Susan Flowers of Milton Township is making her first run for public office Aug. 3. (Daily Star Photo/JOHN EBY)

By JOHN EBY
Niles Daily Star

Susan Flowers is very precise when she talks about her political awakening.

Flowers, a 1975 Niles High School graduate, isn’t running against Cass County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert Ziliak; her fellow Milton Township Republican just happens to occupy the District 15 seat she seeks.

Flowers, a Fort Wayne, Ind. native whose father’s National-Standard career brought her to the community, has called Cass County home for 22 years.

“I want to get involved in my local government,” she said Tuesday afternoon in what she said was her first interview. She asked more questions than she answered.

“About a year ago I ran into Commissioner (Debbie) Johnson and caught up with each other. We went to high school together. it was a year and a half ago that I actually became involved in politics. It was February 2009, when (President Barack) Obama came to Elkhart.”

“Something he said went against my traditional beliefs,” she recalled. “It didn’t feel right hitting my stomach, so then I started doing research on the Internet,” which led her to the Tea Party.

For those who ask, “Who is she? Where’d she come from?” Flowers, who has been attending meetings since April, lives in Cass County, but worked in Indiana, selling radio advertising for WSBT as a marketing consultant since February.

She and her husband, Paul, who works for the Penn-Harris-Madison school system, have been married for 27 years.

When she “verbalized my concerns, he said, ‘When are you going to run for something?’ He made signs for me.”

Susan has two step-children. Her step-daughter just married in Idaho, moving there from Indianapolis. Otherwise, the “children” she spoils are beagles.

Flowers, youngest of three children – her sister, 12 years older, died in a car wreck – said her mom still lives in Indiana and is “really excited. She can’t believe her daughter is doing this. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have thought of doing this. I said to myself, ‘I have to because I feel so passionate about things to be right with principles and values.’ ”
Like others congregated around the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) banner, Flowers advocates limiting government and transparent information for constituents, such as posting board packets online.

Though ostensibly a Republican on the Aug. 3 ballot, Flowers always considered herself an independent.

Her campaign literature calls for “common sense” infused with working within principles of the Constitution, “promoting the wishes of the citizens of Cass County” and being a fiscal conservative with county tax dollars.

A “quick study,” Flowers built her own website, susanflowerscassctycommissioner.web.officelive.com, in two hours.

“I love to learn,” said Flowers, who has a degree from Central Michigan University.
“I took (an Ivy Tech) medical terminology class” online for six weeks, earning a B+ despite mourning her sister’s death the last two weeks.

Her e-mail address affixed to her handouts is patriot4ever@reagan.com.

“The Tea Party was a way of learning,” Flowers explained. “I was hungry for knowledge.” She immersed herself in government – “things you learn in high school, but don’t remember” – “looking up bills, how to find information. The Tea Party was the educational piece I was looking for because if you just go on the Internet you go nuts with too much information.”

That included a Constitution course with a workbook and speakers, all at a lively pace “for those of us who have been asleep. I voted and kept track of president and vice president, but local, probably not beyond my township.”

As for what skills her background would bring to the board, Flowers said, “I bring a sense of caring, I’m not doing it for me, I have public speaking skills and am not afraid to speak, accounting. Prior to (WSBT) I was in banking and mortgages. I have a lot of financial background. I was an auditor in a previous life. I’m good with computers and technology.”
Her father’s position with National-Standard moved the family to Kentucky, California and Niles, where he managed the Lake Street plant in the 1960s. She attended West Side and Ballard and played clarinet in band. Her class’s 35-year reunion is coming up Aug. 6-8.

“Maybe I’m naive,” she said, “but I believe people should be honest, have integrity and do what they say they’re going to do. People who say the words and do the opposite, I will fight tooth and nail about.”

Since Flowers mentioned the Tea Party, we couldn’t resist asking her opinion of Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, who has resurfaced lately in a video talking about “Mama Grizzlies.”

“She’s a strong woman,” Flowers said. “No human being has put themselves out there in a long time to be crucified, as she has been. I admire her strength, her convictions and the fact that she’s not backing down. People who say she quit as governor don’t know the reasons. Do you realize she had 15 frivolous lawsuits against her that was costing the state millions of dollars? They kept coming until it was a practical reason.”