From the chair

“Chaos”

It’s the ongoing story of Republicans running to succeed Debbie Stabenow in the United States Senate. Their story got even more muddled this week with the announcement by ultra-right-wing former Congressman Justin Amash that he was joining the circular firing squad. Michigan Republicans’ brutal infighting is getting nastier by the day. Their caustic showdown will leave them with a badly damaged nominee who is out of touch with Michigan families. Amash has an extensive record of leaving Michiganders behind: supporting dangerous abortion bans, vowing to gut health care access, and backing the 2017 tax giveaway to the wealthy and large corporations.

In the meantime, the other Senate wannabes focused on slamming each other:

Sandy Pensler and Mike Rogers engaged in website wars, with each redirecting Michiganders visiting mikerogersforsenate.com and electsandypensler.com to attacks on their opponent’s record. 

Roger Stone, a Trump ally, took aim at Rogers for being a “blatant fraud” who “voters need to be leery of.” 

Stone slammed Rogers for “leaving his home state of Michigan in the dust,” making nearly $2 million in the past two years alone, living in a $1.5 million Cape Coral mansion, and only moving back to Michigan “a few months before announcing his U.S. Senate run.”

Donald Trump continued to complicate Republicans’ bid to win the Senate seat. In response to a question if he’d pardon Trump, Rogers said it’s in the “country’s best interest not to go through that nonsense.” He went on to say that Trump’s New York civil fraud case showed “two tiers of justice.” 

Pensler bashed “career politicians” Rogers and Meijer, saying that most of the country’s problems were due to them “being unwilling to take on hard decisions because they’re afraid of losing their jobs.”

Grab your popcorn and pull up a chair. When millionaires Pensler, Rogers and Meijer start spending their vast personal funds you can count on the political bloodbath moving to your television.

All of this stands in stark contrast to the long history of our guest on this week’s podcast. Debbie Stabenow has always run on a forward-thinking platform of progress for Michigan, and the voters have endorsed that approach to campaigns time after time. Senator Stabenow symbolizes the very best in public service. Beginning as an Ingham County Commissioner, she has served the people of Michigan for nearly 50 years: state representative, state senator, Congresswoman and, for the last 23 years as our United States Senator.

In the News

Michigan Politics

* Mike Rogers tries to ...