87th District update- Let the games begin!

In the words of Gomer Pyle in the Andy Griffith Show, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”

I was blindsided by by a couple of late candidate filings by people I really do not know. So that late flurry of activity leaves us, for all practical purposes, with six candidates for 87th District State Rep. As promised, we had candidate filings from Brian Reynolds, Susan Vlietstra, Brain Calley and Jim Bailey, but Trombley and Tom Lower of Ionia were added to the list on filing deadline day Tuesday, making things even saucier for the next two and half months. Let the games begin.

I know little if anything about that second candidate from Ionia. Trombley, who is in the real estate trade, tells me he that he reads the site in regular basis and is a citizen candidate who is pro-casino, supports the “Fire the Senate” movement and wants to eliminate the Single Business Tax in a responsible manner. So where does he differ with Reynolds? We know there isn’t a heckuva lot of difference between Vlietstra, Bailey and Calley, all of whom pretty much toe the party line and will do whatever the GOP bigwigs and special interests tell them to. Reynolds and Trombley are different, but they’re different together. The waters have been muddied.

The name of the game remains finding a way to beat the anointed Calley, who is being supported heavily by outgoing term-limited State Rep. Gary Newell. Our state rep. in the last six years is widely regarded in Barry County as a big disappointment because of his penchant for doing the bidding of the health care lobby and public safety lobby, but not ordinary citizens in his district. So why would these citizens who have been short-shrifted elect the same old worn out slick politician style candidate who wants to cut taxes for business and just keep doing what we’ve been doing? It’s called marketing. Calley has been carefully groomed to succeed Newell and he has a lot of big money from doctors and lawyers backing him for advertising. He’s the pick of the machine. He’s a good boy, safe for the GOP, much in the same way Fulton Sheen is for Allegan County and Glenn Steil is for southwestern Kent County. They all walk alike, talk alike, smile and kiss babies very skillfully. They all stay on message and do a nice little dance in which they tell you nothing substantive while blowing smoke up your ass. As I stated here before, Calley is good at telling you what he thinks you want to hear. Then he’ll go to Lansing and get into bed with the monied interests who help get him elected. Put a bullseye on Calley’s back. Can he and his machine be stopped? One wag told me he’d like to see Reynolds, Trombley and Vlietstra form a coalition behind one of the three of them and pull an upset in a march to a “different drummer” toward the land of the mavericks- anyone want to set up a conference call or a smoke-filled room to hash out a deal?

On another note: I was pleased to see that someone stepped up to the plate to run against the Unsinkable Patty Birkholtz, but it’s the same lady, a Democrat to boot, who lost badly in the November 2004 general election. She needs to get fire in her belly fast or she will indeed, as one commentator here recently said, be squashed like a grape (though I have to admit that's likely to happen no matter how she campaigns- the best chance to take her out would have been in the primary). I was very disappointed that no Republican decided to step up to the plate and try to stop Patty. Our democracy doesn't work as well when ballot slots go uncontested and politicians get a cake walk to another term with the disgruntled voter having no outlet for their anger- another reason so many have given up even bothering to vote at all.

Meanwhile, Mark Doster’s name remains on the ballot, though he’s said he’s out. And Frank Campbell had the smarts to pull out. Interestingly, Campbell was rumored to have indicated his disappointment in the Republican Party bigwigs’ apparent support of Calley. So I’m not just blowing smoke like you know who.

It will be a fun race to watch. Let the games begin!