Primary results

Some surprising and not-so surprising results coming in. Leaf and Evans look to have comfortable leads (Sheriff's race a blowout). Drain commissioner race between Yarger and Englerth as expected. Jarvis and Smith neck and neck for Clerk post. Commissioner races: Lyons beats Ferris, Stolselberg wins, Bremer on top with 3 out of 4 precincts reporting, Houtman winning with 4 out of 5 reporting, and according to WWMT VanNortwick beat himself by 15 votes?!

UPDATE! According to WXMI: Jarvis takes out Smith, Evans wins, Leaf demolishes Sarver, Burghdoff wins, Yarger edges out Englerth. County board winners: Bremer, Houtman, Lyons, Gibson, Stolsenberg and VanNortwick.

UPDATE 2: Complete Barry County results can be found here. Warning: results are in PDF document- it's only 108 KB file though, so even dial up users should be able to access without a long wait.

Pol Watcher's Primary Picks

Here are my picks for the contested races in Barry County in the Tuesday, August 5, 2008 primary...

Barry County Board of Commissioners
Note: District 1 (the city of Hastings) and District 5 (Maple Grove, Castleton and Assyria Townships) have no challengers so the board will retain incumbents Don Nevins and Mike Callton. With two retirements and one commissioner seeking the Drain Commissioner post we know the board will see some turnover even without any incumbents going down. Surprisingly, given that in the last few years we've had some hot button issues on the county level including the Charlton Park millages, the County 9-1-1 charges and counter-suits and the TOST ordinance, most of these races have been low key, almost dull. Compared to the county-wide races, I don't see a similar level of spending or discussion of key issues. Outside of the open seats, it's looks like a good year to be an incumbent.

District 2 (Thornapple and part of Irving Township)- The retirement of James French has paved the way for a field of four challengers. This is a tough choice but I'd have to go with Mike Bremer. His long history of service and involvement with youth recreation make him a good choice. There's no doubt in my mind he's ready to do the job and will represent his constituents well.

District 3 (Hope and Rutland Twp.)- Joe Lyons is challenging incumbent Keith Ferris. I like Ferris' willingness to speak his mind and take tough stands. He's not afraid to lead. In fact, if Ferris wanted the job he could probably be chair- I have no doubt he'd be a solid one. Lyons hasn't given me much of a reason to dump Ferris who's been a very able commissioner and should get another term on the board. I give Lyons credit for running an honorable campaign, and maybe he thinks that enough people know him and will support him but I'd have liked to seen a little more as far as want he wants to do if elected, or even a reason why he's running.

District 4 (Carlton, part of Hastings Charter and Irving Townships)- Incumbent "Hoot" Gibson looked like a promising newcomer four years ago. Sadly, for four years Gibson has gone with the flow, told people what they wanted to hear and generally just soaked up taxpayer money to pay his salary and many per diems while ignoring his many promises from the previous campaign. Denise Straley hasn't run a great campaign but she represents a chance to ditch dead weight and make a politician pay for not fulfilling the promises of their campign rhetoric. Straley also earns high marks for being vocal in supporting the Drug Court.

District 6- (Yankee Springs and part of Orangeville Township)- Commissioner Mark Englerth is stepping aside to run for County Drain Commissioner. Four years ago Englerth ran a tireless campaign to take out incumbent Claire Tripp. Tripp is trying to get her odd job back and needs to be Craig Stolsenberg to do so. Stolsenberg is supported by Englerth who hopefully showed him what it took to defeat Tripp. Englerth doesn't always play well with others and had his trouble being one of 8 commissioners. Meanwhile, Tripp was always a reliable member of the "insiders" who represents the same old politics voters have rejected in the past. The voters of Yankee Springs and Orangeville need to keep Tripp off the board and pick Stolsenberg.

District 7 (Assyria, Baltimore, and Johnstown Townships)- Voters chose wisely four years when they picked Jeff VanNortwick over incumbent Tom Wing. Voters chose wisely again when Wing's supporters tried to single out VanNortwick and attempted to have him recalled for his support of the TOST ordinance. Mike Boles is simply yet another attempt by the same small group to enact political revenge. Voters should once again make the right choice and re-elect VanNortwick.

District 8 (Prairieville, Barry and part of Orangeville Township)- Wayne Adams is retiring and three seek his spot on the board. One, Mark Robinson, already dropped out for "personal" reasons. Issues have surfaced with candidate Robert Houtman who once got into hot water while working in Kalamazoo. The issue resurfaced too close to election time for a full airing of what happened, but it has left many wanting to avoid it coming up after the election is already over and distracting the board from dealing with new issues. Many people I've talked to are reluctantly supporting Jim Alden due to what they see at Houtman's "baggage."

This race is a good example of why I think the debate formula is flawed as it lumped all 8 county board races into one debate and didn't allow for any great back and forth between candidates in individual races or debate of issues specific to any particular race. Next time I hope we can see debates actually take place in the districts for those seats which should spur greater attendance and a more in-depth discussion of the local issues affecting each race.

Barry County Clerk - Incumbent Clerk Debbie Smith is under fire for the recent embezzlement of funds that took place within her office. Two of her employees were stealing money and her office procedures didn't catch the crime. I've never been a fan of Smith and as far as I'm concerned this is the last straw. However, with two challengers in the race we should see the vote split amongst those who agree that Smith's time as clerk should be over. Mark Whitney has ran a good campaign, spent lots of money and seems like a nice man. Whitney, however, is just simply not qualified to do the job and his campaign literature almost admits as much. Whitney might be an acceptable choice when compared to Smith, but voters have a much better choice in Pam Jarvis. Jarvis is experience, professional and fully capable of taking over the job on her first day in the office. Voters should choose Pam Jarvis to be our next County Clerk.

Barry County Drain Commissioner - For some reason the field is crowded with 7 candidates. Perhaps it's the economy. Perhaps it's that for the first time in a long time a Barry County official stepped aside with first appointing a successor. First, let's admit that Kevin Allerding has spent lots of money and campaigned hard but shows absolutely zero qualifications for the job. Jan Kelly seems to be popular in the Nashville area but given that his campaign has mostly consisted of people trumpeting his support from Right to Life (which might have something to due with his church affiliation I'm told), but unless the Drain Commissioners' job is to protect fetuses I'm not sure that means anything. Mark Doster might be qualified but pretty much admitted he's simply a kamikaze candidate aimed at taking down Mark Englerth. Englerth has spent tons of money in his campaign, maybe that money would have been put to better use paying his overdue tax bills. Englerth seems to feel inconvenienced that people, okay Doster, have brought up his delinquent taxes but this was also an issue four years ago and the problem seem to be getting worse. Even more, he's not even the most qualified person in the race. Dennis McKelvey seems very qualified but I haven't noticed any real campaign from him. In the Republican field, Russ Yarger seems to be the best choice if you are looking for experience and knowledge of the position and also looking for someone who can win. Yarger has ran a campaign to win and also has the backing of the current Drain Commissioner, Tom Doyle. In a crowded field there's a real chance someone unqualified could slip through, let's hope voters make solid choice. I think the best shot for voters looking for competence is Russ Yarger in the Republican primary.

You might be thinking I forgot Rosemary Anger. Anger chose to run as a Democrat, perhaps a wise choice given how crowded the GOP primary is and how much the candidates were wiling to spend. Anger is supremely qualified, smart and it would be nice to see a Democrat in a county-wide office for the first time in decades it seems. If one of the lesser candidates gets past voters on the Republican ticket, Anger could be the last chance in November. I'd like to the see the losing GOP candidates back Anger and help her raise money if it means stopping someone who can't do or doesn't deserve the job.

Barry County Prosecutor - Current prosecutor Tom Evans is a very nice guy. He's dedicated to the community and is involved in local causes. His wife is a very personable and friendly woman who has likely helped Evans get where he is. However, I just don't think Evans is a good prosecutor. I said as much four years ago when I decided Julie Nakfoor-Pratt was the choice for voters. However, some saw Pratt as protecting the insider's club and voters gave her the boot. I felt Evans wasn't able to make his case in the campaign and probably wouldn't do much better in court. I think I was proven right, though I'm not gloating about it. Evans went public with sensational charges against 9-1-1 Director Nystrom but seemingly couldn't back them up. Nystrom got a nice retirement gift from taxpayers and even gave back... a suit charging the prosecutor, the sheriff and the local newspaper publisher with a conspiracy to destroy his career. Frankly, Evans seems to me the one that blew it most, going in front of the media with accusations he didn't even seem to know the definition, much less that he could prove. A prosecutor shouldn't go with charges he can't make stick and he sure as hell shouldn't try cases in the media (something which got a former prosecutor in hot water, part of the reason he stepped down and Pratt took over). I don't feel like I'm entirely sold on challenger Kerri Selleck, but given Evans' rather weak record I think voters should give Selleck a chance to prove what she can do.

Barry County Sheriff - It took me a while to decide on this one. On the one hand I feel like Jerry Sarver is often too opposed to making information public, a problem that lead to some of the issues surrounding Barry County 9-1-1. On the other hand, incumbent Sheriff Dar Leaf is simply too cozy with the radical elements that use his support to further their fringe causes. Leaf has also not been a strong enough manager at the local animal shelter and we've seen a recent tragedy involving the deaths of many animals because of a refusal to allow volunteers to work in the shelter due to the presence of jail inmates and an absence of any leadership that would be able to continue the inmate work program and also allow volunteer workers. After the recent political stunt where advocates of limitless gun rights brandished their arms in downtown Hastings, making a circus in order to try to humiliate the Chief of Police in the waning days of a political campaign, I've come to the conclusion that Jerry Sarver should be the next Sheriff of Barry County. Sarver's three degrees (including a Master's in Public Administration) place him head and shoulders above Leaf as far as qualifications, and the fact that he didn't take the bait during the recent Pistol Parade through the downtown streets of Hastings (which, obviously was done with the blessing of Leaf since people heavily involved in his campaign were leading the charge) means he has the temperament to keep his cool when the heat is on.

That's Debatable- Prosecutor Edition

Barry County prosecutor Tom Evans will square off against primary challenger Kerri Selleck tonight (June 26) at 7 p.m. at the Barry County Commission on Aging. The debate will be moderated by attorney David Makled.

That's Debatable- Sheriff's edition

Based on the comments on this blog and from what I'm hearing, the Barry County Sheriff's race may be the "big one" this primary season in Barry County. The candidates will be debating tonight at the Barry County Commission on Aging building on Woodlawn Avenue in Hastings at 7 p.m. Fred Jacobs, publisher of the Hastings Banner, will moderate. I just learned I can't make it so I doubt I'll be posting a recap of it (if I can or if I can tune it in on local radio I'll edit this post later to reflect that). Feel free to post your own reviews in the comments, though let's try to keep this race on the level of who will do the best job and stay away from the "your momma wears combats boots" rhetoric, shall we?

On a related note, I'm glad to see the GOP chair decided to step back from moderating the upcoming primary debates. We saw last election cycle how dangerous it can be when a party chair intervenes in a debate in what was generally seen as an underhanded way set up to aid one particular candidate. I'm also glad that the local Republican Party finally stepped up and decided to quit whining about how the Democratic Party handled the debates and host their own, especially seeing as how it didn't make sense that in a one-party system it was the OTHER party that was actually doing a better job of letting the public know who was running and what they stood for. While it makes sense for the Republican Party to host their own primary debates, I still would prefer to see the debates sponsored by the local media and/or a consortium of local civic organizations especially when it comes to the general election- at least when we manage to get a slate on candidates running on both sides of the political fence.

Mock Election

As most of you know, the states of Michigan and Florida were stripped of their presidential primary delegates when both states broke national party rules and scheduled primary elections before they were allowed to do so. I don't know how or why it is that some people still fail to realize that this mess will only be sorted out once the party has a nominee. Michigan and Florida will not be allowed to decide the nominee for the party, despite news reports that seek to fan the flames of controversy where there isn't even a spark of outrage amongst the actual electorate who realized a long time ago that the Michigan and Florida primaries were a sham whose results can not contribute to deciding a winner. The matter will be resolved when a candidate gains enough outstanding delegates, wins the nomination and orders the delegate of Michigan and Florida to be re-instated only when it no longer matters in a ceremonial gesture of goodwill. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar or a fool.

I personally know way too many Democratic Party members who declined to participate in the mock election for it to stand. In many cases people didn't vote because their preferred candidate had removed their name from the ballot in support of DNC rules. All the candidates agreed not to campaign here at the request of the DNC, making it nothing more than a beauty contest. Simply put, an election in which many of the major candidates names are not even the ballot and none of them campaign here fails the test of being a legitimate election. All the campaigns knew the ground rules and agreed to them.

It sure seems that many of the people who don't seem to get this are the state party officials who created this mess by playing a game of chicken with the Democratic National Committee which refused to blink. Despite repeated assurances that Michigan's delegates from the primary would not count and despite the fact that Michigan voters went to the polls understanding they were likely only casting a "beauty contest" ballot, some still want to create turmoil and gain an unfair advantage for their candidate. In many cases, the state party officials are even threatening that Michigan's voters will somehow be "disenfranchised" by the DNC and may not vote for the Democratic nominee in November. I hate to get all technical here, but that's poppycock.

If Michigan voters were disenfranchised, it was by their own state legislature and Governor who clearly and knowingly broke national party rules when scheduling the primary and ignored repeated DNC warnings that doing so would mean having the state stripped of all its delegates at the national convention. Now, this may have been too harsh a penalty, but it was known ahead of time. Michigan officials had plenty of chances to do what other states have done and have a ceremonial primary with no delegates at stake and then hold a later caucus with binding results.

The ironic thing in all of this is that with the contest still yet to be decided, Michigan could even have moved back its primary and been the major player it sought to be by violating DNC rules and kicking off this fight. Instead of a meaningful contest all we got was a mock election, and Michigan lawmakers and party officials have no one to blame but themselves.

Primary post-mortem

It sure was nice to see that Barry County Commissioner Jeff VanNortwick survived the recall attempt. As many of you surely know VanNortwick was singled out for voting for the TOST ordinance requested by the local health department despite being but one of seven commissioners to vote for it. As many of you also know, VanNortwick beat local Farm Bureau member Tom Wing by a handful of votes and has been a vocal critic of industrial farm pollution. It doesn't take a genius to see why VanNortwick faced recall while the other 7 commissioners who approved TOST got a pass. Many saw his narrow victory over Wing in the GOP primary as evidence of his political weakness yet VanNortwick managed to beat down the recall effort by focusing his energy on a positive grassroots effort that emphasized connecting with neighbors, relatives and friends, going door to door and practicing old fashioned retail politics. It didn't hurt his efforts that the recall campaign never offered anything besides criticism of TOST- one vote- to try to subvert the electoral process and the voters of Baltimore, Johnstown and Assyria Townships soundly rejected it.

While many people see serial recall-instigator George Hubka as the biggest loser in the failed recall effort, I would have to say that Barry County Democratic Party Chair Barb Cichy has a claim to that title in that at least at one time she had the respect of many people who now question her recent actions. Cichy, once a vocal critic of the failures and cronyism of the Southwest Barry Sewer Authority, seemed to be hell-bent on taking out a protector of the environment who happened to be on the ballot with an (R) next to his name. The Democratic Party should offer up a legitimate candidate and support them instead of trying assist this Quixotic effort. The party's political capital and energy would be better spent building up instead of tearing down. Cichy was also an opponent of the Charlton Park millage which was certainly at least understandable, but her free and easy way with numbers and facts in that campaign and the recall effort are not, and neither is her aligning herself and her party with some of Barry County's most suspect characters in the process. It doesn't further the interests of the party or the citizens of Barry County.

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The big winner in the Michigan primary Tuesday night was Mitt Romney, whose mostly self-financed campaign had done well in early states but except for a shallow victory in Wyoming had yet to notch a win that would impress the Beltway insiders. Romney, son of 3-term Michigan Governor George Romney, had the name and the cash to make a stand in Michigan and pulled out a rather decisive victory over John McCain who had taken the state in 2000 and supposedly had momentum which now seems all but lost as they head to South Carolina which derailed McCain's 2000 effort and could do so once again. The nail in McCain's coffin in Michigan was more than likely his blunt and cold assessment of lost manufacturing jobs while Romney pandered and promised the moon, in the eyes of many in the media at least.

Meanwhile, the big loser at the state level was the Democratic Party and the voters. Because of Michigan's decision to move up in the schedule, the state was penalized by the national parties. While the Republican National Committee chose to make Michigan pay by taking away half its delegates, the Democratic National Committee meted out a harsher sentence and stripped the state of all its delegates and threatened candidates with punishment is they campaigned here which resulted in 2 of the 3 Democratic contenders removing their names from the ballot and thus not even making it an interesting diversion. While the country and the Republican candidates talked about the state's issues (which was the intent of those in the state who forced the change), the Democratic candidates were nowhere to be found. What followed was an absurd one-sided discussion which mostly focused on the same George Bush voodoo economics that hasn't worked and never will- and certainly not the cure for what ails us. The argument went mostly unchallenged in the political debate played out via news reports, commercials, etc.

If the national Democratic Party thinks it only punished Mark Brewer and Debbie Dingell then they're simply wrong. Even if they think they only hurt the Democratic activists in the state who might not get the best hotel rooms in Denver for the national convention, they're mistaken. The DNC's overzealous punishment has hurt the party's chances to hold on to Michigan and hurt the country by giving the Republican Party nearly a week of exclusive access to the airwaves and the public consciousness. Then again, Michigan voters probably had less exposure to the recent attempts to drag down the Democratic debate in South Carolina so perhaps the Democrats weren't hurt here so bad after all.

My primary concern

So last time I discussed issues regarding the coming Presidential primary on the Republican side of the ticket and promised to look at the Democratic ballot. However, the race on the Democratic side just isn’t as interesting as the chaotic free-for-all on the Republican side (which seems a reversal in how the 2 parties normally operate). Frankly, the Michigan Democratic Presidential primary ballot looks like swiss cheese as it’s missing 2 or the top 3 contenders for the nomination who needed to vow to Iowans that their votes were more important than yours lest the oh-so-serious voters of Iowa hold it against them and stop their campaigns. For too long, the premier position of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries have ensured that our Presidential campaigns are focused heavily on promises of ever-greater subsidies for corn farmers in Iowa and anti-tax pledges to the wealthy elite in the Granite State and not enough on rust belt concerns like the loss of manufacturing jobs.

As the overwhelming favorite, Senator Hillary Clinton didn’t have as much to lose as the campaigns of Barack Obama and John Edwards and so her campaign chose to remain on the ballot in Michigan while her top 2 competitors asked to have their names removed. In any case, the Michigan Democratic primary results are pretty much nothing more than a beauty contest with no real binding results. In remains to be seen how much the media decides the results are worth (my guess is that it depends on what they've already decided the story will be and whether Michigan's results play into that narrative). It’s a shame seeing as how Edwards’ heavy union support and Obama’s obvious appeal to the many black voters in the Detroit area and independent voters in the “middle” of the state could both be seen as paths to winning the state’s delegates and could have propelled either or both onto the national ticket and helped make Michigan a true player in the march to decide the national party’s nominees.

If you think I sound like I’m less than enthused about Clinton’s candidacy it’s not because I’m against her gaining the nomination, it’s more that I’m traditionally for the most populist candidate as well as usually rooting for the underdog (the two go hand in hand in modern American politics, for reasons I address below), and against the media coronation that seemed to be taking place earlier in the year. Clinton could only be a step up from the blundering and corrupt fool we have in the Oval Office right now- except that the media obsession and irrational hatred of the Clintons lingers. I would have concern that this could prove to be a distraction from governing as it was when President Clinton was launching attacks against al Qaeda in response to their growing threat but all the media wanted to talk about was the missile in the President’s pants. Conveniently, they imitated the right wing’s cries of “wag the dog” but then after September 11, 2001 wailed that Clinton hadn't done enough. I digress, but only to show how the media creates a narrative that isn’t necessarily true but becomes truth through repetition, a lie told often enough...

We’ve seen the media create an “inevitable” campaign (on the Democratic side with Hillary, on the Republican side first with McCain, then Giuliani, then Thomspon, then Romney and now back to McCain- anything to stop Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who’s embrace of theocracy isn’t as disturbing to the media as his economic populism is) only to jump on some minor issue to beat up the leader with and create a horse race because more ratings and more money can be earned from a hotly-contested battle. It’s a long-standing theory of mine that the media will ALWAYS try to create a contest even where there is none because the closer the race, the more advertising money the campaigns will spend with the TV networks and thus they make more money. They also do their best to ensure the “marquee match ups” the same way boxing promoters maneuver their fighters into fights with the biggest purse (in boxing this is done by having your fighter beat up lots of losers to falsely inflate their record to seem more impressive- in politics it's often achieved by raising lots of money as early as possible in the race). It is this quest for the biggest, most expensive battle that has the media trying to coronate Hillary Clinton and only “select” Republican candidates with ties to the Wall Street financiers who helped George W. Bush swamp John McCain in 2000. McCain was best known for his stance in trying to get big money out of the political process- an issue he mostly ignores now.

Another disgusting aspect of this is that the media will often push out voices that don’t align with their profit-making motive. Witness the media silence regarding the fact that Iowa is, despite their best efforts, a tight 3-way race where the John Edwards stands a serious chance of winning or at least finishing in a tight cluster with the other 2 front runners. Edwards has run the most populist campaign in recent memory and speaks out strong and loudly against entrenched corporate interests which threaten to overwhelm our democracy if left unchecked (if it’s not already too late). Edwards was on the ticket in 2004 and has spent a fair amount of time campaigning in Iowa and yet the media treats him as an also ran- it is fair to argue that because of those factors he’s not treated seriously because despite these advantages he’s still in a dead heat but that would require ignoring the obvious appeal of the former First Lady and Senator from New York is running against perhaps the most charismatic Democratic politician since Senator Clinton’s husband left office. The media black out of Edwards is no doubt because the main message of his campaign is that big money (you know, the people who buy ads on network television) has too much power while the citizens don’t have enough. The last thing the traditional media wants to see is a citizenry in control of the political system- no more deregulation, stronger worker protections, FAIR trade, etc. In other words, they cover politics while looking out for their bottom line. Frankly, the mainstream corporate media has become an obstacle in the fight for the citizens of this country to take their democracy back and their coverage of politics proves it.

Despite all the crying and gnashing of teeth at Fox News that Democrats are “too scared” to debate on their network (in fact, it was not the party bosses but the Democratic activists who forced the move as they have cataloged far too many examples of Fox News’ obvious bias in their reporting, including time after time placing a Democrat “D” next to the name of a disgraced Republican, that the network is run by Republican political operatives, most of its pundits are paid by right wing think tanks and is known to have been the first network to wrongly call the 2000 election for candidate Bush) and that this is a sign they only cater to their own base, the network has announced that they will exclude Republican candidate Ron Paul from their New Hampshire debate. Paul recently set the record for one-day on-line campaign fund raising for a presidential candidate. However, Paul’s campaign is outside the parameters the media wants to see and thus they do everything they can to shut out his voice. I strongly disagree with many of Paul’s positions but I would strongly advocate for these positions to be openly debated instead of being shut out completely. Paul has polled consistently better than many of the media darling such as Fred Thompson in the state of New Hampshire and yet Paul is excluded and ignored.

We’ve seen this before when the debate system set up by the 2 major parties shut out 2rd party voices such as Ralph Nader who once again was a loud voice opposed to media deregulation and consolidation and of the influence of corporate America over our political system and the resulting erosion of our freedoms and our rights. The media pretends polls are what matters when polls often only are a reflection of what the media is reporting. It’s a vicious circle in which the media gets to create the winners and losers by what they report and what they exclude and often the winners are the ones that, unsurprisingly, have the positions most in line with the CEOs and shareholders of the giant media conglomerates. Everywhere I go, people are angry and upset at how broken the system is and yet the media does everything it can to ensure that the winners are the ones who most guarantee the least amount of change. I think we’re past the time in American politics where anything short of millions of people of streets can effect much change, and we saw before the idiotic invasion of Iraq that our corporate media will even do its best to ignore and dismiss that.

So, in other words, it doesn’t matter who actually wins or loses in Iowa or even New Hampshire, let alone Michigan. What matters most is what a small group who attend each other’s cocktail parties in the upscale suburbs of Washington D.C., the “chattering class” if you will, decide. They will set up the expectations and they will decide how well the candidates performed against their false expectations and they will control the debates and manufacture a win for their side. No matter what, We The People lose.

For years, people in the other 48 states have decried the influence of two small, mostly white states in our political process which helps to further restrict the national debate by controlling which candidates are even seen as viable in a national election. The time has come to break the system and I applaud those in Michigan who stood up and did their best despite the fact that it backfired and now Michigan and Florida voters have lost the ability to fully participate in the system. Since we never really got a say in the process until it was mostly decided we really haven’t lost much, if anything.

I’d like to think in the next four years we’ll have figured out a better process- though we seem headed for a series of randomly selected, alternating regional primaries which may or may not be an improvement. However, given the fact that the entrenched interests are making serious money off the system as it exists now, the only way things change is if they change in a way that makes the Presidential election an even bigger revenue stream for the big media powers.

There is a slight outside chance that the people can have an influence larger than the media and select candidates willing to step up, listen to the people, lead, and change the corrupt system in place. WE can be the fly in the ointment. It is that small hope that keeps me pressing on. In 2004, the compressed primary season paved the way for a surprise showing for both John Kerry and John Edwards in Iowa (fueled by a desperate Gephardt campaign attacking Howard Dean which helped create the opening- something which could well happen in the GOP field this time, most likely for John McCain as Romney and Huckabee slug it out) that propelled them onto the national ticket. With an even more compressed selection process in place this time, I fear the possibilities are even greater than an early win will prove to be decisive and that only one or two states will get any real say (fueled by the media insistence that any other candidates step down only serves to speed us toward the general election which equals money for the big media companies). There’s a slim chance that an “outsider” candidate could win big early and use the condensed schedule to propel themselves to a surprising victory, but I wouldn’t bet on that happening. In fact, that's my primary concern...

State of confusion

Saturday was an interesting news day for Michigan. First, the state legislature, once again acting at the last minute, finally got a bill passed and signed into law both repealing the sales tax on some services 7 hours after it took effect and replacing the lost revenue with a bump in the new Michigan Business Tax. The AP has the story complete with ridiculous headline (once again pushing the false notion the service tax was widely disliked by the public):

The service tax will be replaced by a 21.99 percent surcharge on the taxes businesses will already pay under the new Michigan Business Tax, which takes effect Jan. 1. The surcharge would be eliminated in 2017 if certain economic conditions are met. Many small businesses don't pay the MBT and won't have to pay the surcharge.

At least the bill got a good number of votes from both sides, passing 66-42 in the House and 33-4 in the Senate even if a solution should have come sooner than after the brand new tax had just come into effect, leaving too many businesses in a state of confusion as to whether they would be responsible for collecting the new service sales tax and once again hurting the state's image.

Also, the Democratic National Committee decided to strip Michigan of its delegates due to an effort by Michigan and a select group of states trying to finally strip Iowa and New Hampshire of their undeserved and overpowering influence in the presidential nomination process.

Michigan, with 156 delegates, has scheduled a Jan. 15 primary. Democratic Party rules prohibit states other than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina from holding nominating contests before Feb. 5.

Despite what I think was a noble effort for a worthy cause, it can only hurt Michigan's influence as it is now totally irrelevant irrelevant as not only will it lose its delegates but most of the major players on the Democratic ticket have asked to have their names removed from the ballot and have promised not to campaign, thus accomplishing the complete opposite of the goal to make Michigan more important in the selection of the 2008 presidential nomination process. The presidential primary has become a joke with states jockeying for better position, leaving the schedule up in the air so long and moving the schedule so far ahead that most people will just be starting to pay attention to the race only to find it already decided with an eternal general election to follow that will leave the country despising both major party candidates once again.