Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganConvicted Felon and Cranking Aficionado Jordan Haskins Goes Full Perot “I’m Back In!”
Wednesday , 13, August 2014 Candidates Leave a comment
While Up North Progressive took a break and enjoyed picking blueberries, a fun outcome of last week’s primary election nearly slipped by undetected. Probably because the 95th state house district is just a little south of what’s considered, “up north.” Jordan Haskins, who in late June stopped campaigning when his felony convictions became public knowledge decided one day after the August 5 primary to jump back into the race. He was unopposed in the Republican primary election. In the Democratic Party race Vanessa Guerra of Bridgeport Township beat former Saginaw City Councilman Norman Braddock. She would have shared the ballot with Haskins whether he decided to campaign or not, but the district is heavily favored Democratic Party and Haskins had already stopped campaigning.
The fact that Guerra won instead of Braddock is why Haskins decided to get back into the race. Claiming that “I was just taking a break and thinking about some things.” Haskins also stated that he was “stuck on the ballot anyway,” and “If Norm Braddock had won, I may not have gotten back in.”
Guerra received 70% of the votes cast in the 95th district Democratic primary, 4,085 in total compared to Haskins 2,108 votes in the Republican primary. Norman Braddock received 2,912 votes. Norman Braddock was a well known name in Saginaw and everyone was surprised by the outcome of last Tuesday’s race.
Vanessa Guerra is 24 years old and a graduate of The University of Michigan, where she double majored in Political Science and Latino Studies. She is a law student at University of Detroit Mercy. She ran for township trustee in 2012. She has interned with the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office and volunteers with domestic violence programs in Saginaw. Guerra considers herself a progressive Democrat and wants to focus on improving education and jobs in Michigan and the 95th district.
Haskins pointed out that Guerra’s progressive mindset is a sharp contrast to his mindset, which includes being pro-life, pro-traditional marriage and Judeo-Christian. “The question this election will decide is what does Saginaw want,” offers Haskins.
The Up North Progressive can answer that question. Saginaw wants someone to represent them that has the ability to complete what they started. Someone with a sense of what their constituents need. Someone with the background and experience to get the job done. The candidate who quits a month before the election, needs time to think about things and jumps back in on the assumption their opponent will be easier to beat because they’re not the older, more well known person will find his campaign still won’t be an easy one.
Congratulations, Vanessa Guerra, on your primary victory. The 95th district will be well-served when you win in November.
Michigan State Legislature Undermines Will Of The People Again Over Wolf Hunt Vote
Wednesday , 13, August 2014 Environment Leave a comment
Today another vote in the ongoing struggle to protect Michigan wolves from hunting is expected to take place in the Michigan Senate. Despite two voter referendums to put a stop to wolf hunting being approved for the November ballot.
Republicans in Michigan have a tough time allowing the citizens of this state to determine what laws they want enacted and enforced. Rather than listen to the people they’re supposed to represent, they instead pass laws that render citizen initiatives unnecessary, depriving the people of the state their right to be heard.
In 2011 The US Fish and Wildlife Service removed gray wolves from the endangered species list. The estimated wolf population in Michigan is less than 700 animals. In 2012 Rick Snyder signed Public Act 520 introduced by Tom Casperson that allowed for a limited hunt.
Keep Michighan Wolves Protected in 2013 submitted signatures to put on the November ballot a referendum to over turn PA 520. The wolves are barely on the way back from extinction and need to be left alone so they can continue to recover numbers. In response to the petition Casperson introduced another bill to allow wolf hunting if PA 520 is repealed. The new law, Public Act 21 allows for any new species to be added to the list of game species open for hunting provided they have not yet been rejected by voter referendum. Keep Michigan Wolves Protected has submitted signatures for a referendum to address PA 21 and will also appear on the ballot in November.
Replacing potential new voter-initiated laws with laws that render them ineffective is how the legislature in Lansing circumvents the will of the people. Republicans don’t want the citizens of this state to have any say in how they are governed, but rather to do as we’re told. This is not government by and for the people, but an oligarchy with the purpose to take our freedom away at the expense of corporate interests. This November is our chance to remove these freedom-hating legislators from Lansing and replace them with elected officials who will listen to us, the voters. We need leadership in Lansing who listens to the people, not eliminates their voice.
Have you seen Rick Snyder’s campaign bus?
Has anyone seen Rick Snyder’s campaign bus?
Rick Snyder used a bus in 2010 when he first campaigned for governor of Michigan. Four years ago when he was running for office his bus could be seen all over the state making stop after stop to press flesh and make speeches about how he was just a nerd with moderate, middle of the road political views. So far in 2014 public sightings of Rick Snyder and his bus have been few and far between.
In fact, no one has seen his campaign bus at all.
Up North Progressive even tried to download the free Rick For Michigan app to learn about Snyder’s campaign schedule, but all the app had was the same old Superbowl nerd ad with the creepy jazz saxophone music and a donate button – just like his Rick For Michigan website. There was not one listing anywhere for campaign stops or any schedule. Disappointing, as this was one of the things promised when the app first became available.
So what happened to this bus? It does get used every year. Not for campaigning, but for tailgating at University of Michigan home football games. That’s where the bus has been located every fall Snyder hasn’t been campaigning.
In 2012 Rick Snyder had another bus for his vote against your best interests on these proposals tour. Has anyone seen that bus?
Usually when someone runs for office they make efforts to appear in public so people can listen to what they plan to do if elected and talk to people. Public outreach is really important in political campaigns. A guy who wants your vote but can’t be bothered to talk to constituents seems insincere about wanting to represent people in public office.
The general election is on, our next governor Mark Schauer is traveling all over the state campaigning, meeting the people of Michigan and explaining his plan for what he will do once he’s elected governor of Michigan.
Where is Rick Snyder?
Where the bus ends up this fall will solve the mystery. If the bus is on the road, then we’ll know Rick Snyder plans on campaigning for re election. If the bus is parked at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor for tailgating and storage while Rick, his family and friends go to the football game, his campaign schedule will be finalized for the election.
In the meantime, if you see the Snyder campaign bus, let Up North Progressive know!
Thanks!
Eleven For-Profit Charter School Authorizers Under The Gun For Poor Performance
Monday , 11, August 2014 Section 16 Leave a comment
Today the Michigan Department of Education listed 11 charter school authorizers who have not met expectations for providing oversight with the charter school management companies they issued charters to open schools. If they do not improve, they face suspension and will no longer be able to issue charters.
Of the list of 11 authorizers, Lake Superior State University is on the list. This is the authorizing body that granted Dr. Steve Ingersoll’s Smart Schools management company charters to open Grand Traverse Academy and Bay City Academy. Ingersoll is currently indicted for federal felony fraud charges for depositing most of a loan issued by Chemical Bank into his personal account at 5/3 Bank. Chemical Bank provided Ingersoll with the loan to renovate a church for Bay City Academy.
Grand Traverse Academy faces financial problems thanks to Ingersoll extracting prepayments from GTA’s budget for management fees. He also charged the school money for custodial services, then made cleaning the school part of the “character education” curriculum all of his schools include in his education model. To see details about Smart Schools and GTA’s financials, Miss Fortune over at Glistening Quivering Underbelly has blogged about this exhaustively.
Muskegon Heights School District is another school district facing financial problems thanks to its former management company, Mosaica, going $2 million into debt. The state had to bail them out twice during the 2013-2014 school year to cover payroll. Muskegon Heights School District was assigned an emergency manager, Gregory Weatherspoon, by Governor Snyder in 2013. Weatherspoon fired the staff for the Muskegon Heights district without notice and opened management of a new charter school to companies interested in bidding. Grand Valley State University is also on the list of 11 authorizers who must improve or suspend operations.
This is only two cases well-known to the public about charter schools in Northern Michigan taking tax dollars from the state as if they’re withdrawing money from a bank account, then leaving the school millions in debt. Since the Detroit Free Press expose in June showing that charter schools are not providing school choice but rather for-profit schemes to fleece money from the state, Mike Flanagan and the Michigan Department of Education now insist they’re going to do something about the problem. The problem is a simple one to fix: Put the charter school cap back, suspend all charter school authorizers and put the authority to educate Michigan’s children back where it belongs – in public school districts. Michigan’s charter school fiasco is another case of where non-education professionals make education decisions and educating children will never be their priority.. Michigan’s children deserve the best education the state can provide, and that will never happen with corporate capitalists pretending to be educators.
Dean Vanderstelt Hosts Turn 2 Blue Networking Event
Monday , 11, August 2014 Candidates Leave a comment
Enjoy New Sarah Palin Word Salad Light NOW With Fewer Words!
Sunday , 10, August 2014 Uncategorized Leave a commentNo one thought Sarah Palin could be more incoherent when she opens her mouth, but thanks to her new pay-to-play subscriber TV website, we know we thought wrong.
Instead of uttering an actual random word every time she opens her mouth, she has substituted with even more random syllables and grunts. Obviously Sarah will never be a master of off-the-cuff speaking. She’s no more understandable now than she was before, but at least there’s less to make your brain hurt as you try to parse her nonsense into something coherent.
Sarah doesn’t make sense when she talks because she has no idea what she’s talking about. Elizabeth Warren gave an incredible speech at Netroots Nation in Detroit last month. She discussed 11 progressive tenets to improve the lives of all Americans. More Americans enjoying the American Dream offends Sarah Palin deeply as she attacks Warren for her 11 “tenants.” In the video clip Sarah stumbles, grunts, humphs and makes other noises about vegans and purgatory before launching into the usual out of touch with reality spiel on how minimum wage jobs at fast food restaurants are for kids in high school and they don’t need to earn a living wage. Then, curiously, the video clip seems to reach half way and quit.
That’s the problem Sarah doesn’t quite understand. When was the last time a teen met you at the drive-thru window to hand over your diet coke and big mac meal? Teens don’t get those jobs because parents and grandparents work there instead. Sarah doesn’t seem to understand fast food is not a stepping stone to other career options, it’s the dead end for many working families because the jobs they were supposed to step up to disappeared overseas or into the prison industrial system.
You would think Sarah would have something a little better prepared to say a month after Elizabeth Warren made this speech, but this is Sarah after all, the tea party queen of low expectations. Anyway, if pillsmoker.flv wasn’t enough torture for you, the full video can be found here.
And there are people who think that should run for president.
A Tale of Two Political Parties: Democrats Are Way Ahead In The Game
Saturday , 9, August 2014 Candidates Leave a commentThe primary election is behind us. The candidates who made the cut have a moment to celebrate and prepare for the race on November 4. The losers of a race for political office traditionally call the winner and congratulate them, and the winner thanks them. From there, the candidate who lost supports the winning candidate so their party can win the general election.
Unless you’re Justin Amash.
Justin Amash is the US Representative that refused to accept the concession call from Brian Ellis when he won his primary, and instead used his victory speech to eviscerate his opponent for having the audacity to call him. Amash told the crowd as well as Ellis, “I ran for office to stop people like you.” He also used the speech to call Pete Hoekstra a disgrace for appearing in a TV ad for Ellis.
Amash is a good example of how to run a campaign wrong. He won the primary, but people remember a candidate’s behavior, especially when he burns bridges with other politicians. He was primaried for this election because he’s unpopular, he just reminded all of the people who voted against him why they voted against him.
Democratic candidates also had a few primary races. At least one candidate obviously was not really a Democrat but ran to pull votes away from the candidate who did have the support of the party. The good thing is, the Democratic candidates won, and did so gracefully. The candidates who lost also were graceful and professional in conceding defeat.
This is really important in political races because once the primary is over, and even if mudslinging happened between the two candidates, it’s important to have the support of your party to win the general election. A great example of this was Chris LaMarche, who ran against Christopher Germain in the 38th state senate district in the western Upper Peninsula. LaMarche very narrowly lost, but he congratulated Germain for winning and thanked everyone who supported him. Chris LaMarche is 22 and already shows better adult behavior than Justin Amash. I look forward to seeing more of Chris LaMarche in the future.
Christopher Germain is now the candidate to win the 38th state senate race, and already he has other Democratic state senators helping his campaign.
Working together and supporting candidates is part of building a strong political party that wins elections. The Democratic party is already way ahead of the game and on their way to victory in November. .
It can’t be research, watching the news and blogging all the time. August means time to pick blueberries, and that’s what The Up North Progressive did.
These delicious, beautiful Michigan blueberries can be found at Double L Farms in Cadillac.
Your vote matters. Please go vote today. You can use this tool to find out where and look over the candidates and issues on today’s ballot.
Vote NO on Proposal 14-1!
