Ward shuns his Michigan House campaign for Presidential campaign
Straight Talk America, the political action committee for likely presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCAIN (R-Ariz.), announced that four state representatives from Michigan will join the organization as legislative co-chairs.
Rep. Chris Ward was named co-chair of the Straight Talk America Michigan Legislative Advisory Team along with three others from the Michigan House.
“Senator McCain is very popular among members of the Michigan state legislature and we look forward to working closely with him in the 2006 Elections,” said Representative Chris Ward. Representative Ward is in the GOP leadership as the House Majority Flood (sic) Leader.
I found some common ground with Chris Ward. As a career Navy veteran, I have always had a lot of respect for John McCain. However, it would be nice to see Mr. Ward addressing Michigan’s problems and being accountable and responsive to the voters of the 66th District instead of worrying about a race two years away. But I’m sure Mr. Ward’s already running for his next office beyond the state House. It would be nice to see Mr. Ward work in the private sector for the first time in his life and experience life like the rest of us, and we are doing are best to make that happen.
posted by Communications guru @ 11:25 PM
8 Comments:
Guru, As per your above comments on Chris Ward doing nothing to help our great state then one must assume that you are for Dick DeVos as our current Governor has done nothing to help our great state.
· Michigan has lost a higher percentage of manufacturing jobs since 2000 than any other state. More than 75 percent of the residents say the state is on the wrong track, the worst case of pessimism in Michigan in 20 years.
· About one in five children in Michigan lived in poverty, up from six years ago.
· Almost a third of the state's African Americans lived below the poverty level.
· Detroit remained one of the poorest big cities in the country with almost a third of its residents living below the poverty line.
· Cities and townships posted drops in median household incomes ranging from 24 percent to 6 percent and poverty rates increased in all but three cities.
· Detroit, with 31 percent of its residents living below the poverty line, remains one of the poorest big cities in the country, neck and neck with Cleveland at 32 percent of its residents living in poverty.
· Michigan has lost one job for every 10 minutes Granholm's been in office.
Sharon Parks, a spokeswoman for the Michigan League for Human Services, a Lansing-based anti-poverty group. "What's more important is the poverty rate. It's an indication of the level of need out there that is not being addressed. It should serve as a real wake-up call."
The poverty rates in a number of Michigan counties were significantly higher than the statewide average of 13.2 percent in 2005, including Muskegon County, with a poverty rate of 14.9 percent. Isabella County in mid-Michigan had the highest rate at 24.2 percent, followed by Wayne (19.5 percent), Berrien (18.9 percent), Ingham (18.8 percent) and Saginaw (17.5 percent).
The child poverty rate, covering children 18 years or younger was 21.3 percent in Muskegon County, higher than the state average of 18.5 percent. It was the highest in Berrien County in southwest Michigan at 30.6 percent. The remaining four counties in the top five for child poverty were Wayne (29.1 percent), Van Buren (25 percent), Saginaw (24.9 percent) and Genesee (23.6 percent).
http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060903/NEWS01/609030308/1002
From Argus 9/3/06
All of the stats you cite are true, liberal. Why doesn’t the no-nothing Legislature where Ward is the leader of that obstructionist group as the No. 3 man in seniority shoulder any of the blame? Do you think those dire indicators happened in just three short years? Is the Governor to blame for the auto industry slump? You should read what I posted here on 8/25/06.
“a weak auto industry - not high taxes - are at the heart of Michigan's struggling economy, and that “Michigan has lagged behind the rest of the nation since 2000 almost entirely because of the decline of Michigan's automakers,” according to a story Tuesday in the Lansing State Journal.
The governor has a plan, and despite the legislative leaders doing whatever they can to stay in power, grab more power and make her look bad it has attracted more than 26 companies to the state and retained more. Here’s a link, http://www.granholmforgov.com/site/PageServer?pagename=jobs_map.
The difference between Mike and the Amway guy is Mike has double the business experience he has, and it has actually been successful business experience. Mike has also has experience in government as well, and the Amway guy doesn’t. Mike has actually had the experience of working for a living, raising a family and putting his kids through college in this tight economy.
Yes, I can honestly say he would not. Mike is focused on getting elected, actually talking and meeting every voter in the 66th District and earning a living at the same time. Mr. Ward is not worrying about any of that.
I suggest you read all of the posts here, and the answers you want are there. In order to unseat an incumbent you have to give people a reason to not re-elect him, and we have given plenty of reasons for that. We will continue to do so. There is a very good reason he and his supporters don’t want us to talk about his record in office. The only time any politician is truly responsive to the voters is during an election, and Mr. Ward does not even have the respect to try and connect with the voters. If he is elected in November, for the next two years we will see as many Ward sightings in the county as cougar sightings in Livingston County.
Saying “I find much of what you say disingenuous at best” is a polite way of calling me a liar. No problem, I have thick skin, but show me where I am lying.
Mike’s campaign, in a nutshell, is pushing for a diverse expanding economy, a solution to the problem of runaway health care costs that is the real job killer, he supports public education and equitable funding and a clean environment.
September 01, 2006
A new Zogby poll has some unwelcome Labor Day news for union officials: Approval of unions is at its lowest point since 1981, and almost three-quarters of workers in the U.S. say they don't want to belong to a labor union.
The real cost killer in our state is the cost of the unions in the auto industry. We cannot remain competitive. I will use GM as an example. Yes at the time it was good for the working middle class and that is what made the term middle class, but today unions are a dinosaur and need to be re examined.
GM began its slide down the slippery slope in 1950, when it began picking up costs for medical insurance, pensions and retiree benefits. There was huge risk to GM in taking on these obligations -- but that didn't show up as a cost or balance-sheet liability. By 1973, the UAW says, GM was paying the entire health insurance bill for its employees, survivors and retirees, and had agreed to "30 and out" early retirement that granted workers full pensions after 30 years on the job, regardless of age.
These problems began to surface about 15 years ago because regulators changed the accounting rules. In 1992, GM says, it took a $20 billion non-cash charge to recognize pension obligations. Evolving rules then put OPEB on the balance sheet. Now, these obligations -- call it a combined $170 billion for U.S. operations -- are fully visible. And out-of-pocket costs for health care are eating GM alive. But the UAW was astute (or lucky) enough to push the risk of covering these costs onto GM.
Michigan is a mess. What people should realize is that Democrats have been running this state for several years now.
Detroit is a Democrat stronghold and a sewer as all liberal strongholds are.
We have a socialist governor we borrowed from socialist Canada - whose citizens come over here for health care.
We have two commie senators in Washington that mak sure Michigan - who is 50th in job growth and 1st in unemployment for 3 straight years - is a donor state to the rest of the nation! Thank you Debbie Stabbing-me-now and Carl Lenin.
If you vote Democrat - you are stuck on stupid.
Ah, the serial poster is back How come this rant is only posted once, Liberal?
I guess I would have to see this alleged poll you talk about. However, after the all out assault on unions by huge corporations the gop it could possibly be true.
The way workers have been treated it just proves unions are needed now more than ever. Although I think unions are needed more than ever, I’m not really sure I agree with you when you say unions are “cost killers.” However, I do agree with you that unions created the middle class, and it is disappearing just like unions, which is the goal of people like you. The middle class is apparently the dinosaur as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Are you honestly telling me that GM is the only employer that offered its employees benefits? It seems to me that benefits are an incentive to attract quality and loyal employees, but companies now, apparently, could care less about that and are trying to do away with them.
Mike and I agree that health care costs are hurting U.S. companies trying to compete against a communist country that can control everything, and that’s why the greatest country in the world needs to look at some form of universal health care.
Wow, what an intelligent, well-written post, hank.
If that’s your real name you’re not from Michigan, and, obviously it shows because you know nothing about my state.
“Democrats have been running this state for several years now.” Say what? Up until Gov. Granholm was elected three years ago in 2002 we had a republican governor for the past 12 years. His name was John Engler, perhaps you have heard of him, and he sure left this state in a mess. Both Houses of the state Legislature have been controlled by the republicans since at least 2000, so where you get this idea that “Democrats have been running this state for several years now” I have no idea.
Obviously you have not been to Detroit in quite a while if ever, perhaps since 1967. Where were you during the MLB All-Star game that was played at Comerica Park or during the last Superbowl that was played at Ford Field in February? Apparently you were still under the rock you just crawled out from under.
The Governor is a U.S. citizen, and it seems funny that a man who pretends to know something of history is not aware that this is a country if immigrants. It would also surprise our friendly neighbors across the Detroit River that they are socialists.
The rest of your insulting, ignorant rant does not deserve to be addressed.
On what facts are you basing that ridiculous claim? There are millions of people in this country without any kind of health care who will disagree with you. Even in affluent Livingston County there are hundreds of working people without health care. These are not people looking for a handout, and they work hard to make ends meet all the while praying they don’t get sick. This is happening more and more everyday as people lose their health care as employers cut that benefit in an effort to cut costs, and you have the nerve to say something stupid like that.
Back in 2000 and 2001 The Livingston County Health Department put together an uninsured task force, and it found there are working people without health and dental care that live in fear of getting injured or sick and not being able to continue working. The task force found people in fear of associating with other people in fear of getting a virus and actually taping filling and pulling their own teeth.
Why do you think the new Camero is being built in Canada and not the U.S.? Because they have universal health care, and GM is desperate to cut health care costs. If one of the largest corporations is having trouble providing that benefit to its employers what chance do smaller companies have?
The fact is the high cost of health care is at the root of our job problems. I suggest you read the post from Mike’s speech when he announced his run for this seat at the Brighton Millpond, and that’s exactly what he says.
We need to do something about ensuring everyone who gets sick in the greatest country in the world has a reasonable expectation that they have a chance to recover and can receive basic care.
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