Rochester Eccentric Endorsement for Randy Young for Michigan Representative

The following letter appeared in this week's Rochester Eccentric. You can find out more about Randy Young and please do send him a campaign contribution at www.youngformichigan.com

Fresh perspective needed

I am pleased to see Randy Young is running for the Michigan House of Representatives in our district (45th). I enthusiastically support his candidacy.

I have known Randy for six years, and have worked with him closely on a number of community and organizational issues. I have found that he is always willing to listen, is open to ideas, and puts reason above personalities. Randy's can-do spirit is very clear in the initiatives he undertakes.

Randy was born and raised in this part of Oakland County. He returned here to raise a family and build his career. I know no other person who is more passionate about working to make Michigan's future a bright one. The years he spent living outside of Michigan gives him a fresh perspective of what our state needs to do in order to measure up.

And, fresh perspective is sorely needed in the Lansing legislature. As everyone knows who pays attention to state government these days, Michigan was served badly by last year's gridlock and party divisiveness. Neither side of that standoff did us any good.

Randy answers to no one other than himself. He is a very independent-minded person with a single-minded conviction to fix Michigan and to pull it from the stalemate that locks us between the political parties and self-interested special interests.

I believe that Randy has a vision for Michigan's tomorrow, one that can respond to the changing economics. He understands finance. He understands taxes. He understands what makes Michigan unique among all states, and that includes the woods and water of our great outdoors.

Randy has shown me his willingness to work hard, find solutions, and try new things. Though his is a fairly new name in the public circle, I encourage you to get to know this candidate. He deserves your full consideration.

Dan Keifer

Rochester Hills

Vicki Barnett Makes House Bid official

Congratulations, Vicki. You'll make a great representative for your district.

Barnett makes House bid official
By Stacy Jenkins
OBSERVER STAFF WRITER

Former Farmington Hills Mayor Vicki Barnett officially announced her candidacy this week for the 37th District State House of Representatives.

She announced her candidacy at a town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Costick Center, where she talked about her experience and vision.

"I am proud of my record that for the last 12 years as council member and mayor I balanced the city budget in good times and bad without increasing the local millage rate," Barnett said.

The Farmington Hills Democrat is seeking a two-year term in the House and will face one of two Republican candidates, Paul Welday and Richard Lerner. The seat is currently held by Rep. Aldo Vagnozzi, D-Farmington Hills, who cannot seek re-election due to term limits.

Barnett, a 27-year Farmington Hills resident, said she has the skills that are needed in the House.

"My message is simple," she said. "I have spent 12 years in local government keeping the city strong and sustainable while working in a bipartisan fashion. These skills are sorely missing in Lansing. It's time to elect someone who puts the people first rather than partisan agendas. I have successfully solved problems in a creative way and helped establish Farmington Hills as one of the premier cities in the country, and one of the safest in the state of Michigan."

Barnett is an investment consultant with LPL Financial and continues to serve on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security committee to improve emergency technology. With a long resumé of community service, Barnett was recently honored by Crain's Detroit Business as one of the most influential women in southeast Michigan. She also formed the North Coast Project, which calls for a Great Lakes alliance for economic development.

She is married to attorney Mark Steckloff. They have two children, Samantha and Jordan.

It's good to see that Oakland County Commissioner and a previous winner of our Worst Oakland County Commisser, Bob Gosselin, will have a Democratic challenger.

Gosselin to face opponent in county commission race
By Steve Kowalski
ECCENTRIC STAFF WRITER

Robert Gosselin, the Republican Oakland County Commissioner for District 13 with a conservative record on social and fiscal issues, will be challenged in the primary by a first-time candidate who describes himself as a moderate.

Frank Johnston of Rochester Hills has filed for Gosselin's seat in the Aug. 5 primary. John E. Levin of Bloomfield Hills is the lone Democrat to file.

Deadline to file is 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 13.

Johnston, 28, said he comes from a political family. His father, Philip Weber, was a councilman in Romeo.

The candidate, who ran for a precinct delegate's seat and lost in 2006, said he is pro choice.

"For every question there is not one answer. There are a lot of people out there and not one answer fits everybody," he said. "We need newer thinkers, forward thinkers. By the time I'm 50, our actions now are going to affect children still being born."

Brooks Patterson is a big bag of hot air

Brooks Patterson, being the Republican that he is, just can't help himself. All Republicans ever talk about are taxes and personal responsibility, sometimes known as pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. They have no ideas, other than cutting taxes, mostly on rich people, and mostly the richest 1% of Americans. I suppose that means, that by cutting taxes to nothing, we'd be the most prosperous country in the world. Except there's one little problem with that theory of economics, there are expenses and Republicans have been borrowing money like drunken sailors. In Brooks' case that happens to be true literally, the drunk part anyway. But I digress.

This country has a problem, but it isn't taxes. In fact, Brooks is boasting about the $1 billion in new business that has moved into Oakland county recently. And guess what, they didn't move here because of the tax environment. They moved here because of the skilled work force, which is something Governor Granholm has been saying all along, except Brooks was too busy bloviating to listen, along with all his Republican cronies.

The war in Iraq is killing this country, literally, with over 4,000 soldiers killed in Iraq and economically, with costs now estimated, with all the care required for our veterans, which is being underfunded by the Bush regime, at at least $3 trillion. Now that's a problem. And we owe a lot of that money to the Chinese government. That's another problem. Every American owes over $30,000 in debt just for the war in Iraq. That is not fiscal responsibility in my book. Republicans have no right to claim any degree of fiscal responsibility and polls now show the majority of American trust Democrats to run the economy more than the Republicans and John McCain has admitted on numerous occasions, he really doesn't understand economics. Give him a good war and he's in his comfort zone. And he wants to bring the U.S. more war. John McCain loves war. The more war and carnage the better.

Randy Young, Candidate for the 45th District of Michigan Fundraiser

Randy Young, Democratic candidate for the 45th district of Michigan is having a fundraiser. This is the seat being vacated by John Garfield.

Meet the Democratic Candidate

Randy Young

for

Michigan State Representative

45th District

Rochester, Rochester Hills,

and Oakland Township

May 3, 2008

7:00-9:00 p.m.

(Monetary Donations to Randy’s campaign are encouraged

but not required to attend!)

Michael and Naomi Behrmann

1080 Great Oaks Blvd.

Rochester MI 48307

Call 248-608-2480 to RSVP

www.youngformichigan.com

Email info@youngformichigan.com

Republicans Are So Confused

Oakland County Republicans seem to want to have it both ways. They criticize Democrats for raising our taxes so high that new businesses won't want to open their doors in Michigan, at least that's what they want us to think. Then Joe Knollenberg, when talking about the success of new businesses in Oakland county says the number one reason businesses are choosing to come to Michigan... wait for it... our well trained work force. I think that's what Governor Granholm has been saying all along guys. But do Republicans give the governor any credit for being right on this topic? NO, of course not. They continue to say we have to lower taxes, say we need to address our infrastructure and don't realize that it takes revenue, also known as taxes, to build infrastructure. Why doesn't the media call them on their total lack of a cohesive, effective policy. Republicans have no policy besides cut taxes, which is a panacea for all problems that aren't solved by personal responsibility.

Joe Knollenberg embarrassed by Justin Zatkoff and College Republicans

This post showed up in a conservative blog, bconservative.blogspot.com. It's interesting because it seems to point out that the chair of the Michigan Federation of College Republicans, Justin Zatkoff has become somewhat of an embarrassment to the Joe Knollenberg campaign. Zatkoff offered in a video he recorded to pay expenses for students to travel to Rochester, Michigan to help Joe Knollenberg's campaign knock doors. The video has been removed after some inquiry from The Michigan Review, a conservative newspaper. You can read the article here. You can read the full post from bconservative.blogspot.com here. You can view Zatkoff's video here even though Zatkoff took it down. I captured it before he removed it.

I wonder if Joe will acknowledge that Zatkoff's efforts were possibly breaking campaign finance law and tell voters that his "volunteers" are actually being paid to knock doors for Joe Knollenberg.

218 Days

Since Joe Knollenberg was invited to appear in public to answer questions and has refused to appear and answer questions.

Should Hillary Quit the Race?

Last night was the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner at Cobo Hall. The Oakland Press covered it and from those they talked to came away with the impression that Oakland county Democrats want the race between Hillary and Barack to go on. I guess I'd agree, but I hope she will fight clean. Now that Mark Penn has resigned from the campaign, maybe the dirty campaigning and less than honest stories will stop. Let's not give the Republicans more fodder for the fall. And no more 3 a.m. phone calls, please.
CLICK HERE for the rest of the story.

David Gorcyca, Oakland's cowardly prosecutor

This is a very interesting piece I found in today's Detroit Free Press. David Gorcyca is under investigation for his possible prosecutorial malfeasance involved in the James Perry case. No wonder he isn't running for re-election.

Oakland's cowardly prosecutor

BY BRIAN DICKERSON • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • April 4, 2008

Greeting you on your return from an out-of-town business trip, your next-door neighbor complains that your teenage son nearly struck her dog early the previous afternoon in your new pickup, which you have expressly forbidden the boy to drive.

Your son vehemently denies borrowing the truck, but you ground him anyway and order him to spend the weekend resealing your deck without fee.

A few hours later, your son's basketball coach and his assistant stop by to protest that your son spent the previous afternoon and evening at an away basketball game, precluding any possibility that he could have been using your truck at the same time.

Should you A) apologize to your son and rescind his punishment? B) explain that you're now uncertain about his guilt and offer to pay him for resealing your deck? Or C) lock them in a closet until your son has finished the free resealing job?

Protecting jurors from the truth

If you chose C), you just might have what it takes to work for Oakland County Prosecutor Dave Gorcyca, who apparently will stop at nothing to avoid admitting that his office may have put an innocent man behind bars.

When we last encountered Gorcyca, he was desperately trying to block a new trial for former kindergarten teacher James Perry, whom the Oakland prosecutor accused of sexually assaulting two young boys in an empty Oak Park elementary school classroom.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the story

Naomi Wolf at OU last night

There were about 100 people last night at Oakland University to hear Naomi Wolf talk about The End of America, Letters to a Young Patriot. Naomi went through the 10 steps that always lead to a totalitarian society. America has already gone through all ten steps and is well on its way, incrementally, to becoming a totalitarian society. That's why this next election is so important and why it's also important to become active as individuals. It will take millions of us all rising up together to stop what has begun under the Bush administration.

We can't be lazy Americans any more and take our democracy for granted. We have to get out in the streets and protest what is well underway. It started slowly in Germany, Italy, Chile and other countries where fascism eventually took over. If we do nothing as citizens, we know what the result will be under a unitary executive presidency.

Stabenow's husband admits he paid for sex in Troy Hotel

Since this story is all over the local newspapers, I feel compelled to tell my readers too. Hopefully the furor will die down and Debbie and Tom can work through this.

Naomi Wolf at OU tonight 7 p.m.

Naomi Wolf will be at Oakland University tonight at 7 p.m. Here is an interview she did about her book in Nobember 2007.


CLICK HERE to do something, the American Freedom Campaign is our best chance to turn things around.