Why recall Wayne...
I posted the MIRS article on our filing of petition language to recall Senator Wayne Schmidt to a certain local talk radio host when it came out to see if he was interested in it…His response…Why???…
After Prop-1, the Senate primary campaign against MacMaster, the red light cameras, and now the gas tax, he asked WHY???!!!…
Granted, I’ve only lived up here for a measly 24 years, but during that time I was unfortunate enough to get to know Schmidt and how he operates from his stint in House District 104…been following the guy ever since…enough to know how arrogant, condescending, and downright hypocritical the man is… Wayne Schmidt is the establishment GOP poster boy, “groomed for leadership” and a “team player” (ask George McManus)…His campaign ads boast of his “conservative values”…his voting record screams progressive liberal!!!…Wayne Schmidt never met a tax or fee he didn’t like, vote for or actually sponsor…He thinks the State should own far more land than it already does, and that the people in Lansing know far better than the folks in CD1 how to run a railroad (pun intended)…He calls himself a Republican, but votes like a Democrat, perhaps if our effort is successful he can take the opportunity to switch parties…
Redistricting after the 2010 census gave the MIGOP the opportunity to protect Schmidt and Benishek (yes, him too) from the radical right wingers waking up and taking power back in Kalkaska County, the progressive confines of Grand Traverse County would be far kinder to them both in future elections… As I became more intimately involved in State politics, I kept running into both of them at election and party functions….This only cemented the animus between us, and when asked to help initiate a recall against Wayne, I jumped!!!… The fly in this ointment is exactly why this absolutely need s to succeed in at least getting the signatures for a ballot vote on his ouster, it is the changes made to the recall laws and regulations that were made immediately after the Snyder recall failed… Having led the charge to recall Kalkaska County Prosecutor Brian Donnelly previously, I became the obvious choice to put together a game plan to oust Schmidt, at least in the circles I run in…
Why Wayne???…Other than the fact I personally dislike the man as a human being, I find his political hypocrisy detestable, and his methods; both politically and legislatively abhorrent… He represents everything wrong with the current establishment GOP, in Michigan, and in the nation… The GOP spews conservatism for 6 months every two years, and then goes to Lansing and Washington to tax and spend, regulate and circumvent with the very best of the progressives… Taking one out (Eric Cantor comes to mind) here in Michigan would not only shake Lansing to its core, but would indeed make national news…I know of others waiting for the outcome of our language hearing in Lansing on the 14th to join the fray against their own RINO Senators…it could be a fun cycle…
Elections in the most part today are bought and paid for long before the polls open for business, they have become mere formalities to confirm outcomes discretely orchestrated, and for a bit of spectacle and entertainment for the uneducated masses… We are left therefore with only one true avenue to make our voices heard, and they have restricted even that to a tightrope over a chasm… In order to gain their attention to the actual people they are sworn to represent, we must at least make the attempt to remind them who they actually work for…and it is ling past due…
Anyone wishing to participate in this historic and monumental effort can find me on FaceBook, here, or through the Traverse 912 group… We need 27,000 signatures in 60 days…9,000 from Grand Traverse County alone…
Wish us luck at the very least…
Tom B…
Kalkaska Tea…
(31)Nuh Uh.
(4)
Mr. Backers, I wish you all the best on this effort. Frankly put, there's a few more of the sonsabitches that are well documented on here as the bullshit artists they are who need to be yanked from office, too.
In the last week there's been opportunities to meet up with numerous legislators--thing is out of each and every of their mouths came the words "I fought against this in caucus" and then proceeded to advise why they voted yes on very bad legislation. The same words came out of alla their mouths--I looked for strings, a hand up their butts moving their mouths, any signs of remote control, and couldn't find any.
Then learned that the caucuses have assumed the Las Vegas mantra, "what happens in caucus stays in caucus". What really happens in these mandatory caucuses is our legislators are told how they will vote, here's you talking points and if you don't like it we'll go after you with vengeance. This is exactly how they got rid of Gamrat/Cursor so quickly.
Yes, Schmidt has to go--but what really needs to go is the Open Meetings Act Section MCL 15.268(g), which states:
MCL 15.268 Closed sessions; permissible purposes.
Sec. 8. A public body may meet in a closed session only for the following purposes:
***(g) Partisan caucuses of members of the state legislature.***
The Open Meetings Act definitions in 15.262 (b)(c)(d) and 15.263 (2) All decisions of a public body shall be made at a meeting open to the public. (3) All deliberations of a public body constituting a quorum of its members shall take place at a meeting open to the public ***except as provided in this section and sections 7 and 8.***
Effectively, the open meetings act actually excludes the public from decisions/deliberations by our legislature--defies the intent of the law--and is just plain wrong! The starred language above needs to be removed immediately.
CS, you are right, they all need to be yanked from office--but if one gets recalled, watch the domino effect of the rest. The only way I see to really fix this mess is a constitutional amendment banning closed caucuses.
Just imagine how much fun Wayne Schmidt would be if he was left to his own thought devices instead of the thought police of the caucuses!
From Senate Journal 100, dated November 3rd, 2015...Schmidt's floor speech in support of new taxes...
"There is no way around it. I have been working on this for the past six years, and after years of neglect, in order to fix, build, and maintain Michigan’s roads, it will cost more. Each year that we don’t take action, our roads become worse, and the problems become more and more expensive. It is only fair that we who use and enjoy Michigan roadways should have some say in their upkeep."
Sounds like a regular citizen, doesn't he???...We had our say in the upkeep of Michigan's roads...the utter destruction of Prop-1....
Wayne has decided to hide behind lawyers...
We stand by our language...
Aaand, UniParty: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/12/14/snyder-petition-rejected-canvassers-schmidt/77302992/
We were shot down without so mush as a comment on the language itself...I went to the .gov site and searched the BoC, and their published requirements for "Clarity/Factual" petition language...We refiled amended language immediately, and will be prepared and 'confrontational' next trip, which is scheduled for the 29th...
We should really find out just who is lying the Senator's legal bills for this though...at $500/hr...
Simply ask the question "Who has the most to lose" to get your answer.
You have no idea just how many are lined up behind us...waiting...