Seven Democratic candidates for U.S. Congress in the Sixth District in Michigan appeared at a forum Tuesday evening at Wayland Middle School.
George Franklin, Paul Clements, David Benac, Dr. Matt Longjohn, Eponine Garrod, Aida Gray and Rich Eicholtz were on hand to meet and greet with local citizens and then discuss issues of importance in the district, which takes in Allegan, Berrien, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties.
The winner of the Aug. 7 primary election will have the daunting task of taking on Republican Fred Upton, who has served 16 two-year terms after first winning in the 1986 election.
There was an estimated 175 to 200 people who attended the forum, sponsored by the Allegan County Democratic Party and Wayland Democrats
Clements, who is running for the seat for the third time, is a professor of political science at Western Michigan University. Benac is a professor of history at WMU.
The other four also are well-educated. Longjohn is a physician. Franklin is lobbyist for the Kellogg Company, Garrod is a chemist employed by Pfizer and Eicholtz is a biologist. Gray, who is the newest in the candidates’ field, is a veteran and a tax preparer.
Just like Republican party primary candidates forums, the candidates had remarkably similar views on the issues. The questions were about health care, gun safety, the environment, public education, cyber security, tax reform, the upcoming Earth Day celebration Sunday, April 22, and summation.
Introduction:
Benac was up front about the issues he’s most passionate about — fighting for a single payer health care system, progressive reforms, restoring family farms, getting money out of political campaigns and called himself an unabashed Justice Democrat.
Eicholtz promised “to restore fact-based thinking” in Congress.
Longjohn said he wants “to improve health care and the quality of life” and insisted “We must provide a sharp contrast with Mr. Upton.”
Gray, a proud veteran, Mexican, wife and mother, said she decided to run after noticing President Donald Trump referred to her people as “murderes and rapists.”
Franklin said, “We need to flip 23 seats in the House to provide a check and balance system. He also characterized himself as progressive.
Clements said, “This election needs to be about taking our country in anew direction.” He added a concern for young people saddled with crushing debt and the scourge of homelessness.
Garrod referred to herself as a Democratic socialist in the Bernie Sanders school of politics with a lit of enthusiasm and energy.
The environment
Eicholtz, noting the recent deal between the Michigan DEQ and Nestle, said, “Water is a vital natural resource and we can’t just give it away.”
Longjohn asserted, “We now have a crumbling national infrastructure, and it’s not just roads.”
Gray said Congress must strengthen the Envoronmental Protection Agency and said, “Regulations are what give us clean air and water.”
Franklin flatly stated, “The first thing we need to do is fire (EPA Director) Scott Pruitt.”
Clement said he has been appalled about the stories about lead in the water in Flint and maintained, “If Flint was a white, middle class community, we wouldn’t have this problem.” He added that Congress must deal with the most important issue of this time — climate change.
Garrod said she’s been part of a petition effort to increase use of renewable energy by 30% by the year 2030 and added water is an issue not just in Flint, but also in Rockford and Otsego.
Benac insisted more focus needs to be on leaky pipes causing fresh water to seep into the ground and polluting the Great Lakes. He said he wants to ban fracking, end addition to fossil fuels and terminate contracts for Nestle to take water out of Michigan streams.
Health care
Longjohn, a physician, said he advocates a patient-centered system, focusing more on prevention to save money and lives.
Gray, who at one time did not have health care coverage, said she wants to make it a right, not just a privilege.
Franklin said, “I believe universal health care is a fundamental right and everyone should have the public option.”
Clements said people in Canada pay about $5,000 for health care while in the United States it’s close to $10,000 without better outcomes. He noted one of Upton’s largest supporters is Big Pharma.
Garrod said, “Health care should not be a political issue. Let’s take insurance lobbyists out of the system and go to single payer.”
Benac didn’t mince words, saying, “Health care is a human right. The Affordable Health Care Act (“Obamacare”) is a market-based solution that just kicks back money to insurance companies and the health care industry. There is no option unless it’s single payer (Medicare for all).”
Eicholtz said he has had a lot of experience with the issue during his career and the biggest differences between the United States and other developed countries are cost and availability. The U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world. He added, “We need to decouple health care from employment.”
Public education
Gray said she attended private and public schools in her youth, but believes private, religious schools and charter schools are siphoning money from public education.
Franklin flatly stated again, “The first thing I would do is replace (Education Secretary) Betsy DeVos… Public education is the bedrock of this society, but it’s underfunded. Let’s give the teachers and the institutions the respect they deserve.”
Clement held, “We’ve got to improve our public education system up and down the line,” pointing to improving the earliest grades. “Education gets only 10% of the military budget… We need to get more data on what works.”
Garrod noted her mother is a charter school teacher, but insists on the separation of church and state.
Benac said, “Not one penny more of public money should go to private schools. We need to make a stronger commitment, to protect unions.”
Eicholtz added, “The vilification of unions has been disastrous to education and to our economy.’
Longjohn said, “I’ve seen the benefits of collective bargaining. Public schools bring people together in their communities.”
Cyber security
Franklin again flatly stated the U.S. government needs to “get a National Security Agency that’s responsive and attentive (to issues). I think this is being ignored deliberately by this administration for obvious reasons. It’s the job of Congress to oversee this and close the loopholes.”
Clements said, “Government must keep up with the advances in technology, but we have an administration that’s looking backward,” using “clean coal” as an example.
Garrod said, “The Internet is always going to move faster forward than our government, but we can do better holding these on-line companies accountable.”
Benac said, “There’s no way to stay in front of this, but the weakest link is the human user. We are our own worst enemy when it comes to cyber security.” He added that he’d like to see all elections go back to using paper ballots.
Eicholtz said he’d like to find a way to “county every vote electronically and manually.”
Longjohn said he would like to establish penalties and incentives for taking advantage of the system. He hoted that HIPPA has done a good job protecting privacy in the health care system.
Gray disclosed she does not use Facebook and reminded everyone that the company regards the user as the product.
Gun control and safety
Clements said the problem that be boiled down to three letters — NRA. “A majority of the people supports gun reforms while maintaining gun rights.” He said 60 percent of gun deaths are by suicide, a fact that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Garrod pointed out that the Supreme Court just last week ruled that a ban on assault weapons is constitutional. She added, “The Second Amendment is an amendment, so why can’t it be amended?” She is opposed, however, to raising the minimum age for purchasing guns.
Benac said he is supported by Moms Demand Action, which has a focus on gun violence prevention. “We’re not talking about taking people’s guns away, we’re talking about the safety of our communities.”
Eicholtz said he believes all Americans have a right to guns for self defense and hunting, but, “We don’t need weapons of war.”
Longjohn said, “There is a culture of gun ownership in this district, but this is a public health issue.” He added he owns a gun himself.
Gray said she shot an AR-15 while in the military, but noted 70% of Americans do not own guns.
Franklin said he advocates banning assault weapons and closing the loophole on domestic violence.
Tax reform plan
Garrod said she saw a very small increase in her paycheck after the GOP tax plan was passed late last year. “We need a government that works for working people. We need to tell them (politicians) they work for us, not corporations.”
Benac echoed, “This (tax reform) scam takes away from those who need it most and gives to those who need it least… And we need to remove the cap on Social Security.”
Eicholtz said the tax plan shifts money from wages to profits. He said Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Trump have implemented the trickle-down economic policy over the last 40 years and all it’s done is create the greatest income gap in the country’s history.
Longjohn said, “It’s a setup for a one-two punch to make the tax cuts permanent and then come after our Social Security and Medicare. It’s policy dictated by corporations.”
Gray said it was rare this year to see a happy client as a result of the new tax policy. She said the average worker’s pay has risen 2.3% while corporate officials’ salaries have increased by 435% over the last 40 years.
Franklin said, “The whole conversation in Washington has turned Orwellian. They’ve ballooned the debt and not taken care of our infrastructure.”
Clements added that America’s drug and crime wars also have have had major negative impact on where public dollars are being spent.
When the candidates closed the evening with their summations, they all noted they agree on most of the issues and perhaps the only differences are in degree. Some want to strengthen the public option in the Affordable Health Care Act while others insist on a single payer plan.
Clements made the strongest statements about climate change. While some said they want to reach across the aisle to Republicans, Benac questioned whether the GOP is willing to bargain in good faith. He noted the Democratic National Committee doesn’t like him.
Eicholtz maintained Upton cannot be defeated in November without attracting moderate Republicans and independents.
Upton has never gotten less than 55% of the vote in any general election over the last 32 years.
I carefully read this article and the Democrat potential candidates are just as nutty as ones that are in Washington now. I’m no fan of Rep. Fred Upton, an Establishment Republican, but to replace him with any of these folks would be foolish.
And Ms. Gray didn’t fire an AR-15 in the military, it was an M-16. The military doesn’t use civilian marketed weapons. Evidently she doesn’t know what she fired, and she wants to be our Representative?
And all of these wannabe’s need to understand the loss of unions, the income gap, and the loss of jobs overall was created by their party under President Bill Clinton . The darling of the Democrat party severely hamstrung the middle-class with NAFTA and the resulting poor trade deals. His accepting foreign money to finance his campaigns and fund the Clinton Foundation is a travesty and the resulting payoffs to the Clinton Foundation while Secretary Clinton was in office was nothing short of a pay-off for access to government and the reins of power. While the Democrats and Establishment Republicans tell you how much they are looking out for your future, they are feathering their nests with selling influence to others to enrich their personal bottom lines. Look at the Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell family members involved in multi-million or multi-billion businesses and partnerships in foreign countries (Russia, China, etc.). All established through influence of their elected family members.
FMM – “And Ms. Gray didn’t fire an AR-15 in the military” – what an asinine comment. How on earth could you possibly know when, where, how, with whom and under what circumstances Ms. Gray had access to and then subsequently had an opportunity to fire an AR-15? Good grief. I guess it’s best to use anonymity when making such doltish remarks.
Mr. Salisbury, thank you for reading my comments.
As for being called a dolt (as in “doltish), it happens. Everyone has an opinion and such is yours. But I’m sure when you qualified in the service it wasn’t with an AR-15, it was an M16 1A or subsequent version, made by Colt Arms. The AR-15 is similar somewhat in looks to an M16 (the one’s Liberals reference as “scary looking assault “gun””. If you ever viewed the movie “Full Metal Jacket” you know the difference between your weapon and your “gun”! But I digress.
Ms. Gray said she fired an AR-15 in the service. That would only happen if she or someone at the range brought in their personal weapon to the range, and I doubt training or qualifying would be allowed with such a weapon. The service fired M16’s back in her day (she looks to be closer to my age). Now, I’m sure they fire and train with other weapons, but not civilian, commercial AR-15 sporting rifles.
If your rifle knowledge is rusty, please reference any search engine and they will set you straight. M16’s (military weapon) and AR-15 (commercial, sporting rifle sold to civilians (or as you refer to them as “dolts as in doltish”) I’m just presuming you were in the service and if not, I didn’t mean to insult you, since Liberals identify with Hanoi Jane instead of John Wayne types. HOO RAH!
Have a pleasant day!
Well said Free Market Man and 100% correct. Perhaps a Dolt is a person who thinks an AR-15 is an M16A2?
Good grief. I was there. She never said she qualified on an AR15. She said she fired an AR15 during a time in her life when she happened to also be in the military. She did not delineate the precise circumstances but only used the word military to put the experience in context.SMH
So the article quoted Ms. Gray incorrectly? Mr. Young, your reputation is being sullied by esteemed Mr. Salisbury. What say you?
Whoever wins the primary is going to have a tough go of it.
Fred Upton won the 6th after redistricting in ’92 after incumbent Democrat Bob Carr was moved to the 8th Congressional district. Fred is an experienced politician who is careful to see which way the wind is blowing and check with his donor base before saying or doing anything. Prior to Upton was representing the 4th when he won in ’86. After graduating from U of M Upton was a Congressioanl staffer to Congressman David Stockman (R-MI 4th) and then worked in the OMB office when Stockman was Reagan’s OMB Director.
Essentially Fred Upton is a career politician. So much for draining the swamp eh?
His district experienced the Kalamazoo River oil spill aka Dilbit Disaster where a section of an Enbridge pipeline failed, spilling between 870,000 to 1M gallons of unrefined oil from Canadian shale into a creek that then went into the Kalamazoo River. Fred Upton was his old hand-wringing self on TV, yet a few years later he voted for the Keystone Pipeline that goes over multiple large aquifers in multiple sites our country depends on for corn and wheat production.
I find it humorous that the middle class, the bottom 80% or bottom 4 quintiles, has seen wage and salary stagnation since the Reagan administration, but dyed in the wool self-labeled “conservatives are quick to bring up Clinton. Yet according to the Wall Street Journal more jobs were created during the Clinton and Obama administrations than other post WW-2 GOP administrations.
There are some good andidates on the ballot. Paul Clements has had his chance and couldn’t win. It’s time for another candidate. A quality candidate that can gain some broad support has a shot but still faces long odds.
2016 6th District Presidential results by county:
Allegan – 61.3% GOP / 32.5% Democrats
Berrien – 53.8% GOP / 41% Democrats
Cass – 61.2% GOP / 32.1% Democrats
Kalamazoo – 53.5% Democrats / 40.5% GOP
St Joseph – 62.6% GOP / 31.7% Democrats
VanBuren – 53.9% GOP / 39.9% Democrats
You don’t need to know a lot about politics to see why Fred Upton knew he was safe to run for re-election. Fred’s first Congressional race was in 1986 and he’s never lost. Upton has never gotten less than 55% of the vote in any general election. Given than Trump won MI by less than 11,000 votes its not shocking Upton decided to continue to be a Congressman rather than run for US Senate against Debbie Stabenow who has won her two last elections with 56%.