9th Congressional District Republican Primary Debate

North Oakland Republican Club and Let Freedom Reign hosted a debate for the Republican candidates for the 9th Congressional District. The candidates are Rocky Raczkowski, Richard Kuhn, Paul Welday, and Anna Janek. The winner of the primary will move on to face Gary Peters in the general election. This is an important election- Gary Peters needs to go (for more details, see my posts Gary Peters Scores a 90% On the Pelsoi Index- A Vote by Vote Analysis of Peters Liberal Record in Congress, or Oppose Gary Peters, or Peters Hasn't Done Any Independent Thinking- Congressman Gary Peters Votes 96% of Time with Liberal Democrats).

The debate was well-attended- the Oakland County Commissioners Auditorium was filled with about 250 people (including Peter's hired thug Paul Spurgeon). Jim 'J.J.' Johnson moderated the debate. Candidates began with a prepared statement and then answered a series of questions and ended with a concluding statement. The following are my impressions of each candidate, based on my best recollections, as well as further commentary by me.

Richard Kuhn is a judge who worked in the House- from 1943-1946. That should give you some indication as to his age. He was is a Reagan conservative, and has a solid judicial record of conservative decisions. He wants to cut spending and put in place a balanced budget, is strong on the 2nd amendment, wants to win the wars overseas, and thinks Gary Peters needs to go. He is a good judge, but may lack the energy and political savvy necessary to deal with being a Congressman.

Anna Janek grew up in Czechoslovakia, and was motivated to run for Congress because she sees our nation going down the same path to communism that she fled from years ago. She is a strong economic conservative who wants to abolish the federal reserve and get the government out of healthcare, and also was non-interventionist and wants the US to pull its military out of nations abroad. She is a Ron Paul supporter, and shares some of his conspiracy theories about international bankers running the world and cars that run on water, and wasn't familiar with many of the hot-button issues of the day.

Paul Welday is a politician whose biggest accomplishment appears to have been one of the chief legislative aides to ex-Congressman Knollenberg, who Peters soundly defeated. Welday feels that his 10 years working in Washington and with Washington elites gives him the ability to be a good Congressman for the 9th. I feel that being part of a moderate GOPer who spent big bucks and had a lot of bad votes isn't a positive this election, and perhaps he shouldn't run on that alone. Welday approaches everything as a politician should- when asked about Obamacare or Cap-and-Trade, he feels those are bad pieces of legislation that were poorly crafted. When asked how he would fight Democrats, he says he knows procedural gimmicks to combat them. He is a conservative, but I think that he is a conservative more so because it is popular rather than because he feels it in his gut. Welday throws out a lot of hot-button words, and obviously listens to Rush and Sean and reads the blogs and papers, because he uses a lot of the same lines and reasoning on issues. I got the feeling sometimes that he is approaching this as a big game of political power- not that it isn't, but it is more than that too. For example, when asked what Welday would do with social security, he repeated over and over that he would make the tough decisions if he got elected, but never once said anything tough that he would do. He wants to be the kind of candidate that others want him to be, and that's okay- it's just that there is another candidate who is the kind of candidate that others want. Lastly, Welday interrupted the moderator and others several times, and was the only candidate who launched negative attacks on the others, and I didn't like that.

Rocky Raczkowski is a former legislator (House Majority Leader) and military veteran (enlisted at age 17, recently called to duty as Major in Army Reserves). During his opening statement, he went out into the crowd and told them that he wanted to represent them- that he wanted to listen to them and serve them in Congress. He mentioned the Constitution quicker than any candidate, and came back often to it. He is a solid conservative on a range of issues- pro-life, pro-2nd amendment, lower taxes, control spending, balance budget, repeal Obamacare, stop Cap-and-Tax, against regulation, against taxes, etc.- and wants to expand nuclear power in the US and approaches the War on Terror from a warrior perspective (he quoted Sun Tzu!). Although Welday knew his stuff, Rocky quoted Animal Farm, the Heritage Foundation, the New York Times, and other sources, demonstrating his much larger range of knowledge. To me, he approaches things a true conservative should- he doesn't oppose Obamacare because it is a bad bill, he opposes it because it is against life, liberty, and property (my words). His parents were immigrants, and they obviously raised him on the old-school myths of our founding fathers, on being proud to be an American, on believing in the old-fashioned American dream, and on doing your duty, and now he has dropped everything to go all-in to defeat Gary Peters. Watching him speak, I saw our next Congressman from Michigan's 9th.

These are my thoughts and impressions, for what they are worth.