The Middle of it All

Public Meetings

2009-06-28T12:56:00.001-04:00

One thing I hope to do with this blog is post information about public meetings. Anyway, from the Enquirer..

MONDAY

• Battle Creek Public Schools Board of Education, 5:30 p.m., administrative offices, third floor of Willard Library.

• Marshall City Council, 6 p.m., City Hall.
• Springfield City Council, 7:30 p.m., City Hall.
TUESDAY

• Marengo Township Board of Trustees, 7 p.m., Township Hall. WEDNESDAY
• Calhoun County Road Commission, 5:30 p.m., Road Commission office, 13300 15-Mile Road, Marshall.
THURSDAY

• Calhoun County Board of Commissioners, 7 p.m., commissioners' meeting room, county building, Marshall.
• Post/Franklin Neighborhood Planning Council, 7 p.m., Community Action Agency board room, 175 Main St.
• Vermontville Village Council, 7 p.m., Village Hall.

ACES Passes

2009-06-26T21:59:00.002-04:00

The Roll Call here...

Congrats to Congressman Schauer on voting Aye.

Divisions in the Conservative Ranks?

2009-06-26T13:05:00.003-04:00

The reason I ask is because of these two articles...

First...

A new, conservative grassroots organization that considers itself part of the tea party movement will be in town next week to warn people about the voting record of former state Rep. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek.

Nofs is running in the Republican primary for the 19th District Senate seat. The New Patriot Revolution is not a fan. ``He is a nice guy. He just doesn't have a very good record in terms of tax and spending,'' group member Wendy Day said.

Now another independent right winger is joining the race...

Athens resident Steven Mobley announced Thursday he will join the race for Michigan's 19th District Senate seat as an independent candidate.
Mobley, 51, made the announcement in front of about 20 people at the Burnham Brook Community Center in Battle Creek.
Along with keeping a close eye on government spending, Mobley said he would push for passage of the Michigan Fair Tax, which replaces the state's income tax with a higher sales tax.

This guy seems to be a one issue candidate. He's also a former factory worker and I doubt he will make much of an impact. Still though, if the teabaggers don't come out for Nofs or worse, run against him, it could cause enough of a problem to hurt him in the special election. This is unusual for a group that is normally very united and lockstep.

Re-launch

2009-06-26T08:03:00.000-04:00

There's a lot going on locally, and I'm going to try to start blogging it again.

NRCC Target List

2009-01-12T22:30:00.003-05:00

It's up on Kos and Michigan Liberal and getting some discussion. Here are the targets...

Bobby Bright (AL-02)
Parker Griffith (AL-05)
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)
Harry Mitchell (AZ-05)
Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08)
Jerry McNerney (CA-11)
Betsy Markey (CO-04)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Alan Grayson (FL-08)
Ron Klein (FL-22)
Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
John Barrow (GA-12)
Debbie Halvorson (IL-11)
Joe Donnelly (IN-02)
Brad Ellsworth (IN-08)
Baron Hill (IN-09)
Dennis Moore (KS-03)
Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
Frank Kratovil (MD-01)
Bart Stupak (MI-01)
Mark Schauer (MI-07)
Gary Peters (MI-09)
Tim Walz (MN-01)
Travis Childers (MS-01)
Dina Titus (NV-03)
Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01)
John Adler (NJ-03)
Martin Heinrich (NM-01)
Harry Teague (NM-02)
Michael McMahon (NY-13)
Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20)
Michael Arcuri (NY-24)
Dan Maffei (NY-25)
Eric Massa (NY-29)
Larry Kissell (NC-08)
Steve Driehaus (OH-01)
Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)
John Boccieri (OH-16)
Zack Space (OH-18)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03)
Jason Altmire (PA-04)
Chris Carney (PA-10)
Paul Kanjorski (PA-11)
Glenn Nye (VA-02)
Tom Perriello (VA-05)
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
Chet Edwards (TX-17)
Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23)
Steve Kagen (WI-08)

The Bolds are mine. Anyhoo, the targeting of Schauer and Peters isn't a surprise given that they're both first term congressmen. I don't know much about the 9th but the 7th should be interesting. Despite being a Republican district the bench of GOP legislators is rather thin. The state representatives for Calhoun (a majority of it anyway), Jackson, and Lenawee counties are all Democrats. The last three congressmen have all been in the state legislature at one point or another. Walberg might try for a re-match but I doubt the GOP will be thrilled with a man who lost what was previously a safe seat for the GOP. Nofs is the former state representative but he is more interested in Schauer's vacant State Senate seat. Most of the 2004 GOP primary slate outside of Schwarz and Walberg has been out of the limelight for some time. The chances for the GOP to regain this seat are decent, but not as great as they could be.

The shock is that they want to go after Stupak who is a long time incumbent and won his seat with over sixty percent of the vote. Unless they know something we don't about his retirement plans, targeting the Michigan 1st is a waste of time and resources.

Of course, if the Democratic congress is an epic failure, then throw this post out the window.

From my Inbox: The PCCC

2009-01-11T22:19:00.002-05:00

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is a group dedicated to electing more progressive Democrats to office by providing them with the tools needed to run an efficient, effective campaign. Here is part of the e-mail where they discuss their current priorities...

Job #1 -- helping candidates find super-competent, progressive campaign managers. Too often, folks hire their "political friends" or inexperienced staff. Every relevant decision of the campaign will stem from the campaign management -- including whether to spend money wisely and whether to campaign progressively. And to the extent that consultants are needed, we'll introduce campaigns to outside-the-box-thinking progressives like Bill Hillsman (Paul Wellstone and Ned Lamont's ad guy) and Steve Eichenbaum (Russ Feingold and Tom Perriello's ad guy).

Nothing much to discuss here. I had the honor to work with a well run campaign over the summer and fall. Having the right people in place is essential.

Job #2 -- working with campaigns to implement best practices. One top progressive campaign in 2008 went months with a large field staff that had no daily metrics for success. Basic stuff like that can't happen.

Best practices also means innovation. Technology gives us a golden opportunity to replace some formerly-needed consultants with modern-day people power. As I said in the Huff Post piece, paying TV consultants thousands of bucks for a YouTube video is a waste of money. Opposition research consultants will someday be replaced by the wiki. The examples go on and on. Campaign spending must transform to account for and embrace people-powered technology. Our team of former MoveOn organizers, labor and campaign organizers, and the co-inventor of RSS & Reddit is uniquely suited to help campaigns know how to use the Internet to run people-powered campaigns. And we'll show candidates how to work as partners with the blogosphere and overall progressive community (emphasis mine).

The first sentence I agree with. Video editing technology is sophisticated, widely available and can easily be learned. As far as using wikis for opposition research however, I'm a little more skeptical. I would never use Wikipedia as a source for a paper for class because it often is unreliable and entries can be falsified. In order for opposition research to be most effective it needs to be true. Also, if you just make stuff up or pull information from an unreliable source you lose the high ground which does not help a progressive campaign.

Job #3 -- economies of scale. As mentioned above, why do so many candidates spend weeks of staff time and thousands of dollars designing a lackluster website that doesn't have people-powered functionality? It makes no sense. Why not just have a progressive entity that designs the perfect website once and gets it to progressive candidates? There are a bunch of similar economies of scale that can be had to avoid reinventing broken wheels.

These days a well designed website which is updated regularly is essential and shows the public you have a well organized, vibrant campaign.

Overall, this e-mail shows that the PCCC is on the right track as far as taking organizing to the next level. There isn't much about the field program, but if this group continues to grow I suspect that will be discussed closer to the 2010 midterms. This also shows that the Left is still light years ahead of the Right who is fixated on Twitter.

We're All Keynesians Now

2009-01-11T19:50:00.002-05:00

A little side project blog of mine. It may very well be the main project. Local stuff just isn't as cool and stuff doesn't happen as frequently as it will with Depression 2.0.

Emmett Township Supervisor Wants Cake, and to Eat it Too

2009-01-09T22:42:00.001-05:00

Link with key points below...

The Board of Trustees here on Thursday rescinded the four-year leave of absence it gave Supervisor Gene Adkins from the township public safety department.
It also is looking into how problematic it might be to give Adkins a one-year leave.
The board in November had given Adkins, a public safety officer until his Nov. 4 election victory, an unpaid leave for the duration of his term as supervisor. The leave, rather than resignation, would have given Adkins the right to reclaim his job and seniority if he returns to the department in four years.

And...

Trustee Kevin Myers said it was bad timing for Adkins to have to abstain from discussions and votes, with these issues pending:
• The search for a replacement for fired Public Safety Director Frank Post. Post was fired in December and trustees had planned to establish a hiring process on Thursday. They tabled that decision to await the attorney's decision.
• The township is working on its 2009-10 budget. The biggest piece of the budget is public safety.
• Day-to-day supervisory roles, which Myers said include "hiring, firing, discipline or policy." Adkins couldn't take part in such activities while on leave from the public safety department.
"I don't know how we can be without a supervisor during these times," Myers said.

Hopefully Emmett Township voters have a long attention span.

Downtown Development

2009-01-09T09:41:00.001-05:00

Yesterday there was a story in the Enquirer about an antique furniture store going out of business in downtown Battle Creek. Downtown has struggled for as long as I can remember and is only recently getting back on its feet.

Judi Wolford, who opened her antiques and gift shop, Antiquities & Eccentricities, in a 7,000-square-foot space at 28 W. Michigan Ave. in June, said it wasn't just the poor economy that influenced her decision to close.
Wolford said she will close Antiquities & Eccentricities, which she runs alongside her furniture business, Creative Covering Fabrics & Upholstery, because she hasn't received proper support from the Battle Creek Downtown Partnership, the city's downtown development firm.

The article then goes on to cite businesses which are doing well and claim to have great support...

Jeff Adams, former owner of downtown's Griffin Grill and Pub, said he's had "nothing but positive experiences" with the partnership as he works to open his sports bar, The Cricket Club.

In addition to this list I would also add Arcadia and Gary Fields Comedy Club who are doing well downtown. All of these places have a common thread in that they appeal to the young professional set. This is the group that wants to seek something different and wants a wide variety of entertainment options. The Griff, Arcadia, and Gary Fields all do this by providing a wide variety of drinks and entertainment. For retail to succeed, it also needs to appeal to this group. I don't think an antique shop does this job. Furthermore, judging from the comments in the article, many of their potential clients afraid of getting shot if they go downtown.

'A Whole Lot of People Supporting John Cherry'

2009-01-08T16:03:00.001-05:00

That's the name of John Cherry's gubernatorial campaign committee and the title of the Michigan Liberal article which I will now link.

The 7th Has a Congressman Again

2009-01-08T15:35:00.001-05:00

A little late I know, but still better than never.

After two long years the fighting 7th of Michigan has decent representation again in Washington with the swearing in of Mark Schauer which happened this Tuesday. He also hosted two local events in Jackson and Battle Creek which were well attended last Friday. The theme was clearly bi-partisanship as both local ceremonies included Republican speakers. This was clearly the money moment from the ceremony in Jackson...

Hoffman, now a Jackson Community College trustee, spoke about the importance of public service, but not before he took a shot at Walberg. He told Schauer in front of the audience that his predecessor had set the bar so low that "you'll have no problem stepping over it."

Also read about the Battle Creek ceremony here.

The Right and Twitter

2008-12-30T13:16:00.000-05:00

The party of Ted Stevens was trounced in the national elections largely because of the internet advantage of Democratic and progressive activists and bloggers. They used the internet to raise money, recruit candidates, and organize. They also used SMS technology with the infamous text message announcement of Obama's Vice Presidential pick (I still haven't received my announcement). Now the GOP and those on the right are seeking to close the technological gap...

Through Twitter?

Seriously?

That seems to be the way they are going. While those on the left see Twitter as a fun little toy to add on the blog, the right side of the blogosphere seems to be staking much of their online efforts on this little tool. Hugh Hewitt has sworn by Twitter even removing the ability to post comments telling people to just tweet away. There's even a conference where one of the subjects is the use of Twitter.

I think that this approach is going to be a big swing and miss by the right and I have some evidence to back it up. Looking at the level of involvement in Obama's technological initiatives Twitter comes in dead last with good old fashioned e-mail reaching the largest audience. Furthermore the 140 character limit doesn't give you much to work with.

Looking at the Twitter account of RNC Chairman Candidate Saul Anuzis all I see is a few hyperlinks and a discussion on flooded basements and shop-vacs. Very little is there in the way of organizing or re-building the party.

The Right is trying to make better use of technology and what the Internet has to offer. But this obsession with Twitter is a swing and a miss.

An Obligatory Introduction

2008-12-29T22:25:00.000-05:00

I want to start out by stating the mission of this site and what I want to focus on at the moment.

Local current events: Basically anything of interest that happens in Battle Creek and the state as a whole. During my undergrad years I was always focused on what was going on abroad yet, so much is happening just in the surrounding area and the state. Given the course of current events, I doubt that will change anytime soon.

Elections and Politics: I've always been interested in elections and politics at all levels and my time working in the 2008 election has only heightened my interested. I suppose this is the time to say that I don't intend on being either fair or balanced. In this line of thinking I also want to focus on activism and organization.

Public Affairs and Administration: I'm an MPA student. Also, with the coming budget crisis and the strain on state services this should be an interesting subject.