2024 Mi Senate Race

[CMRivdogs]

 

[romad1]

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

 

I would consider him a good guy based on his time in the House.   Can he win a primary?  

[CMRivdogs]

Since he lost his primary to Trumpers in his district I would assume Meijer to be a longshot unless thimgs change. Of course it depends on competition. He could qualify as a recipient of Koch money 

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Since he lost his primary to Trumpers in his district I would assume Meijer to be a longshot unless thimgs change. Of course it depends on competition. He could qualify as a recipient of Koch money 

yeah - I don't see how Meijer gets through a GOP primary process either.

[pfife]

I can agree that he's a good guy but if he caucuses with the baddies that doesn't help the sitch at all.  

[gehringer_2]

and the thing is, so what if he did? (survive a primary).  How are you going to vote for a 'good' GOP guy when all his presence in the legislature will do is empower the rest of GOP idiots? I get the idea there is some sense out there that people are looking for 'good' GOP candidates so they can feel better about voting GOP because........ Well because why exactly? Because it comforts their sense of tradition? That party needs to LOSE and lose BIG so the wackos currently controling it lose control of it. If there was any doubt remaining our recent "Three Days of Kevin" should have put them to rest. Filling in around the margins with sane people who will not control the party or even oppose it internally in any meaningfully useful way just perpetuates everything currently wrong in US politics. A Nickelson's Joker would put it - the GOP town needs an enema. The total cleanse.

Edited February 8, 2023 by gehringer_2

[oblong]

What good did guys like Sasse and Flake or even Collins or Murkowski do?  They will talk a good game but a vote is still a vote. 

[Motown Bombers]

Will Meijer whine again if Democrats run an attack ad on his primary opponent? 

[pfife]

Slotkin is officially in the race.

[oblong]

James out.  Gilchrist out.

I'm not sure how she loses to be honest so far.

Hopefully a D fills her seat.

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

I'm hoping MI SOS Jocelyn Benson gets in the race as well. I don't want to see Slotkin just waltz in unopposed as the Democratic nominee. Rumor is too that actor Hill Harper is exploring running.

[Motown Bombers]

Benson is going to run for governor in 2026. Slotkin is fine. 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Nice launch video from Hill Harper. I like his messaging in the video and think the freedom message from a black candidate is solid. If he can fundraise and get good support behind him I think he ahs a shot to overtake Slotkin. He already has Warren Evans and former Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence behind him, which is a solid start to help build credibility.

https://www.facebook.com/100044553724448/videos/972890097362641/

Edited July 11, 2023 by Mr.TaterSalad

[oblong]

Why is he qualified to be a Senator? Any legislative history?

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

10 minutes ago, oblong said:

Why is he qualified to be a Senator? Any legislative history?

https://hillharper.com/about/

He's been a leader in his union, he's a single father, a Harvard graduate whose clearly smart enough to handle the job, an activist whose worked with non-profit organizations. Raphael Warnock and Elizabeth Warren both had no prior legislative experience and are doing more than fine in the Senate.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Mr.TaterSalad

[jz68]

Meijer falls into the category of "non-crazy republican" but he's still a republican and the last thing this country needs are those clowns in charge of the Senate.  Republicans have gone from being a party I just disagree with on most policy ideas to being a party of conspiracy theories and running cover for Trump's criminal activities.  

[romad1]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

Why is he qualified to be a Senator? Any legislative history?

 

That is a great question. Do we need more disruptive elements in congress?

[oblong]

2 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

https://hillharper.com/about/

He's been a leader in his union, he's a single father, a Harvard graduate whose clearly smart enough to handle the job, an activist whose worked with non-profit organizations. Raphael Warnock and Elizabeth Warren both had no prior legislative experience and are doing more than fine in the Senate.

I don’t care about them because I don’t live in Georgia or Massachusetts.  Has Hill spent a lot of time in MIchigan over the years?  Obviously I want a D to win but I need more to go by to prefer him over Slotkin.  He owns a coffee shop and went to school with Obama. Cool.  

[romad1]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

I don’t care about them because I don’t live in Georgia or Massachusetts.  Has Hill spent a lot of time in MIchigan over the years?  Obviously I want a D to win but I need more to go by to prefer him over Slotkin.  He owns a coffee shop and went to school with Obama. Cool.  

Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton are Harvard grads. 

Slotkin is heir to the Ball Park Frank Fortune.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

I don’t care about them because I don’t live in Georgia or Massachusetts.  Has Hill spent a lot of time in MIchigan over the years?  Obviously I want a D to win but I need more to go by to prefer him over Slotkin.  He owns a coffee shop and went to school with Obama. Cool.  

What qualifications do you want him to have that he doesn't? He's smart, affable, likeable, charismatic, and can relate to voters well, seemingly. He also has the connections to raise the money necessary to win from the many different personal and professional networks he has as an actor, activist, union member, and friend of Obama's. As well, he served on President Obama's cancer research panel.

He's lived in Detroit since 2016, so no, he's not a lifelong Michigander. But I think he's got as good a shot as Slotkin at beating the presumptive Republican nominee. The best candidate the Republicans have been able to recruit as of now is State Board of Education member Nikki Snyder and no one else even remotely serious. Congressman Bill Huizenga and former Detroit Police Chief Hollywood James Craig have expressed some interest in running, but have not declared. If they don't, barring some repeat of 2016, it should be a solid year for our Senate Democratic nominee. They don't have a John James type candidate to run this year that we need to be as worried about.

For me, it's about picking a quality candidate who can win and has been on the right side of history. Slotkin was a CIA Analyst in Iraq. She would be yet another candidate who was a supporter of the Bush Administration's unlawful and immoral War in Iraq. I think you can look at that as a judgement-based critique of Slotkin.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Mr.TaterSalad

[jz68]

Slotkin was recruited by the CIA, something she was eager to do after the 9/11 attacks, and worked as an Analyst in Iraq because she was fluent in Arabic.  Calling her a "supporter of the Bush Administration's unlawful and immoral war" simply because she served there during that time is more than a bit absurd. 

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

On 7/14/2023 at 2:47 PM, jz68 said:

Slotkin was recruited by the CIA, something she was eager to do after the 9/11 attacks, and worked as an Analyst in Iraq because she was fluent in Arabic.  Calling her a "supporter of the Bush Administration's unlawful and immoral war" simply because she served there during that time is more than a bit absurd. 

She could have resigned her position over the Iraq War or she could have been asked to be stationed elsewhere in the Middle East. 

[gehringer_2]

27 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

She could have resigned her position over the Iraq War or she could have been asked to be stationed elsewhere in the Middle East. 

Why do you hold the CIA in partcular fault for the Iraq War - it was the Presidential administration that drove us there and it was White House "leadership" driving the aspects of CIA bad behavior.

I don't claim to have a clue about Slotkin's CIA work, but in as general proposition, large institutions are generally bigger and greyer than their individual actions. The CIA was an arm of a basically outlaw administration, but as we saw with the Trump admin - it's sometimes a lot better in the long run if some good people stay and throw what sand they can in the gears of the bad actors than to just all flee and leave the field to the baddies. Like a lot of things - it's situational. A high profile resignation can be politically signficant. At the analyst level maybe all that happens is the replacement is a more ideologically driven flack less likely to generate reliable intelligence.

Unless you are self employed you aren't likely to ever go very long in a career before you disagree with the ethics of your employer. What you do about it will often depend on how much freedom you happen to have to not participate in what you don't like and how much positive value you think you bring in spite of the company.

[CMRivdogs]

The Trump party vetoes Meijer