If I could vote in Nov. 8 election: Recommendations

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

Dorr Township Trustee John Tuinstra recently circulated a flyer recommending trustee candidates for the Nov. 8 election. I’m doing the same on a larger scale, prompted by my motto: “I report what I see and hear, and sometimes I comment on it.”

Journalism has a tradition of more than 200 years of endorsing candidates for office. Yes, it’s just one man’s opinion.

72nd District State Representative

A correction is in order for the recent Townbroadcast story about Mr. Lucky and Mr. Unlucky: Republican Steve Johnson’s act of taking a selfie at the polls in the August primary now is illegal again after a court ruling overturned an earlier judgment.

I have no doubt that Steve Johnson did not understand that he was breaking the law by taking a picture at an election site. That’s part of why I cannot endorse him for the office of state representative. He is very green and would have to learn an awful lot in his first two years in Lansing, if elected. He’s the kind of guy lobbyists and special interests would feast on like vultures.

Steve Shoemaker rightly says he has a lot of life experiences in raising six children, working and paying taxes. He has been a frequent visitor at Leighton Township Board meetings, and despite being a Democrat, he has worked very well with the all-Republican board in getting tasks accomplished.

I called Steve Johnson Mr. Lucky because a little more than six months ago he was unemployed and living with his parents in Wayland Township. Now comes a big chance to earn $80,000 a year for the next six years. It’s like he’s won the lottery.

Johnson won the primary because of two very important factors. One is his religion and the other is the horrible defect in our more than flawed electoral system.

He is a member of the Christian Reformed Church, a graduate of South Christian High School and Liberty University and served in the Air Force, all of which earn him lots of points with voters in this area, but doesn’t prove he has what it takes to be an effective legislator.

Johnson took advantage of an electoral system that essentially makes a big winner out of someone who takes the most, but not a majority of votes of the first GOP primary. He recorded less than a third of the total primary vote, but none of the other four Republicans was able to get as high as 30 percent. So Johnson stands to be state legislator from the 72^nd District for the next six years because of the terribly flawed rules of the game.

You see, the Republican primary winner is virtually guaranteed to win in the general election because folks in these parts don’t vote for Democrats, thereby creating a one-party system.

This same system produced Cindy Gamrat two years ago in the 80^th District, and we know how that turned out. I’m told that her partner in crime, Todd Courser won in the same fashion. They both got the most votes in the primary, but not a majority. I also understand Mr. Johnson was a an intern in the Gamrat campaign.

Shoemaker is by far the more qualified candidate, a much more mature man who will represent the people of this area well if voters discard their destructive long-standing habit of voting straight ticket GOP. This would be a good year to split that ticket.