Meet Mike at the Millpond, really

You can meet Mike just about any Saturday at the Brighton Farmer’s Market, held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m, every Saturday at 200 First Street at the Mill Pond in Downtown Brighton. Come out and meet him and talk to him.
He’s a great listener, after all, that will be part of his job description soon. He also likes to talk, and sometimes I can’t shut him up.

Why I should vote for Mike McGonegal instead of the incumbent

People have been telling me that I have been telling them why not to vote for Chris Ward, instead of why to vote for Mike McGonegal. I think it’s obvious both why you should vote for Mike and not vote for Ward, and the fact that Ward is not representing the people of the 66th district is more than enough. He represents the special interests, and his major preoccupation seems to be on how to get more power instead of trying to address the problems we face in Michigan.
We are facing major problems, and it’s going to take bi-partisanship, cooperation and having everyone at the table to find some solutions. That’s not happening in Lansing with Ward’s so-called leadership.
Mike can tell you in his own words why you should vote for him, and if you live in the 66th District, you most likely have met him or soon will meet him at your front door.
This is the speech he gave last month announcing his candidacy.

I hope from this point on that the printed media will record that my last name is McGonegal, not Democrat.
We decided to make the announcement at the Brighton Mill Pond. It was initially going to be given to the ducks, but Joe Carney said that they don’t vote and they’re anti-gun.
I am married to my wife, Meg a registered nurse at CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. We have been married for 28 years, have raised four children, and that experience in and of itself qualifies both of us as accomplished politicians.
I am the second youngest of six children. Neither of my parents finished high school. They put a great emphasis on education and the three boys went to a Catholic Boarding High School. We studied Latin and Greek, Physics and Chemistry, --a classic liberal arts education. When I asked a professor why I needed four years of Latin, he said it didn’t matter what we learned, so long as it was true. I developed a love of history-- and politics--that I still have to this day. I was taught to respect the opinions of others and understand that there is more than one path to the same goal.
I did not get out of high school and become a professional politician. I graduated from college and became a public servant.
I worked in law enforcement as a State Parole officer in the ghettoes of Cleveland. I carried a gun; I had a gun pointed at me. I arrested people, investigated crimes. I learned first hand the devastation of crime and poverty on a community. I developed an understanding of the rule of law. I realized that in the final analysis our freedom is nothing more then the adherence to technicalities. This candidate will not have to be brought up to speed on issues of law and order.
The majority of my life, the way I’ve made my living was in the private business sector. I am very familiar with the automotive industry--the supply chain--and the difficulties they are having today. The changes we see in that industry are fundamental changes to the business model. The global economy is a fact of life, we need to adjust to it and participate in it, not be victimized by it.
In recent weeks I have gone door to door, introducing myself to you—my neighbors. I have been amazed at the warm reception I received. There is anger and fear over the policies in Washington, staggering debt, the outsourcing of jobs, and uncertainty in the future.
It is clear to me that it is time for a change. People need and deserve a legislature that protects and serves them, not the narrow special interests. We have the second most expensive legislature in the entire nation, and yet they have failed to solve or even address the critical problems and challenges that face us.
Our lack of ineffective policy to deal with runaway health-care costs is at the root of our job problems. It fuels the export of manufacturing jobs, erodes the competitiveness of our automotive companies and their suppliers and reeks havoc on our ability to properly fund public education. The problems have been there for years, yet the Michigan Legislature has not offered one solution.
I don’t believe in big government, but I do believe in effective government. I don’t believe that there is a program for every problem, nor do I have all the answers. The issues we face do not lend themselves to conservative or liberal solutions, but are rather technical and practical and highly complex.
I face an uphill battle, but so does Michigan. I will be an effective legislature with a clear message. The most important thing we can do is to have a diverse, expanding economy of non-exportable high skilled, high wage jobs. Education, health care, and a clean environment will all flow from a good economy.
The people are tired of blame and bickering. The problems we face are man made and will be solved by man. We need to look at what passes for leadership in today’s world.
Sometimes to change people you have to change people. Make the change and elect Mike McGonegal on November 7th.

Changing the tone in Lansing ----For the bad

As if we needed another example of what happens when one party controls everything for too long we get one, and it’s just one more reason why we need to change things in Lansing and send Mike McGonegal to the House. This is also another example of why we need to change leadership in the House. As the Majority Floor Leader, Chris Ward decides the daily agenda of the full house, and this is just one more example of his arrogance, attitude and rudeness. Michigan is facing real problems, and we’re going to need everyone at the table to come up with some solutions. Why is Ward trying to keep the people who represent more than half of Michigan’s residents away from the table?

Lawmakers spar over daily House agendas
Democrats contend GOP is not sharing enough information
By David Eggert Associated Press
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060630/NEWS04/606300323/1005/news04
Partisan acrimony in the state House became especially bitter Thursday when a top Democratic lawmaker said a House sergeant wrongly blocked her from seeing what bills were in a box to be taken up that day by the chamber.
Democratic Floor Leader Mary Waters of Detroit said she was trying to see the bills on the rostrum because Republicans, who hold a majority in the House, won't give Democrats a daily agenda.
"Members need to know what they're voting on," Waters said. "It could be something very critical for our districts. ... What kind of democracy is that?"
But Republicans said no lawmaker is allowed to sift through the bills because of concerns a bill could be tampered with before or after it has been voted on.
Republicans said Democrats can see a daily calendar of every bill before the House. But Democrats said the calendar doesn't tell them what measures are likely to come up for action on a given day, so they have no way to plan.
Thursday's spat capped a long-simmering dispute in the House that began last year. That's when Democrats began trying to tie bills on a variety of issues to Democratic legislation that would limit the importation of out-of-state trash and reverse Michigan's law protecting drug companies from product liability suits.
The tactic angered Republicans, who in response stopped a custom - likely started within the last decade - of making their daily voting plan available to Democrats. In response, Democrats began causing long delays on votes.
DeRoche spokesman Matt Resch said Democrats have turned their side of the House chamber into a campaign office, constantly trying to amend unrelated legislation with their pet issues. Democrats have argued their legislation is never taken up by Republicans so they have to try other ways to get their concerns addressed.

(This is so untrue, and anyone who has spent more than one session day in Lansing knows that. As an example of how the House leadership and Ward plays politics everyday of the year take the example of Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee. The popular lawmaker committed the sin of unseating an incumbent Republican two years ago, and her seat has been targeted with the same guy running against her. She can’t get any bills even considered, and even the simplest resolution from her is a no-no. something as simple as designating a battlefield in Monroe as an 1812 bi-centennial battlefield gets no consideration. Instead, she passes it on to the republican senator representing Monroe for the good of her district. However, her constituents know how responsive she is, how she fights for them and answers every letter, e-mail and phone call.
Too bad Ward can’t say the same thing.)

The case of the rowdy priest

Mike McGonegal is dedicated to changing the tone in Lansing that gets back to the American ideal of compromising to solve problems and working with the other party to actually find solutions to the many problems facing our state.
Whatever happened to bipartisanship to get things done? What happed to it is the attitude of people like Chris Ward. Long-time Lansing staffers say that Ward, as floor majority leader that sets the agenda for the full House to consider, is rude, sarcastic and arbitrarily cuts off debate. Here's one recent example of his attitude when he threatened to have a Priest arrested. This is from a May 26 column by Lansing State Journal columnist John Schneider.

WESTPHALIA - On Wednesday, the Rev. Cecilio Reyna, pastor of St. Mary
Catholic Church attended his first public hearing.
He came to Lansing from Westphalia to stand up and explain why he was against a proposed state law that would identify Michigan drivers as U.S. citizens, or noncitizens, on their driver's licenses. "I wanted to tell them about my mother," Reyna told me.
But he never got a chance and, in fact, was told that if he persisted in his attempts to voice his opinion at that particular time and place, he would be forcibly removed from the hearing room. Reyna was accused of interrupting the meeting. It wasn't exactly an auspicious debut for Reyna in the realm of public debate.
"Why I was not allowed to speak baffles me," Reyna said.
The sponsor of the bill (House Bill 6085) that would create the citizen/noncitizen designation is House Majority Floor Leader Chris Republican from Brighton.

Time constraints
Responding, via e-mail, to Reyna's complaint that he was silenced, Ward wrote, in part: "The fact of the matter is that the committee (hearing) was already running long. ... Many committee members were already running late for other committees they serve on, and we needed to wrap things up. "It is not uncommon to cut short testimony and vote on bills when you run into time constraints."(As a former staffer who has attended Committee meetings, when time is running out, other chairs at a minimum go through all the cards submitted and at least ask the person if they support the bill or do not. Why not that courtesy here, especially for a priest in full collar?)

Ward pointed out that he publicly invited Reyna to submit written testimony, which would become part of the official committee record.
Following my inquiries, Reyna got a call from a Ward aide who offered him a face-to-face meeting with the rep. (Ah, the power of publicity and elections. It makes rude, inaccessible lawmakers polite and available. I don’t think the Father Reyna wanted a face-to-face with Mr. Ward, he wanted the full committee and the public to hear him.)

The House Oversight, Elections and Ethics Committee approved Ward's bill, which will now go to the full House. (Since approved)

Extra information
The rationale for the law: It would assist law-enforcement officials in identifying illegal aliens (even though noncitizens are not necessarily illegal) and inform employers about the citizenship status of job applicants.
Ward's chief of staff, Marcia Hagenbarth said the citizenship Designation also will be helpful if, and when, election officials start requiring Photo ID at voting polls.
"We're not necessarily trying to target illegal aliens," Hagenbarth said. "This is NOT a witch hunt."
Anyway, here's some of what Reyna wanted to say about his mother:
A Mexican national, she married an American GI in 1957, then lived in The U.S. as a noncitizen LEGAL resident for 40 years.
She eventually became a citizen in 1997, but long before that she became a tax-paying resident with a job and a Social Security number.
In an e-mail, Reyna wrote: "My poor mother would have been quite distressed by some public official assuming she was not here legally because of her identification as a noncitizen. "I wanted to ask (the committee members) to show compassion by rejecting a bill that might cause similar distress to people who are not citizens,
but are here legally."
That, Reyna concluded, was all he wanted to say.

Too Little Too Late
Chris Ward, is holding hearing on Wednesday on a package of campaign finance bills.
It makes you wonder if this is so important why is it just now being introduced when we are just days away from the House breaking for the summer until September. It’s about campaigning all right, but not campaign finance. Ward will use this to show the people back home during the campaign how he is fighting the corruption that has gripped Washington, D.C. Never mind they are republican scandals. As the Majority Floor Leader, Ward controls the floor agenda that the full House will vote on, so why are we just seeing this now?

After a recent report put him at the top of the list of state Legislators accepting free meals from lobbyists he needs to tidy up his image as a champion of reform after all the swag he has taken a big chunk of.

According to a story in the June 21 edition of the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus, Ward is billing the proposals as a comprehensive approach to campaign finance reform based on the McCain-Feingold law passed in 2002. The bills would apply that law, formally known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, to political activity at the state level in Michigan.
Among other things, the bills would cap individual contributions to a political party at $50,000; regulate 527s as regular political action committees, or PACs; require more frequent disclosure of campaign fundraising and spending; and require the Michigan Department of State to do random audits of nine campaign committees each election cycle.

But are we surprised that the bills, HB 6128-6131, favor the GOP.
Rich Robinson, of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said it won't solve everything that's wrong, but it would be a real move in the right direction."
One aspect of the proposals that made Robinson hesitate was the way he said they favor the Republican Party. The GOP relies on wealthy individuals, he explained, and even though some limits are put on contributions from such people, they could still give unlimited amounts to any number of PACs.

Here’s another problem with the bills, it says “A person who knowingly violates this section is guilty of a felony punishable, if the person is an individual, by imprisonment for not more than 3 years or a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both, or, if the person is not an individual, by a fine of not more than $10,000.00.” What about one of the huge corporations like Enron or the other energy companies and pharmaceutical companies that funnels huge amounts of money to republicans? Where’s the penalty for them?
Cleary, this bill will go nowhere, so if we’re going to waste our time and hold hearings, lets explore some real reform. That may include public financing of campaigns to take the corrosive effect of money out of politics. Will it work? I don’t know, but why not talk about it?

The House Oversight, Elections and Ethics Committee hearings are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays in Room 326, House Office Building, and they are open to the public.

This editorial, rightly, takes the Livingston County republican party to task for their arrogant and disgraceful questionnaire it planned to use to endorse judges. Basically, getting the endorsement comes down to who gave the most money to republican candidates. This says all you need to know about the current state of the republican party.
Does anyone need any more evidence of the dangers of letting one party control everything for so long?
We need a change in the county and in Lansing; let's start with Mike McGonegal.


Let's be clear on one point. The Livingston County Republicans can endorse any candidate they like, in any race and for any reason.

That said, it's still easy to be uneasy about the increasingly political flavor that many local Republicans insist on adding to local judicial races.

The questions mailed by the local party last week to judicial candidates ranged from innocuous to puzzling to offensive. The survey, for instance, asked for a detailed list of contributions that judicial hopefuls have made to Republican candidates for the state House, state Senate and Congress. Even Bill Rogers, chair of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners and an avid Republican, found that question "tacky" and "inappropriate."
Candidates were also asked what type of person they voted for in past elections. To be helpful, it was a multiple-choice question. Suggested answers lumped Democrats in with communists, socialists and racists. Maybe there wasn't enough room on the page to include pedophiles.
When our newspaper started asking about the survey, party leaders pulled back the questionnaire and said candidates shouldn't respond to it until it can be reviewed and, perhaps, restated.
Even that response was tepid and confusing. Party leaders said they sympathized with the reasoning behind the questions, but said the special endorsement committee should have gotten the survey approved by the local party's executive committee.
But at least one member of the executive committee, Don Wholihan, says he is fine with whatever questions the endorsement committee sent out. In his blog this week, Wholihan also suggests that the questions were well vetted by members of the local party.
If the county Republican Party wants to take a position that it will only vote for judicial candidates who pass a political litmus test, that's its prerogative.
But Republican concerns about "judicial activists" ring hollow if they demand that a candidate for the bench prove his or her political purity.
The best defense that the party can make for these questions is that some candidates want to present themselves as Republicans in order to curry favor in this predominantly Republican county. The party just wants to make sure its posture is real and not one of convenience.
While the party may want to side with proven Republicans, voters should look for a broader range of qualifications. A person's demeanor, legal knowledge, work habits and judgment are far more important for a judge than the size of the check he or she wrote for the local state House race.
We offer one more word of caution for voters. If a candidate touts his politics rather than his qualifications, that may say something about his qualifications.

Mike McGonegal is running for the Michigan House of Representatives as a Democrat in the 66th District.

Like all parents, there’s nothing Mike McGonegal would not do for his children to make their life richer, successful and more fulfilling. That is why he’s taking one of the biggest steps in his life and made the decision to leave the sidelines and jump into the political arena and run for the 66th Distinct seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.

“I am uncomfortable with the direction of my country, my state and my community,” he said. “I want to leave a positive, debt-free future for my children and grandchildren.”

McGonegal, 57, has lived in Livingston County for the past 11 years, and he is a manufacturing sales representative. A transplanted Ohio native, McGonegal graduated from Cleveland State University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Following graduation, he immediately entered public service as a parole office for Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. McGonegal saw first hand the cause and devastation of crime and poverty on both the victim and the offender, and he was appointed to a commission to establish programs for a community-based corrections facility.

McGonegal also brings a strong business background to the table in helping to diversify Michigan’s economy and manufacturing base and help solve its economic troubles. He has worked for the past 28 years in sales and marketing for companies manufacturing a variety of products, including heating and air conditioning, aerospace systems, industrial products, elevators and escalators, aircraft engines, fire and security systems and fuel cells.

The Green Oak Township resident and his wife of 28 years, Meg - a surgical nurse at CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor - are experiencing the squeeze placed on every middle class family in the nation and state. With an ever-shrinking pot of money for college and amid rising costs for everything from food to gasoline, the McGonegals have had to figure out how to fund the college educations of their four children. With all four of their children currently enrolled in Michigan colleges and universities, they are performing the juggling act many middle class families are experiencing.

We need your help to send someone with the experience, background and ideas to Lansing the address the serious problems facing our state.

Committee to Elect Mike McGonegal
8068 Lee Rd. Brighton, Mi. 48116
(810) 229-3324 mcgonegal4the66th@yahoo.com