive districts mean less extreme political candidates, less political partisanship and ensure basic fairness," she said. "But there’s no consensus that those things actually occur."

Continuing the Gazette article...

While the term may be somewhat arcane, it's something voters know when they see, McCann said, showing maps of five of what he called "the most egregious examples" of gerrymandering in the state. These included what he dubbed "The Roy Schmidt special," Grand Rapids House District 76, which was created during the last cycle.

District 76 is a competitive district (won by a democrat), which McCann was just claiming to want.  If you want a competitive district in Grand Rapids, it has to be drawn this way.  The other district in Grand Rapids (75) is minority-majority.  Does McCann want to change this?

McCann's plan would establish a pool of applicants overseen by the state auditor general. It employs what he described as a system of filters to exclude people who, within the past 10 years, have held elected office, been appointed to a party committee position, worked as a lobbyist or donated more than $2,000 to a campaign. Each party would have a right to veto potential commission members -- in a manner similar to jury strikes employed by prosecutors and defense attorneys, he said.

So basically both parties would put their effort into recruiting stealth members pretending to be independent.

The two highest vote-getting parties would each have five members on the 14-member commission, with four seats set aside for nonpartisan members, McCann said.

Creating the commission would require first amending the state's constitution and then a vote by the legislature.

Other states -- Washington, Iowa, Arizona and California -- have set up similar commissions, he said.

Let's review these.

Washington: This is a bipartisan commission, not an independent commission.  The rules require both parties to agree to a plan.  This leads to a bipartisan gerrymander, where each side protects its own incumbents.  This is the opposite of what McCann claims to want.

Iowa: This is not a commission at all, it is a nonpartisan state agency.  The legislature has veto power over the maps it produces.  This is nothing like what McCann proposes.

Arizona:  Here we have a commission with an independent tie-breaker, similar to what McCann wants.  So how did this work out in practice?  The democrats recruited a stealth candidate, Colleen Mathis, who was the wife of a democrat donor, to be the tie-breaker.  She voted for the democrat gerrymander, which had 'competitive' districts designed to elect democrats.  The state legislature impeached her from office for violating the rules, but this was overturned by the state supreme court.  The gerrymander resulted in a democrat majority in the Arizona congressional delegation, despite the Republican lean of the state.

California:  This is a citizens' commission which tries to screen out partisan candidates, similar to what McCann wants.  Democrats worked heavily to influence the commission by creating bogus independent groups that would lobby to skew the map in their favor.  This resulted in a map that favored democrats, and Republicans lost four congressional seats in 2012.

Independent commissions can gerrymander just like politicians, as they have in Arizona, New Jersey, and elsewhere.  Courts can also gerrymander.  There is no particular reason to believe that they will produce 'competitive' districts, either (which is difficult to define, anyhow).  The difference is that elected legislators are accountable to their constituents, which 'independent' commissions are accountable no nobody.  What McCann proposes wouldn't fix redistricting, it would slant the process to his side.

Now may be the best possible time for the state to tackle the issue, since district lines won't be redrawn until 2020, after the next Census, Clark said. Most of the current legislators would be term-limited out at that point, so they would personally be unaffected by any changes. However, people don't tend to pay serious attention to the issue until right before it's time to redraw district lines, he added.

Anyone who pays attention to redistricting knows that the public never pays attention to redistricting.

Oshtemo Board Supports Discrimination Ordinance

The Oshtemo Township Board voted 5-2 to support a discrimination ordinance, with Republicans Dave Bushouse and Nancy Carr dissenting.

Non-discrimination ordinance supported by Oshtemo Township board, set for final vote Aug. 27

UPDATE (8/28):  The ordinance passed 6-1 with Bushouse dissenting.

Local Filing Deadline Passes

The filing deadline for November elections has passed.  Here is a list of the candidates, which also appears on the updated 2013 Kalamazoo Election Preview.

Kalamazoo City Commission

All seven seats on the Kalamazoo City Commission are up for election. The seven commissioners are Mayor Bobby Hopewell (on since 2003), Vice-mayor Hannah McKinney (1997), Don Cooney (1997), David Anderson (2005), Barb Miller (2005), Stephanie [Bell] Moore (2007), and Robert Cinabro (2010). Moore changed her name back from Bell after her husband was convicted of sex crimes.  All were elected in 2011, Cinabro to his first full term.

All the incumbents are seeking reelection except for McKinney, who is not.  Nine candidates are seeking the open seat:

Mike Perrin: beer salesman and Republican nominee for state house in 2012
Birletta Bean-Hardeman: unlikely to be competitive
Nicholas Boyd: unsuccessful candidate in 2009 and 2011
Tracy Hall: democrat pastor
E. Allen Hayes: leftist democrat lesbian WMU instructor--running with Cooney and Moore
Fred Lawrence II: unlikely to be competitive
Jack Urban: democrat former Kalamazoo County Commissioner
Jeff Weisman: founder of downtown neighborhood association
Rico White: member of Kalamazoo Planning Commission

Nov. 5 election: 6 incumbents, 9 challengers make up Kalamazoo City Commission field

Portage City Council

The mayor of Portage, Peter Strazdas (mayor since 2005), is running unopposed for reelection. Three of the six seats on the commission were also up for election. Those seats are held by Claudette Reid (2005), Ed Sackley (2005), and Terry Urban (2001). All three were reelected in 2009.  Sackley will not seek reelection.  Urban and Reid are running for reelection.

Four candidates will compete for the open seat.
Nasim Ansari: Republican former county commissioner
Connor Farrell: 26-year-old democrat with no particular accomplishments
Richard Ford: attorney, politics unknown
Kevin Park: stay-at-home dad, politics unknown

Six candidates seeking 3 seats on the Portage City Council; Strazdas unopposed for mayor

Tom Barrett for State Representative

Tom Barrett, former chairman of the WMU College Republicans, is running for state representative.  He is running in the 71st district (Eaton County).  This district usually elects Republicans, but democrat Theresa Abed defeated incumbent Deb Shaughnessy in 2012.  I would consider the race a tossup.  Tom is a solid conservative and strong candidate who deserves our support.

TomforMichigan.com

TOM BARRETT FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE