Just a note that Governor Granholm will deliver her “State of the State” address tonight at 7:00pm.  You can find it on any local Michigan channel and the remarks should be posted on her State website afterwards.

You can also find it on MichiganLiberal.com and BloggingForMichigan.com – two wonderful progressive blogs which I follow on a daily basis (and wish I had more time to post on)

So far, details have been sort of mum about exactly she’ll talk about.  We have been hearing about proposals to reduce state government from 18 to 8 departments over the next few years.  Also, other suggestions such as de-funding the state fairs in Detroit and Escanaba and asking State Universities to freeze tuition for a year (hellz yes!) have been rumored.  The other big question is will she address the incoming (hopefully) federal stimulus money.

I’ll be watching on my Blackberry in the lobby waiting to go see SPAMALOT in Detroit tonight.  I’ll try to post something about the address in the next few days.

Keeping with my “too busy to saddle everything down  a lot of opinion” streak I’ve been having, I wanted to share the opening remarks from MI House Speaker Andy Dillion (D).  There were some very notable bits of information and some lofty goals involved.  Only time will tell whether it is all rhetoric and words, or if there is actually strength behind those words.  Hopefully with a newer and stronger  Democratic majority, we can move some progressive legislative forward!

Some excerts (and one bit of disgreement) are included below the fold:

However, meaningful tax reform can only come through a ballot initiative so we can address constitutional provisions that prevent us from legislating comprehensive reform. For this reason, I ask the Senate and the Governor to join us in crafting a job-creating, comprehensive tax reform measure that we can put before the voters.

…

We must live within our means while at the same time protecting education, investing in job creation and worker training, assuring access to health care for our most vulnerable citizens, and maintaining police and fire protection for our communities.

 

Research shows that the new economy thrives in areas that provide access to a quality education, skilled workforce, first-class infrastructure, and a great quality of life. These values must be reflected in our legislative priorities.

…

That is why we must, once again, send the Senate the plan to cut our own pay and end free lifetime health care benefits for legislators after just six years of service. I ask the Senate to join this chamber on these measures. If we are going to ask others to sacrifice, we must lead by example.

They all sound like reasonable goals.  Some of those priorities were passed last session in the House, but died in the Senate.  With the Senate not up for election in 2008, nothing changed there on a member level; but hopefully some got the message that we’re ready for progress and we won’t allow them to stand in our way any longer.

Of course, I do have issues with some of those goals them, but that is for another day.

I did have one issue with a particular statement as well.  The speaker is a businessman, and I can respect that, but following quote doesn’t belong in this speech, espcially during a time when people need government more than ever:

If we can’t run government more like a business, then we have no business running government.

I wholeheartedly disagree Mr Speaker.  Yes, Government does need to be more efficient and we have a heavy workload ahead in that regard.  But a business is in it to make a profit, government is in existence to protect our property and give the people the means to improve their lives.  We can take some lesson from business models, but government sure doesn’t need to look like one.

Any other opinions on the speech?

The Michigan Department of Labor released unemployment statistics for all 83 counties in Michigan through November 2008.  Mackinac comes in last with 19.6% and Washtenaw comes in first with 6.0%.  You can find the news release, including the numbers, here.    More to come on this when I have more time.

Well, it has certainly been a while since I last wrote on here; the blog has actually been dormant for nearly five months!  But those five months were filled with incredible excitement and life changing experiences which I am sure will come out in future posts. 

For the time being,  just wanted to let people know that things still start to become active again in the next few days.  You’ll start to notice some changes, such as content, scheme, quality of information and most likely a new name.

I’ll be busy job hunting too, so that’ll slow down redevelopment a bit.  If anyone has a political job opening, don’t hesitate to contact me!    Take care!

UPDATE:  So, the name has reverted back to the original (Political Chaos), the theme has become somewhat more simple (and I like the colors better) and I have removed most of the Campaign Adventure material.  More changes to come in the near future!

UPDATE2: Added a ‘Helpful Links’ page for research on State Politics; Michigan related federal political sources will follow.

So, I realize it has been well over a week since I last updated this, but once again, I have been busy!

My family can up to visit last weekend (Saturday afternoon – Sunday afternoon), so I spent my day off taking them all over the county and even to WEST VIRGINIA!  I was excited to go to WV – I only live like 30 minutes away and I had never been there, so I figured it would be a good thing to do…. it was fun!

The campaign is going well.  We’re all staying busy – only 65 more days until the election – and I am doing everything I can to elect my candidate.  I’ve been working a lot of 12-15 hour days, but most of my time is spent in the office doing finance and communications work, so at least I am not out walking and knocking on doors for 15 hours every day!  I’m getting better at my job everyday and I am pouring everything I have into it, which is a lot since I have a strong work ethic… most days.

Outside of the campaign work, I have been going out some nights with friends and just having a good time.  People around here are pretty nice for the most part – the people i hang out with I met through the campaign, which means they are Democrats, which makes them cool!  And while I don’t have a lot of time to party and hang out, I’ve been doing it when I can.  School starts in a week here.  They are on quarters instead of semesters, so they go from the second week of September until November and then they get from Thanksgiving all the way until January off… its crazy.  But since school starts in a week, the ‘tranformation’ of town is beginning as thousands of students move in to rented housing and (soon) the dorms.

i played Putt-Putt golf today with the people who are housing me.  In case I didn’t mention it before, they are amazing people and I am so lucky to be living with them!!   They have been taking care of me far better than I ever envisioned I would be taken care of on the trail and every day I think how lucky I am to be living with them!

For the Democratic Vice Presidential spot, my guess was Tim Kaine.  So, I was slightly disappointed when Obama picked Biden – but now that the convention is over and I have learned more about Biden, I am more comfortable with him.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate…. SARAH PALIN!!!???  Where did she come from?  Way outta left field (or should I say ‘right’ field in this case).  I think it’s awesome that McCain picked a woman, but I hope (for his sake) that he picked her for her credentials and not to get women to vote for him because I don’t think it’ll work.  She’s totally and completely pro-life (no exceptions at all even for rape, incest and danger to the mother), she wants to drill, drill, drill in ANWAR (she is the Governor of Alaska, in case you didn’t know that) and she is all about continuing Bush’s tax cuts and supplyside economics.  Oh, and she has less experience than Obama.  Like I said, it think it’s cool that he picked her because now no matter who wins in November, we’ll be breaking some sort of barrier (first black president, first woman VP) but good luck getting those Hillary supporters.

Also, the Democratic National Convention took place this past week.  I would suggest watching Ted Kennedy’s Speech from Monday night, DENNIS KUCINICH from Tuesday Morning, Hillary’s from Tuesday night, Bill Clinton’s from Wednesday night and obviously Barack Obama’s from Thursday.  It was very inspiring.  I have finally taken my Hillary stickers off my car and computer… i even have an Obama sticker for my computer already!

It’s supposed to be hot for the forseeable future here – like 90 degrees.  Yuck, but I think I’ll survive.

I hope all is well with everyone!  Update me on whats going on with you! 

My thoughts go out the everyone evacuating the Golf Coast right now – I hope everything goes well and everyone is safe and able to return home soon.

Take care!

Christopher!

Ok, so I originally developed this blog in order to easily keep people updated on how everything was going with me during my stint as a professional campaig worker – I hit a few snags along the way (mostly that I couldn’t talk about the training) and have had a complete lack of time to update this.  But I have today off, so here is some basic information on how things are going.

I have been placed in SE Ohio (to keep a level of protection, I will not name the town right now) working on a state house race.  The town is home to Ohio University (google it, you’ll figure out exactly where I am at) and I really like it – it reminds me a lot of Marquette and most people are incredibly friendly down here!   It is surrounded by mountains and rivers… it is officially part of ‘Appalachia’ which is kind of cool.

The race is incredbily important in OH as the Democrats only need to pick up 4 seats in the House in order to claim a majority; things are looking very good right now for this seat.  My candidate is an AMAZING woman who nearly beat the incumbant last year (lost by less than 2% – somewhere around 800 votes) and in the two weeks I have been here, I have really developed a sense of loyalty to the campaign and especially to her (which is why I am being vague about some stuff to make sure this can’t be used against her).

I am doing a lot of finance work for the campaign and some communications stuff as well – I’m liking it most of the time, although it is sort of frustrating to walk into a situation I don’t know much about and figure it out.  I’m putting together fundraisers and helping get everything in order so my candidate can call more people.

I went to Columbus and Cambridge this past week and had a lot of fun… we took a lot of pictures and did some TV stuff.  Oh, by the way, I’ll be on TV in Ohio in a few different districts since I was an extra for some of the other campaigns.  I’ve also been to two county fairs so far, two parades, two demolition derbies (awesome!) and a plethora of other events.

The office is just me, the candidate and our campaign manager… we’re getting one more person sometime this week to do field work.  We also do have a bunch of interns working on the campaign doing a lot of the ground work, which leaves me to really experience the inside of a campaign; it’s pretty cool to have a ‘desk’ and specific work to do!

I lived for a week with a very nice couple with a small 14month old boy… he was adorabled and the people were incredibly friendly and I really enjoyed staying with them.  Now I am living with a very sweet couple who both run nonprofits and are just all around amazing people.  I’ve got my own room and half bathroom which is awesome.  I’m making myself right at home and really enjoying what little time I have off from the campaign.

It should be noted that I had a ton of fun at the training and my team actually won the competition (I’ll be able to give a thorough description of the whole process next time I see you).

Well, I am going to go do something fun like rollerblade or something.  I’ll try to update this as often as possible, but it’ll most likely be once a week or so… most likely on Sunday!  I hope all is well with everyone who reads this and be sure to drop a comment or leave me a e-mail (you should have my address) and let me know how things are going with you.

Obama campaign released June numbers today and they are indeed impressive.  From an e-mail (and on the website) sent out to supporters today:

Because of your generosity and commitment, we’re reporting to the press today that this campaign is in a very strong financial position.

In the month of June, supporters like you helped raise $52 million.

But more impressive than the number is how you did it. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people contributed to building our campaign for change. Many were first-time donors, giving only what they could afford — and the average donation was just $68.

…

They go on to say that between McCain and the RNC, Obama is actually at a disadvantage, but I am not sure how much of a disadvantge he is really at.  After all, McCain only raised 22M in June.  But I suppose a $400M campaign between McCain’s campaign and the RNC (see previous post) would worry me a bit, even if I did raise $52M in 30 days.  Theres not much else to say on this except: Good job Obama!

This is a day old, but being from Midland, the global headquarters of Dow Chemical (and NO, I don’t glow at night… not yet), anytime Dow does anything it is big news here.  So, in the backdrop of GM’s disappointing announcement, Dow made its own announcement which really made quite a few people very happy.

From the Midland Daily News:

The Dow Chemical Co.’s $11 billion joint venture with Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co. will be headquartered in Michigan.

…

The exact city also hasn’t been determined, with the decision to be partially based on approval of incentives offered to the company.

Dow President and CEO Andrew Liveris said the choice of Michigan for the headquarters was consistent with the positive business environment in Michigan, where Dow has more than 110 years of history. Dow’s corporate center is in Midland.

First off, please notice the large, bold statement:  POSITIVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IN MICHIGAN!  Coming from Dow, that is big.  I believe it means that Republicans should just keep quiet and continue doing things that way we’re doing them.  We don’t need MORE tax breaks and less regulation if a company like Dow Chemical is willing to deal with what we have in place.

Secondly, while I am far from always proud of Dow (cutting union wages, Dioxin contamination, etc…), I would like to take this opprtunity to say ‘Good Job Dow!”.  Choosing Michigan was a wise choice and one they will not be disappointed in.  The article mentions that they wil choose a SE Michigan site for the headquarters, which shows that Michigan’s diversity, especially having the largest concentration of arab speaking citizens outside of the Middle East, is a true asset to Michigan and we must continue to embrace it!

I’ll try to keep you all updated on this whenever I get the chance!

Michigan’s very own Senator Debbie Stabenow managed a recent meeting in Washington DC between Democratic leadership and 17 CEOs of large trade groups. Below are some highlights from the Politico article:

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who managed the meeting for the leadership, called in the CEOs of the city’s most powerful trade associations to circumvent what Democrats consider their more partisan lobbyists — many of whom are Republicans with long-standing ties to the power structure that got toppled in 2006.

…

One of the business leaders said that Reid and Stabenow were explicit in expressing the importance of dialogue with the business community. He said the Democrats then let their guests do most of the talking.

“People left the meeting with a very positive sense that the Democrats are interested in engaging with the business community in a more broad-minded way than has been in the past,” he said.

The Democrats delivered their message through compliments rather than direct threats. A Democratic aide who attended the meeting said the senators “were thanking people for having broken [from Republicans] on certain things.”

The biotech lobby was thanked for its help with tax extenders and stem cells. PhRMA, which didn’t make the meeting because its leader was ill, was called out for its help with the Medicare push.

I would strongly suggest reading the entire article as it is certainly worth the read.  It is nice to know that my Senator is working to bring everyone into the fold and is doing her part to stop partisan gridlock.  Especially when you consider how much Republicans and big-business like to brand Senator Stabenow as a ‘protectionist’ and ‘anti-growth’, etc, it is nice to see her taking such a pro-business step!

I just stumbled across an editorial from the Lansing State (July 10, 2008 edition) which brings out a very simple point about no-reason absentee voting.  It notes that in the Reform Michigan NOW ballot proposal, on section creates no reason absentee voting.  Well, why can’t the legislature just do it?  They have tried in the past and yet nothing has ever been able to make it to law.  Below is an excert:

In Michigan, unless you are a senior citizen, you are required to provide a proper reason for requesting a ballot before Election Day.

This is an impediment to voting – and unfair. Why should senior citizens be given a voting option denied to younger voters?

Year after year, legislation is filed at the State Capitol to alter the law. Quite a few of these bills, some backed by Democrats, some by Republicans, would authorize “no-reason” balloting. If any registered voter wants an absentee ballot, they can get it – without giving a reason.

Yet the bills have invariably gone nowhere.

… (read the entire editorial)

I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone who knows me that I tend to like the Lansing State Journal – and it’s these kinds of editorials that make me like them!