Michigan's 71st District Representative Seat: First of Three Candidate Comparison Series

Note: This will be the first of three consecutive Blog Posts looking at three of the four registered Republican candidates for Michigan's 71st District State House Seat. I'm covering this seat specifically because it's the seat of 'my' representative and therefor it matters more to me than others. I will NOT be posting any stories on any of the Democrat candidates due to the fact that I do not like or trust Democrats and 'Rule #1- This is MY BLOG, LOL! Additionally, even though there are actually four registered Republicans running for the 71st Seat I have only invited three of them: Cheryl Haddock, Britt Slocum, and Laurie Raines to offer features on their candidacies. The honest reason for this is that I don't particularly respect or trust the fourth candidate, Deb Shaughnessy. Actions, statements and behavior by her, when she served as Mayor of Charlotte DO NOT, in my opinion lend themselves to the type of person worthy of elected office. If you're offended by my non-inclusion of Deb Shaughnessy, I'll offer my apology and refer back to Rule#1.

My desire in this exercise is to allow my readers a forum to objectively review and compare the backgrounds, beliefs and goals of sincere candidates for an important representative seat. I hope you find these three consecutive articles helpful in making your decision.
-Mark






Leadership We Need
by Cheryl Haddock

Hello, I am Cheryl Hadddock of Grand Ledge, and I am running for Michigan's 71st District State Representative Seat. When Rick Jones entered his final term for State Representative, I had many friends, family members and community leaders approach me about becoming a candidate.

Running for elective office was never a goal of mine. Many people in the community have been very encouraging. They want credible leadership. I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with my good friend, State Representative Rick Jones, for many years going back to the time he was our Sheriff. Rick has been an exemplary leader and has served us well during the last 5 years in the House of Representatives. Now that he is unable to run for re-election because of term limits, I have decided to become a candidate because I want to continue serving our community. I love Michigan and it pains me to see people struggling to find work, struggling to make ends meet, and struggling to take care of their families.

FAMILY FIRST:

I have been happily married for 24 years to Phillip Haddock, who is the Chief Underwriter for a privately owned bank. Phillip and I have two adoptive children, Alexander, age 18, and Francesca, age 13. We are active members of our church and have served in church and civic leadership roles for over 22 years. A Michigan native, I have lived in Eaton County for more than 30 years and I was raised in the automotive industry – specifically automotive dealership operations managed by my father. Additionally, I have spent many years working on our family farm that taught me the values of hard work, honesty and responsibility.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES:

I am currently the Executive Director of the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Eaton County. I have developed effective child abuse prevention programs and awareness initiatives that have saved many kids from abuse and neglect. I have a lengthy resume’ of appointments and community service involvement with human services agencies and charities all across the mid-Michigan area. My service includes being a licensed foster parent for 10 years for newborn infants that were being placed for adoption.

Over the last decade, I have successfully run a non-profit business that serves several thousand families in our community every year. Under my leadership, this organization expanded programs and nearly quadrupled income and funding sources. My leadership roles on numerous non-profit and civic boards make me uniquely qualified to lead in Lansing .

A TURNAROUND PLAN:

For seven and a half years, the people of Michigan have heard a lot of talk; I feel we need less political posturing and more results. Most importantly, we need effective leaders serving in the legislature who have the ability and also the credibility to get things done. In Lansing,the Governor and those in her party, play political games that balance the budget on the backs of seniors, children and hard working families. Meanwhile our State continues to hemorrhage jobs. Enough is enough.

My Turnaround Plan is a common sense approach aimed at making the tough but necessary decisions that leaders in Lansing have refused to make:

*MAKE MICHIGAN COMPETITIVE-

I know lower taxes and less burdensome regulations allow businesses to create more jobs and opportunities right here in our community.

-Reform the Michigan Business Tax
-Eliminate burdensome regulations and accelerate the permit process to jumpstart economic development
-Stop picking winners and losers and create a business environment that attracts ALL job providers

*PROTECT TAXPAYERS-

In these tough economic times, Cheryl understands that every dollar in your pocket is important to meeting the needs of your family.

-End the reckless spending
-Stop income tax increases
-Stop gas tax increases
-Stop new taxes on everyday services

*KEEP COMMUNITIES SAFE-
I am committed to stop state government from putting more criminals back on the streets with early releases of violent offenders.

State government must live within its means and focus on core responsibilities. Good ideas and plans on paper won’t change anything without the leadership to deliver results. I know we can make Michigan competitive again. We just need the right leadership and courage to make the right decisions. For more information visit www.CherylHaddock.com.

Ok Mr. Politician, do we have your attention now? Can you Spell CONSTITUTION!

by Mark Baker


It's apparently indeed getting quite hot under the collar for RINO's within the GOP as these pesky damn Conservatives within the party just won't shut-up about that whole 'Constitution-thing!' I experienced an example of this phenomenon the other day after posting on FaceBook a link to an article from Arizona Governor Jan Brewer regarding her joining forces with Sarah Palin to fight for stronger boarder enforcement. While I really appreciate and respect Arizona Governor Brewer, I was a little concerned that she'd feel she needed Sarah Palin's help to do the right thing.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for defending our boarders against criminal trespassers, but I'm justifiably concerned with Palin's involvement given her numerous 'Moderate' endorsements of late (read LIBERAL). Now that the Democrats have finally boldly come out of the closet as the loud, proud, socialists we always suspected they were, the battle focus has shifted to the GOP where many other socialists have for years, also hidden under sub-titles such as 'Moderates' and 'Progressives.'

We Republicans need to get beyond the symantics of word-games and determine what the party actually stands for. For example, what's actually meant by the word 'Moderate?' Do you see John McCain as a moderate? Did you view Arlen Specter as a 'Moderate?' Or, how about the word 'Progressive;' there's the latest one that Democrats have kidnapped to mask the term 'Liberal,' which use to exist to mask the word 'Socialist.' Again, I've heard some fellow Republicans refer to themselves as Moderates, or 'Progressives.' If we are to categorize our party by a word or two, rather than 'Moderate,' or 'Progressive,' why don't we use words like 'Conservative' or 'Constitutionalist' which have always supposedly been at the core of what we are.

I've been (by that I mean voted, volunteered-for, ran campaigns-of, and donated-to) Republican since I was old enough to first vote for Reagan. If we dismiss word symantics and look at it logically, we'd realize that since 1980, while America's had three Republican Presidents: Reagan, Bush the elder, and Bush the son; in truth we've only had ONE Conservative President, Ronald Reagan @ 8 years, and FOUR 'Progressive' (read Socialist) Presidents @ 21 years and counting. Now don't misunderstand me, I voted for Reagan twice (and was very happy), voted for George HW Bush twice (and was EXTREMELY UNHAPPY with him), George 'W' Bush twice (and was quite unhappy with him), and last election, I like millions just like me, took a deep breath, pinched my nose and voted for John Sydney McCain only because the 'National Party' system 'Dole'd' us again AND the fact that pretty Mrs. Palin was on the ticket with him and we thought maybe there'd be a chance the old nasty RINO bastard might die in office.

So the Dems are able to win with a Card Carrying Allinskite Socialist whose got less elected experience than the average Dog-Catcher, who proceeds to spend money we don't have -at a rate that would make a teenage girl in the mall with daddy's credit card blush, while at the same time borrows unprecedented amounts of money we can't pay back from a long-standing strategic enemy. Oh wait, while using our Constitution as toilet paper for good measure!

So, in response to those socialists hiding within the GOP under various stylish names, who constantly question whether if we should " make room for more moderates' in the GOP?" My short answer would be NO! Not at the national, state, county, or 'Dog-Catcher' level. If the GOP wants to be a "Big Tent Party" no problem, all they need to do is dedicate themselves to our CONSTITUTION and Conservative Principles (Fiscal & Social) it espouses. Do that and they won't be able to find a tent big enough to hold all of us. However, if they can't get down with such 'Radical Themes' of radical thinkers like Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, and yes, Reagan. Then they should just put on some 'Big Boy Pants' and admit it. We can then move forward with honest divorce proceedings whereby depending on which party 'keeps the house,' they can either go join the democrat-socialists they've been shacking-up with behind our backs for years, or wise-up and read and start abiding-by the Constitution. OR... they can continue to try to with their exposed 'Moderate/SOCIALIST/Progressive' ways and see how that works out for them...

NOTES: While Specter and McCain are classic examples of RINO's at the national level, there are hundreds more at the combined national, state, county and local, municiple levels as well. And it's vital to realize that not all are necessarally socialists at heart, they ALL are disengenuous deal-makers who will either partake in corruption or willingly 'look the other way' for 'favors,' or to 'go-along to get-along.' For the first time since our Founding Fathers stood-up to tyranny and establihed our Constitutional Republic, 'We the People' are beating back modern tyrants by exposing lies and liers. Press On...

ACTION ALERT: Alien Abductions Reason for Weak & Failed Broadband Signals

by, Mark D. Baker



NEWSFLASH, Grand Ledge, MI:

Have YOU been suffering from ever-weakening Internet Service Signal Strength? I'm afraid it's the Aliens! Yes it's true, and it's getting worse at a much faster rate than I anticipated in my initial projections. They've been randomly abducting unsuspecting internet service signals from mostly the southwest US, but lately they've been doing a few 'sapper' raids deep into the heart of the midwest as well.

They've been.... sorry, I had to gather myself for a moment. They've been taking the poor little signals, hanging them out to dry for an hour or so, then placing them upon greacen rolls (in some cases even toasted/lightly buttered rye {the dirty bastards}), then covering them with fellow-abducted lettuce and then drowning them all with humus! People it's horrible. I've even seen with MY OWN eyes, bits and pieces of what used to be little innocent sprigs of cilantro! The poor little fellas never got the chance to grow into medium-sized sprigs, let alone dream of adult 'Sprighood.'

So my friends, I implore you to contact your Internet Service Provider and DEMAND they spend some of their lofty profits on more robust ISCAAM (Internet Service Counter-Alien-Abduction Measures) protections. If you're too lazy to do it for yourself, do it for our children!


In a related twist to this story is an example of what is becoming a ever-more frequent response to righteous outrage over dropped cell calls and slow internet connections across our country. Grand Ledge's oldest resident, 123 year old Maude Stackman yesterday tossed her 'Jetterbug' brand cell phone down the storm drain outside the Grand Ledge McDonalds to protest the damage being wrought in America by aliens. When asked what prompted her to become so incensed as to toss her cell down the drain, Maude responded: "Number One Sunny boy, I didn't even want one of these new-fangled ray-beam phones, but when my Great Grandbaby Cari found me one with buttons big enough to dial with my nose, I said ok; I may be 123 years old but I ain't no stick-in-the-mud fuddy-dutty." She further added: "These gosh-awful aliens are just plain cussid and something needs to be done about 'em! And Number Two, my State Representative, Riccardo Josepheppi is pushing a bill that will make it illegal for me to even use the dang thing while driving my late Alfred's old '63 Dodge Dart, so what's the use!" "And Number Three young man, I'm just a bit extra crotchity today because all these out-of-towners keep complementing me on 'my costume!' I'll have you know I've been dressin this same way since ought-seven! THAT'S WHY!"

Word spread quickly through this normally quiet little hamlet, 10 miles west of Michigan's capitol. But yesterday was Grand Ledge's Annual 'Victorian Days' celebration, so the little town was filled to the brim with families, and visitors for the annual VD Parade. Soon this reporter was part of an ever-expanding crowd of people from all walks of life, age, race, internet-service-provider and creed, that had gathered in the McDonald's parking lot around Great Grandma Stackman.

They ALL listened (some teenagers there even went so far as to MUTE their incoming text-messages) as Maude's rhetoric segued from the her disgust with alien's messing with our 'God-given' cell-phones, self-serving media-hound politicians, and people mistaking her for a 'Parade Prop' to real substantive heartfelt stories about the need to re-establish using 'the switch' today, if not behind a woodshed than perhaps the satellite dish; the simple virtues-of and need-to re-establishing 'Courtship' between men & women and why it's good to not "peek under the bloomers till after the wedding because those things all work out well if couples'll just connect the dots instead of carrying-on like crass cattle in the field;" finally to the eloquence, timeless-applicability and importance-of our Constitution and the Republic it was written to serve and protect! I watched as all these people were visibly MOVED. Granted a small number of the crowd were visably moved as their poorly masticated McWraps laid siege to their lower intestines, but the vast majority of the crowd were moved by and changed by Maude Stackman's timeless Wisdom.

Mark's Notes: Hope this little story caused you to chuckle in joy as well as reflect on the Wisdom of our Parents, Grand Parents, Great Grand Parents and Founding Fathers. Because of our love for our Children. We should willingly step to the plate in this, 'Our Time of Service,' to be counted as Freedom-Loving Americans who will get off our duffs to promote, restore and forever vigilantly defend, our Great Constitutional Republic.

BTW, Maude & Alfred were indeed actually my Great Grandparents; they did own a cool old '63 Dodge Dart; they both 'a time or two' DID spank my young unruly behind for my benefit, and they and millions just like them, DID live and pass-on to there children, the timeless wisdom of our Founders. The question that our countries survival as a Free Land begs to ask is: Will WE exhibit and pass-on to OUR Children these treasures?

Press On,
-Mark