Friends

Thank you to everyone who has responded to our call, asking for your help to determine what the Coalition for Progress and the legislature can do to move Michigan forward in 2010. Your responses, whether via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter have been extremely helpful.

While CFP is committed to protecting the Stem Cell ballot language and fighting for “Hire Michigan First” we want to give everyone a little more time to respond.

We want to hear from you!

For now, here are a few of the great responses that have come to us so far:

“I am a firm believer in a woman's right to choose...keep up the good fight” - Chris    

“Let's fulfill our promise for being a state with great educational institutions pre-K to Universities with great infrastructure for producing new work opportunities: life sciences, green industry, advanced technologies.” - Jayne

“The number one priority for me is Tax Reform. Reform our state's tax code to shift the tax burden off business and put the burden on personal income and services.”- Rich

We’re going to take the top 6 issues that you have suggested, and create a poll to further determine what you think are the areas of greatest need in our state. Check back here for updates, and thank you in advance for all the great responses.

At last night's meeting, the KCDP unanimously voted to endorse Jocelyn Benson to be the party's nominee for Secretary of State. The endorsement means that the County Party is encouraging all MDP members who attend the Endorsement Convention on 17 April to vote for Benson.

From the Benson campaign:

Breaking news out of Kent County tonight as the Kent County Democratic Party has just endorsed our campaign for Secretary of State! We are incredibly grateful for the support of all Kent County Dems!

The Kent County Democratic Party is one of the three largest County Parties in the state and it joins its friends in Oakland in being out front for Benson.

I'm voting for Jocelyn and encourage my brothers and sisters in other West Michigan County Parties to join us in supporting Benson for SoS.

The Detroit papers are reporting that Bart Stupak will have a primary challenger.  The move is both understandable, but also points to a potential fracturing in west Michigan politics.  Connie Saltonstall is a former county commissioner, who ran against Kevin Elsenheimer (MI 105) in 2008.  

As she expressed her reasons to the Free Press

"I believe that he has a right to his personal, religious views, but to deprive his constituents of needed health care reform because of those views is reprehensible"

We have largely found a way to keep both wings -- the pro-choice and the pro-life -- talking with one another here in Kent County.  The longer Health Care Reform founders, the more the impasse is seen as turning on that of abortion (an objection many observers find unfounded), the greater the risk to this alliance and to our ability to hold the gains we have made.  

It will take a great deal of wisdom and common sense for the party to maintain its unity in the light of these outside challenges. We have strong advocates on both sides of the abortion issue.  And with the upcoming election we will need everyone working together.  

No, but it looks like Bing does.

The last thing this country needs is more Bushenomics. We're still trying to recover from the Bush Recession. You just don't solve a problem by doing the same thing twice.
(Press Photo/Rex Larsen) from Grand Rapids Press story.

Happy International Women's Day to my wife, daughters, mother, and all the women in my life! You are all awesome.

Organizing for America Strategy Session on the 2010 Elections

Time: Saturday, March 13 from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Host: Jennifer Warner
Contact Phone: 269.270.9466
Location: Eberhard Center, Rm 215 AB
301 West Fulton
Grand Rapids, MI 49504  

Join Organizing for America for our 2010 Strategy Briefing in your area. The Strategy Briefings are a chance to talk with OFA staff and other volunteers in your area about our legislative and electoral plan for 2010. As an organization, we have come a long way in the past year. We have lessons to learn from the budget pledge drive, health insurance reform and the Massachusetts Senate Race. Now is the time to bring those lessons together and look forward to 2010. There are countless opportunities to create change in the coming year and we have an important role to play in making that happen. As a team, we will talk about how to be involved in creating change in our country, both legislatively and electorally. We will talk through national strategy and discuss together what that means for our local community.

Looks like at least 100 people will be attending. I encourage them all to find a Democrat and march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade starting at Ottawa and Lyon at 10:45 am before heading over.

Looks like the GOP in the 6th Congressional District want some of the fun that is happening in the 3rd Congressional District in Grand Rapids:

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

KALAMAZOO - Jack Hoogendyk, a conservative Republican activist and former state representative from Texas Township, is testing the political waters for a potential August primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph.

Read the whole article here:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kala...

It would be lovely to see another bitter GOP primary, but it would be even more enjoyable to see a strong Democratic candidate emerge for 2010. The 6th is even less of a GOP seat than the 3rd, so there is an opportunity for a strong candidate.

It has been just about one year since Secretary of State candidate Jocelyn Benson visited Kalamazoo College, her first stop in Kalamazoo on her indefatigable campaign for the Democratic nomination. I was there, and wrote about it for West Michigan Rising, one of many articles lost when our files disappeared in a server migration. As I recall, we had three students, her aide, 20th Senate candidate Mark Totten, and myself in the audience. Despite the small audience, she gave an animated and impassioned talk on her vision for voter protection, increasing citizen particiaption in elections, and every other aspect of the Michigan Dept. of State.

Today, having covered nearly every Michigan county over the past year, having spoken to the Kalamazoo County Democratic Party last August, and to hundreds of groups large and small across the state, she returned to Kalamazoo to a forum hosted by ObamaZoo, the continuing local expression of the grassroots Obama campaign.
She has refined her stump speech since the first time I heard it, but retains the urgency and passion for clean elections and for service to the citizens of Michigan that I remember. Nearly every Michigan Democrat has had the chance to hear her already, but if you have not, and can't make it to the Kent County Democratic Party meeting this coming Wednesday, then check out my You Tube video above. Jocelyn's background, life experiences (including working for the Southern Poverty Law Center), and values make her the best qualified candidate for this position that we have had for a very long time.

Her current list of endorsements includes 18 County Democratic Parties, John Conyers, eight State Senators, 19 State Representatives, and many, many other elected officials and party leaders across the state.

Her opponent for the nomination, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, has a campaign that could best be described as 'missing in action'. Nevertheless, Jocelyn is taking the quest for the nomination very seriously, and in addition to her treks across the state, is organizing supporters to get to the MDP endorsing convention on April 17. To participate in the endorsing convention, you must be a party member by March 18. If you are not a party member, join today!

Scheduled for the next Kent County Democratic Party Meeting, 10 March, 7:00 pm at the  Teamsters at 3315 Eastern.

* Secretary of State Candidate Jocelyn Benson
* Attorney General Candidate Richard Bernstein

and our friend Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.

Should be an informative meeting.

New research shows there is a link between being politically active and personal happiness.

Brain food: does activism make you happy?, by Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian, 2 March 2010.

... the study flies in the face of the popular wisdom that happiness resides in creature comforts and relative affluence. Perhaps activism gives people a sense of purpose, or of agency or just a chance to hang out with other people. Most likely it does all of the above.

So, get your butt out there and work to make the world and your neighborhood a better place. And smile why you do it.  The first thing you can do is join the Michigan Democratic Party so  you can vote for our next Secretary of State and Attorney General at the 17 April Endorsement Convention and sign up to run as a precinct delegate so you can play a role in your County Democratic Party when new executive committees are elected in December. You can find out how to do both in Scotty's great resource diary.

Races are getting more and more clear as we enter March.

On the Democratic side for Governor, Dan Kildee has decided not to run asserting that it would cause a split in in both labor and progressive organizations between himself and Virg Bernero.  Not wanting to see that, Kildee has stepped aside.  All due respect to Alma Wheeler Smith, I don't expect this field to change, we now have a Bernero v Dillon primary.

Former State Representative Jerry Kooiman also bowed out of a race for Congress in the 3rd district and endorsed Steve Heacock.  Clearly, Kooiman didn't want to leave his high-paying and probably very fulfilling job with the new MSU medical school. And, the East/Business Establishment (minus the DeVos clan) are trying to rally around Heacock to prevent the Amash Catastrophe.  So, I think we've got our field in the 3rd: Justin Amash, Bill Hardiman and Steve Heacock. The only other person who could still get in is Terri Lynn Land, who I think will eventually get in near the deadline after a Bouchard drop-out.

Bing Goei has announced he's running for the 75th State House District (eastern Grand Rapids).

I'll let my readers comment on the photo images Goei's campaign got out.

And so, the Civil War within the Kent County Republican Party expands. It's a battle royal between the Establishment and Teapublicans.
Interesting that no Teapublican has entered the 29th State Senate race.

In another ill-kept secret, Steven Heacock entered the race for the Third Congressional Seat.  In an era of petulant Republicanism (see Mike Bishop, Jim Bunning), Heacock comes across as something of an adult.  Whatever else he is, Heacock is definitely a downtown man -- or perhaps we should say a Pill Hill Man.  Oh, let's just say it: he's Establishment.  

This candidacy naturally stands in contrast to Justin Amash's Tea Partying. But it also exposes the weakness of the Cultural Warriors to the west.  The Grandville crowd are now stuck with the lackluster campaign of Bill Hardiman.  

Money, not babies looks to be the dominant issue for the GOP. And that paradoxically opens up another avenue for an enterprising Dem candidates: let's talk about family values.  The good news is that we have Democrats able to step up and position themselves as champions of real family values. This is definite good news for Bob Synk, Jim Talen, David LaGrand, and perhaps even the eventual Democratic candidate for the Third Congressional.

Revised offshore wind farm proposal goes to Oceana, Mason county boards, by Dave Alexander, Muskegon Chronicle, 3 March.

They've moved all the turbines to 4 miles offshore (the original proposal had some as close as two-miles). An improvement, though I'd still like to see them go out to at least 6-8 miles offshore. Let's get this right the first time. The big lake is transcendent since you can't see the other side. It tells us something about hte human condidtion. It's spritually meaningful, we shouldn't ruin that.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job here in Lansing is working on projects that bring jobs and new development to the district I represent. One day the word fortu showed up on my calendar. I wondered what this appointment would lead to as I ushered a group into my office from fortu PowerCell, an advanced battery manufacturing company that utilizes a radically new technology with twice the energy content and half the material cost of traditional batteries,

For fortu PowerCell to even consider Michigan, a lot of work was done by Governor Granholm and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on a plan that creates centers of manufacturing excellence for advanced battery technologies. For many years Muskegon has been ready for a big opportunity to replace our waning manufacturing base, and here it was.

Michigan was awarded $1.3 billion in federal stimulus funds which, when matched with state funds, will result in $3 billion in infrastructure investments between the years 2010 and 2020. This could create as many as 39,000 jobs in Michigan with a return on investment of up to $7.07 for every state dollar invested. Fortu plans to hire 745 workers during its first two stages of development and invest $670 million. This will bring permanent jobs to West Michigan, as well as jobs created in building a one million square foot facility.

Muskegon County’s high unemployment rate brings a large labor pool, and the venture capital firm providing funding for fortu is one of the top three in the nation. Their investment in Google has helped that company thrive and blossom. "This could be the next Google," they told me.

"We have already decided we want Muskegon," they said, "but we need the tax credits.” That's when my job started. I worked closely with Ed Clemente, who sponsored the bill to provide the tax credits, and my colleagues in the legislature to make they understood the impact companies like fortu could have on Michigan’s future. I also kept fortu in the loop as the bill progressed. When House Bill 5469 passed through both chambers and was signed into law, I knew it was a big step forward and a happy day for Muskegon County.

This project's success is due to a lot of hard work by the Obama administration, Governor Granholm, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Ed Garner, Muskegon Township leaders Dave Kieft and Dave Fisher, along with many other community leaders. I am grateful I was able to do my part in bringing this fantastic company to Muskegon and help create hundreds of new jobs for West Michigan workers.

Hey, you! Yeah, that's right - YOU!!

• Do you want to be more involved as a Democrat?
• Do you want to strengthen your voice in our Party and our communities?
• Do you want to help decide whom the Democratic Party nominates for offices like SoS and AG?
• Do you want to help steer the direction of the Democratic Party, including what our platform will look like and what issues the Party supports?

If you answered YES to any or all of these questions, then have I got the opportunities for you!

1. Join the Michigan Democratic Party. In order to vote at the April 17 Endorsement Convention, you must be an MDP member for 30 days before the Convention. So join or renew your membership by March 18 to have a chance to support your favorite candidates for office!

Plus, since memberships are good for one year, your membership will still be good for next February's State Convention, at which we will elect our state Party leadership and adopt some resolutions. So join the MDP and have your say!  2. Become a Precinct Delegate! What is a Precinct Delegate? Well, I got this in an email a couple of years ago: The Precinct Delegate is one of the most important of any elected office. It is the active Precinct Delegate who wins elections for the Democratic Party. Precinct Delegates are elected directly by the voters of each precinct to serve as a bridge between voters and the Democratic Party. Precinct Delegates represent the Democratic Party in their neighborhoods and represent their neighborhoods and Democratic Party meetings.

Precinct Delegates:
-Help Democrats get registered to vote
-Take information on issues and candidates to the voters in their precinct
-Identify other Democrats and recruit new Party members
-Help turn out the Democratic vote on Election Day
-Keep Democratic leaders informed about the issues that concern votersSo, essentially, you would be a liaison of sorts between the Democratic Party and your community.  It is an elected position, and you will get to vote for yourself in the August primary election. Better yet, you will probably win, since many precincts have more delegate seats than candidates! Oh, and did I mention you can hone your resolution-writing skills? My meager self wrote two resolutions that were adopted at the Kent County Democratic Convention in February 2009 - they were then adopted at the State Convention a couple weeks later, all because I am a Precinct Delegate! To run for Delegate, print out the form linked above, get it notarized, then turn it in to your city, township, or county clerk's office. So, take advantage of these opportunities to move our Democratic Party in the direction YOU want it to move! Things will happen when YOU take the time to get involved.

I'm pleased to announce that my uncle -- Gary Skaggs -- made it through the city commission primary today in Pratt, Kansas.  Gary came in first place with 651 votes to 396 for his closest competitor (the current mayor). The general election is in April. The six remaining candidates will be run again for two spots on the 5-person commission. Gary is a born-and-raised citizen of Pratt (in southern central Kansas), a Vietnam vet, and successful small businessowner. He's the co-owner, with my cousin Bill, of a business my grandfather built -- Skaggs Ace Hardware in downtown Pratt.  Gary is everything you'd expect from a successful small-town shop owner -- he's hard-working, friendly, and down-to-earth. He'll make a great public servant (FYI: I've encouraged him to run for about the last 20 years and he's taken the plunge now that he's retired and handed the daily operations over to his son).  Congrats Uncle Gary, I join all Skaggses today who have pride in another family success.

Go Skaggs Go!

Last night's decision to close Stocking School may be one of the last of its kind.  Or at least, the last easy step for the GRPS board.  

The decision rested on the notion that school buildings make a greater difference than what goes on inside those buildings.  Structure before people -- this s the logic of the charter movement.  And today, one of the leading advocates just switched sides.

Diane Ravitch, conservative education reformer and long-time advocate for No Child Left Behind and charters, has become in her own words, a "skeptic."  This is big news, and a real vote of no-confidence in the semi-private charter school movement.  She announces her shift here, and explains it in detail with her new book,The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic Books, 2010).

With West Michigan being ground zero for charters in Michigan, and with GRPS adopting charters as a model for reform -- the shift of an advocate changes the dynamics.  A move to community-oriented schools certainly reinforces the position of Tony Baker, Henry Campbell and Wendy Falb in their attempt to keep Stocking School open (and correspondingly, makes the difficulties of John Helmholdt and Bernard Taylor that much more difficult).

As other recent articles make clear, teachers play a far more critical role in the success of our schools.  The path that GRPS will need to take cannot be in finding charter alternative models, but in the rebuilding of trust with parents and teachers.

And I can think of one school on the west side where they could start.  

Thanks to the efforts of our members, the Coalition for Progress helped move "Hire Michigan First" in the State Senate, moved "Prevention First" out of State House Committee and fought back against Senate efforts to gut the voter approved stem cell research amendment.

But there is still more work to be done to get Michigan moving in the right direction.  With the 2010 election right around the corner, we need your help now.

The Coalition for Progress has a number of issues that we are committed to, but we need your help to determine which of these, or other issues, should be our greatest priority in 2010.  We want to hear from you! What issues should CFP be focused on? Keep fighting to protect a woman's right to choose?  Making Michigan schools the best in the world?

You tell us.  What is the number one thing CFP and the Legislature can do to move Michigan forward in 2010?  



The Coalition for Progress is only as strong as its members, and we value your input.  Click here to let us know what you think.  We might even post your reply anonymously on the website.  Thank you in advance to everyone who responds.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Sean Egan wrote the following and was gracious enough to allow me to reprint it here. I agree, down with apathy and inaction. Real change isn't going to happen after just one or two elections.

What's the Real Message to Progressives in the 2010 Congressional Elections?
By Sean Egan

I, like many self proclaimed progressive liberals, have been disappointed, shocked, discouraged, and downright pissed off at the lack of progress on the liberal agenda we had hoped our Democratic Representatives would deliver.  At every turn in the history of the United States it has been the progressive thinkers, without regard to party labels, that have moved this country in a new direction toward liberty, equality, and justice for the masses over the few.

As we have been watching these first years of the Obama administration relying on those hopeful campaign speeches and promises to produce results, it seems many have vested too much stock in Obama himself and forgotten the legislative process necessary to accomplish any goals.  Historically the United States Senate has been the cog in the wheel of movement.  With Senate rules, filibusters, cloture motions, etc, it is often much too simple for a small minority to delay and stop the legislative process in spite of the enormous need and public support for regulation or programs to aid a hurting country.  We see this now with John McCain's stall of NLRB appointees, something rarely if ever done before.

In order to put this in perspective we must look to our past to plot our future.  As Harry S. Truman said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know."  When the nation was crumbling in the early stages of the Great Depression thanks to years of "Free Market" Republican logic, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to rush in a new era of progress to aid the American people.  With his inauguration in 1933 came a 59 seat Democrat majority in the Senate.  Those remarkable first 100 Days that brought much legislation were accomplished with this majority and an economic climate that did not allow Republicans to object or stall progress for fear of retaliation at the polls.  However, for the much larger progressive movement the mid-term elections of 1935 increased this majority to 69, a ten seat gain, and again in 1937 an increase of seven to a 76 seat majority.  With these large majorities finally came Social Security, the Wagner Act which is the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act which created a minimum wage, the Works Progress Administration, and a great deal of Federal spending to support these programs.  We often hear of the first 100 Days, but the later progressive legislation remains the bedrock of a strong middle class in this country.

One of the next major pieces of middle class support from the Federal Government came with the passage of Medicare in 1965.  With his inauguration in 1965, Lyndon Johnson also had a 68 seat Democrat majority in the Senate.  In June of that year, progressives were able to pass the Medicare programs which continue to be arguably the most important piece of legislation in supporting a middle class America.  During the lead up and passage of this legislation the Republican Party, including Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, called this socialism and uttered the same chants as the Republican Party today.  In fact, the Republican Party has been overtly and covertly attempting to destroy all of the legislation referred to here and more since their passage.  It seems that any type of efforts supporting the middle class, working classes, and poor in this country are met with cries of Socialism by the Republican Party, which is why again the great quote maker Harry S. Truman said, "If you want to live like a Republican, vote for a Democrat."

So what's the point of all this history stuff?  Simple, for progressives like me that are currently frustrated with the lack of progress on President Obama's agenda including passage of health care reform, stronger banking regulations, strengthening the ability and right to collective bargaining, and many more the message is elect more.  As you read above and can find throughout the history of the United States, the way forward is with larger and stronger majorities of progressives in the United States Congress.  So as our friends, members, neighbors, and others are looking to these mid-term elections with great fatigue and discouraged fervor we must educate them that the way forward is not electing less Democrats, it is electing more Democrats.  We must tell them that without large majorities in both Houses of Congress, we don't have Social Security, banking regulation, Medicare, and other great programs that support the American middle class and the poor in this country.  And without strengthening the current majorities in Congress, we don't get the progressive agenda the majority of Americans supported when casting their votes for Barrack Obama.  

So stop blaming President Obama and the Democrats for the lack of progress, because, as our history shows, progress requires large majorities.