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Community Matters Saturdays at 95.3 FM anytime.
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Battlecreeppodcast.com.
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Right on your device.
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You can find us there.
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Just search Community Matters, Calhoun County.
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Boy, the days are uh fast evaporating before election day.
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Some of you may have already voted.
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That's certainly possible.
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Early voting, absentee ballots, etc.
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And uh included in our discussions with candidates is a look at the 44th District Michigan House race between Jim Haadsma and Steve Frisbie.
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Jim is back with us now to talk about the race.
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Hello, Jim.
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Hi, Richard.
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How are you today?
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Great.
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Thanks for this opportunity.
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Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
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Thanks to Vince Pavone and Lake Hugh Ford for sponsoring this opportunity to continue to get this information out to our Battle Creek area residents.
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It was close two years ago.
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79 votes between you and Steve Frisbee.
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This seems like, in and of itself, a point at which you say, you know what?
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We got a shot at this.
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What do you think?
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My caucus was on and determined to persuade me to run again soon after the first of the year in 2025.
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Because of the outcome being so close, and I agreed to do so mid-year 2025.
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I think that there's absolutely a real shot.
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I think the variables are a lot different in 2026 than they were in 2024.
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The prices of commodities like gasoline and eggs back in 2024, at least in relation to gasoline and most other grocery items, are now higher than was so in 2024.
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So I think the variables which caused a lot of people to vote understandably by their pocketbook in 2024 will cause them to vote again by their pocketbook in 2026.
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And I think that this time I will more likely than will Steve have the opportunity to represent the 44th District in Lansing once again come January 2027.
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Is that mostly what you're hearing as you're door knocking and holding events?
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People are talking about affordability issues.
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As you know, Richard, I uh have continued to hold events since the turn of the calendar year in 2025.
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Continue to do first Saturday coffee hours at Mr.
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Don't's and over in Albion uh each month.
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And I'm always out on doors when we have favorable weather conditions.
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And without question, I hear this more than I ever have.
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And I have been campaigning at doors for county board or for state house all the way back to 2008 in every even numbered year.
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Steve, too, has been doing one of either since 2010 when he first ran for county board.
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And unquestionably, what I get from so many people at doors is how they're economically challenged, how they have less buck at the end of the month, that uh gasoline is more expensive, that groceries are more expensive, that the price of housing has increased, and consequently they really need some relief because they're just not making it.
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So I'm hopeful I can go back and help put dollars back in their pockets.
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How would you do that?
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Well, first what we did in 2023 was ensure that we repealed the senior pension tax.
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Back in 2011, uh Governor Schneider and the then Republican House and Republican Senate passed a provision by which senior pensions were taxed.
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And since 2012, Democrats and Republicans alike have been campaigning to repeal the senior pension tax, but nobody ever could accomplish that until we had a Democratic trifecta in 23-24.
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And the first thing we did in 2023 was repeal the senior pension tax, and that saves the average Michigan senior about $1,000 a year.
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So we've already put dollars back in seniors' pockets then.
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Personally, I sponsored bills which passed and the governor signed, which modernized Michigan's estate planning laws, helping seniors protect their assets, reduce their exposure to unnecessary federal taxations.
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So more dollars back in seniors' pockets.
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We were able to quintuple the earned income tax credit so that working families are now, on average, getting back more than $3,000 per year in relation to more dollars in their pocket when they file their tax returns.
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And we were the ones who brought the free public schools, free public K-12 schools, breakfast and lunches.
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It's proven to be so popular, mostly because it saves the average family per child between $800 and $1,000 per child.
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And even in this last budget, because it's proven so popular, the Republicans went along with the Democrats in ensuring that we
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continue to have free public schools, K-12 public schools, uh, breakfast and lunches.
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So a lot of money saved.
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There's a lot more we can do in context of your question.
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How would I do that?
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I think one of the things we would try to do to make families work better is come up with a state version of the Family Medical Leave Act, which would ensure that working families were less likely to lose jobs and more likely to have more time that, depending upon the size of an employer, would be paid in context of paid time or, in fact, sick time and in terms of the benefits of sick time.
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At the time we're talking, there's just been a gubernatorial debate.
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There's been much made about the notion that both candidates have now said they might be okay with suspending the Michigan gas tax.
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What do you think about that?
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Could that be in your list?
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Without question right now, because I know how challenged hardworking Michigan families and Michigan seniors are presently.
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I would, in fact, support a suspension of the Michigan gas tax and call upon the federal government, since they made the mess uh in relation to the exploding gasoline prices and diesel prices, to also suspend the federal gas tax.
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I know there's a discussion about how that might impact upon a roads bill from 2025.
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But I think right now, what I apprehend from doing door-to-door and having continued events like the first Saturday events, people just aren't endowed with a lot of money to make ends meet.
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And this is especially true of people who might be getting Social Security retirement benefits or Social Security disability benefits that are on fixed income.
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Cost of living adjustments aren't going to get them enough to make all ends meet.
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These people might be getting between $1,200 a month and uh, I don't know, $3,200 a month in some cases.
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Some people higher wage earners are going to have substantially more than $3,200 a month, but in Social Security retirement benefits.
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But there is a need, especially when there's a finite sum of unearned income or a finite sum of wages that aren't keeping up with increases in prices, to do what we can do to get people through right now.
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And I would support a suspension of the state gas tax, and I would uh encourage the federal government to suspend the federal gas tax presently.
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So is that, would you say, the number one priority then were you to return?
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Is that's a quick, we
presume quick, right?
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A quick opportunity to try and reduce costs.
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Maybe uh by then it would already have been done, but let's just stick with it for a second.
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Lowering the price of gas could help, and the state FMLA, as you mentioned, could be of assistance.
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Those are the first priorities then?
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Those are some of mine.
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I would uh do what I could to, I mean, these are economic priorities, but I would do what I could to ensure that uh, for example, public schools teachers hiring and maintaining those public schools teachers uh would be incentivized uh by helping public schools districts properly pay and train and compensate teachers to keep them in those jobs.
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But certainly if it's not done, as you alluded uh in Lame Doc, I think that if prices continue as they are now in context of gas, and prices continue as they presently do in the grocery store and in big box stores in context of what tariffs have brought to the United States, then I think uh a priority right away, just like a senior pension tax repeal was in 2023, would be a suspension of the Michigan gas tax by the state legislature.
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Talk about other ways that when you served as the 44th district representative that you bolstered Calhoun County.
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Well, one of the things we we did is ensure that we supported an initiative which funded major highway improvements in Calhoun County.
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And this includes the $210 million reconstruction of 25 miles of I-69 between uh Marshall and into uh southern Eton County, Charlotte.
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I navigated that for a number of years and typically often bypass that by going up 66 to 78 and then picking up 69 in Charlotte, but sometimes it wasn't possible to do that conveniently, especially when they happen one period of time to close Battle Creek Road between Bellevue and Charlotte for a few weeks.
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So I know that stretch well.
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It's so much easier to navigate.
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So we were able to bring dollars back.
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We also ensured that there was a multi-year rebuilding of I-94, and you can see some of that work right now being completed in relation to bridge repair out at 94 and 11 mile road near the casino.
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One of the things the Republicans like to tout, and Representative Frisbee has said this: we're working on the driveway to the highway, and that's where the fix the dam roads approach has fallen short.
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Talk about that.
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Uh, are we doing enough as well in those areas?
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I think we will do better when I'm back in 27-28.
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I think there has been an effort by the governor to ensure that some dollars are in fact allocated to primary county roads, which weren't allocated in that way before, in terms of a modification of the former funding of roads construct.
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But there's more we can do.
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I believe that there's more dollars that we need to get to, especially communities which don't have a road millage, such as Leroy Township or such as Clarendon Township, out of district, but they're part of the county, which don't have a road millage, and they need a county township match uh incentivization.
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So, what can we do?
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We need to ensure that there are some of the more problematic roads in the county, and they're often in townships without a road millage, understandably, get those dollars.
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It's still complicated because understandably, the way uh Public Act 51 was drafted uh back almost uh 75 years ago now was intended to bring the most dollars to the most citizens at the most efficient uh method or by the most efficient method.
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And that has gone into roads in more highly traveled communities like Grand Rapids or Ann Arbor rather than communities which aren't particularly well traveled like Clarendon or Leroy Township.
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But we do have to bring equity to those uh communities, and we do also have to encourage their trustees to support a county township match so that everybody can have better roads than certain townships do now.
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Talk about the issue of local control, which is something that was an issue back when you were in the House before, and uh the maybe there's a related component in all of this as we talk about data centers and things, but is the local control thing something that folks legitimately feel was taken away by the state?
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The Republicans would have those constituents believe that it was taken away and they don't have any opportunity.
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Look, we have a climate crisis in the world, let alone the country and the region at present.
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And what often was happening is local governments like townships were not supportive of ensuring that there were alternative energy opportunities cited in those places where there might be conditions most advantageous to alternative energy production.
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What we need to do when I voted in the majority in September 2023 is look to a future where Michigan can produce more of our energy here at home, as well as ensuring Michigan cleaner air, reliable energy, not the inconsistent energy we presently have from consumers' energy, and good-paying Michigan jobs.
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And we need to get away from dependence on overseas oil.
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We have seen how uh exposed we are to volatile global energy markets, and we see that at gas station price marquees right now.
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So that was undertaken with a dual intention of ensuring that we became more energy dependent, and also by 2040 that we were working with renewables so we had a firm goal to which to go forward.
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If that meant that some roadblocks had to be modified so there could be a greater likelihood that we had a move toward reliable energy more accelerated, I was supportive of that.
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These are issues that take consideration.
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I have not been supportive, for example, in the past, of allowing the state to come in and determine that mining of aggregate could be done any place that the state wanted in context of, say, what a township wanted cited there.
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But this is a big issue, and we still have local control, notwithstanding what the Republicans would have one to believe.
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And I think it's the right decision, taking all considerations in a balancing act in play.
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In terms of data centers, and notwithstanding uh Republican uh caucus adverts to the contrary, I do not support data centers.
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I did not construct the data center bill from 2023.
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I didn't write it.
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I also didn't have any secret meetings with anybody about data centers.
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And what my position is on data centers can be apprehended by going to a website called Detroit Planet, which has all kinds of environmental issues, questions.
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You can also see my scorecard by Michigan Sierra Club and the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, both of whom have supported me.
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I will tell you that in early 2023, we did not have the information we do now in relation to data centers.
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Data centers were being promoted as an opportunity for economic development and an economic development that, if we didn't support data centers back in winter 2023, those data centers would go to places like Indiana or Ohio.
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So consequently, again, considering the cost-benefit analysis, I did vote at that time in support of some tax incentivization for data centers.
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I wouldn't do it now because we have a lot more information now, three and a half later years later, than we did back then in relation to the deleterious consequences of data centers in terms of energy usage, uh, water usage, uh potential costs to uh those in the community, ratepayers that is, and noise, as is demonstrated by the facility in Dewajak.
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So I definitely think, like I do in relation to the aggregates mining in a township, that there should be more local
control in context of siting of data centers.
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And I would like to see much higher skyscraper-high regulatory guardrails on data centers being established in Michigan, knowing what we know now that we didn't know three and a half years ago.
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Would you tell municipalities in the district if they asked you to establish a moratorium on them?
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I, without question, would support a moratorium on data centers.
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We don't know enough right now about data centers and the deleterious effects of data centers.
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This is all evolving, especially in the past couple of years, not back in early 2023.
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And I think it's even more pronounced given the genie out of the bottle, which is AI.
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When AI entities and uh chairpeople are coming out saying we need more regulatory intervention in relation to AI, that's a warning signal that we have to be very attentive to build-out of data centers and regulation of AI.
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All right.
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There is a question about a constitutional convention on the ballot.
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You have thoughts on whether or not that should be done?
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I'm not supporting that.
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We have had opportunities to amend the Michigan Constitution of 1963 several times since that time.
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Now's not the time to do it.
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One of the reasons now's not the time to do it has already been intimated, I guess properly declared by the lieutenant gubernatorial candidate on the Republican side, a state rep named Jay De Boyer, who suggested that if they had a constitutional convention, then they might be able to more significantly restrict reproductive freedom rights.
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That is a reason why I don't think we need a constitutional convention if there's going to be mischief played in relation to having such a constitutional convention.
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Look, we've had the same constitution since 1963.
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It's worked well, it's demonstrated its resiliency, and I don't see any reason to revisit that in the upcoming year and a half, two years.
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I will be voting no on proposal one and would recommend to voters that they also vote no on proposal one.
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I asked Steve this same question, I'll ask you.
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Make a distinction, simply put, between you and he as it relates to this choice that voters have.
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A significant issue is the character and integrity of the different candidates.
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On November 7, 2026, Steve Frisbee went to the county clerk's office after hours, and the county clerk didn't know that he would be bringing by a lawyer from the House Republican caucus under cloak of darkness and staffers.
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The clerk called my legislative director to tell him what was going on.
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My legislative director got over there as well as a county board member who had already left and witnessed this.
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My perception is somebody who will do whatever it takes to get a job, even though at that time an election call that was made was put in question, doesn't have the character and integrity to do this job.
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He's also someone who has bullied a former well-known and long-tenured county administrator, specifically the clerk register.
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And I don't believe that kind of character is appropriate in a state representative.
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What you need is someone who's ardently going to represent you, bring back dollars to your pocket, bring back dollars to the district, which I've done much more abundantly in relation to economic development, arts, edifice of City Hall, Saving Kingman Museums building.
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And I can continue to do that and represent across the aisle this district, I believe, much more superiorly than has Steve Frisbee.
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He and his caucus have done very little except obstruct in the past 21 months.
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And I don't think that a session featuring the lowest ever production of public acts in the history of Michigan should be a session which allows a Republican majority in either the House or the Senate to return, because they don't seem to be very desirous of doing very much other than get re-elected again.
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So I will accomplish things like we did in 2023-4 when we were in majority, and I will be available all the time, as I've always been as a county board member and as a state representative.
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Jim Haadsma is a candidate for 44th House State Rep representing part of Battle Creek in Calhoun County.
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And you'll see his name on the ballot here soon.
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Jim, thanks for the time.
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You're welcome.
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Thank you for the opportunity once again, and thank Vince and Lincoln Ford for this opportunity.