Last Impressions of Candidates, from the Fight to the Finish Rally

Monday evening there was a "Fight to the Finish Rally," attended by a good number of candidates for the federal, state, and county offices, and hosted by the Honorable L. Brooks Patterson. This was my last chance before the election to form an impression of the candidates, and I wanted to pass on some short thoughts about them from this event.

Ruth Johnson, the GOP nominee for the Secretary of State position, spoke first. She spoke about the challenges that she had had to overcome in this race, in particular all of the support and money that billionaire George Sorus had dumped into it to support her opponent. I've written about this before (see my recent post Vote Ruth Johnson for Michigan Secretary of State), but just to remind you, George Soros has created a "527" group called the Secretary of State Project and is using this group to attempt to install left-wing Democrats like Benson as Secretary of State. Once Soros has put in place left-wing Democrats as Secretaries of State all across the nation, they will be the ones counting the votes, deciding who is a registered voter and who isn't, and supervising the election process, and we don't want that.

Oakland County GOP Chair David Law spoke in favor of Bill Schulte, who is the GOP nominee for Attorney General. It is important to remember to vote for him, as he is clearly the more qualified candidate, will be tougher on criminals than career criminal defendant lawyer Leyton, and will continue Mike Cox's lawsuit against the federal government over Obamacare.

State Senator John Pappageorge (R-Troy) then spoke about how when he was younger, he was nominated for West Point by a Democratic Congressman who proudly said that his biggest accomplishment as Congressman had been adding "under God" to the Pledge. Pappageorge reminded the audience that when he was younger, Democrats were proud of America and believed too that America was an exceptional nation guided by God to achieve great things, but that today, most elected Democratic officials would be hostile to or indifferent and certainly not proud of adding 'under God' to the Pledge- the Democratic Party has moved far to the left, and he is wise to point this out, because maybe some people don't realize how far left it has moved.

Mike Bosnic, a GOP nominee for Oakland County Commission, wanted to point out how well-managed Oakland County used to be, but that ever since Democrats had closed the gap and pulled even with the GOP at the county level that now it was much harder to keep Oakland County well-managed. Don't forget about races like County Commissioner that are farther down the ballot- your vote for local and county offices is important too, and keeping them in the right hands will keep those governments moving in the right direction too.

Kathleen Ryan also spoke and reminded people of the importance of voting for right judges in the nonpartisan section of the ballot. Ryan is considerably more qualified than her opponent, who as of today is not even qualified to be a judge in the state of Michigan (Hathaway won't be qualified until days before the term of office starts), and will be the kind of judge that we need on the bench to protect our families. Her opponent is the daughter of a liberal Michigan Supreme Court judge, and as such will clearly be swayed by special interest groups lobbying either her mom or her. Ryan is also quite fetching and would look good behind the bench.

The most enthusiastic response from the crowd was elicited by the GOP nominee for Michigan's 9th Congressional District, Rocky Raczkowski. Before coming on the stage, Brooks pointed out that Rocky has had to endure some of the most negative mudslinging that anyone has ever seen in a campaign in recent memory- incumbent Gary Peters is dumping massive amounts into running hit piece after hit piece on Rocky, all of them distortions, misrepresentations, lies, and slander. Peters never mentions his party or his votes on the major issues he faced in Congress (Peters voted in favor of Obamacare, Cap-and-Tax, Stimulus, Budget of 2009, and 95% of other legislation Nancy Pelosi pushed)- instead he just slings mud. Brooks best joke was that if taxpayers were to vote for Peters, it would be like the chickens voting for Colonel Sanders, since Peters has some of the worst taxpayer-friendly ratings in Congress. Rocky gave a good speech- he gets better every time and looks and sounds increasingly like a Congressman- and spoke mostly about how excited and energized he is to go to Washington DC and start working for his constituents- he is really going to be a Congressman of the people and really listen to what his constituents want. I think the nation is going to be really happy with him when he does get to DC- he has energy and enthusiasm and strength to be not just a backbencher in Congress, but a leader.

One last point I want to make, and that's that I am very proud of all the great work that fellow bloggers like theblogprof, Rotti II, Right Michigan, and Conservative Hideout put into this campaign. Post by post, we are changing the meme, and although we are all modest to take credit for any victories, it is through our efforts that the good is being promoted, the slander and lies are being combated, and the citizens of our great nation are being educated about this election. Thanks for reading- I'll see you all at the Victory Party- and remember to vote on Tuesday!

UPDATE: Oh, and 9th District Chair Glen Clark... quit blowing me off and being rude to me. The time will come soon (after the election) when loose ends like you might need to be cleaned up.