By JOHN EBY

Dowagiac Daily News

CASSOPOLIS — Democrats believe in a safety net.

Republicans don’t.

That’s how Cass County Democratic Chair Cathy LaPointe framed the Nov. 2 midterm elections Thurssday evening for a hot dog eat-and-meet her party’s candidates at headquarters here.

“This, in a nutshell, is the difference between Republicans and Democrats,” LaPointe said. “Democrats believe in government for the common good, of, by and for the people. Republicans believe wealth and privilege should rule the country, and the rest of us can latch on as best we can. And if we can’t latch on, we’re just flat out of luck. A common Republican retort is, ‘It’s not my problem.’ This election is the most important of our lifetimes. If Republicans take over the House of Representatives, the safety net that holds so many of us will be cut down. They have stated again and again that they want to do away with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They want to eliminate minimum wage, voting rights and public education. They have voted no for two years on a progressive agenda for all citizens, but will vote yes to return to Bush-era policies that gave us this economy and perpetual war. The only way to stop them is to vote Democrat on Nov. 2. Understand what’s at stake. We must help these candidates who have stepped up to fight for us in any way we can.”

Don Cooney

Congress

Cooney, an associate professor of social work at Western Michigan University and a seven-term Kalamazoo city commissioner, espouses a Campaign for New Priorities and often invokes civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Cooney, again challenging U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, introduced his 21-year-old campaign manager and compared this election with the mural “commemorating this community’s struggle in 1847” in  the Kentucky slave raid.

“It’s great that you have a tradition in this community for standing up for justice,” Cooney said. “We honor those people who stood for justice back then with that mural. It’s got to be a reminder to us to stand for justice today because the struggle goes on — and that’s what this campaign is about. During the primary my opponent campaigned against Jack Hoogendyk, who had the Tea Party’s endorsement. They were falling over each other to say who was the most conservative. What is it they’re trying to conserve? They’re trying to conserve a system which has resulted in a terrific life for the richest people in this country and a loss of jobs, health care and homes for so many people in the middle class.”

Republicans “want us to forget about history,” Cooney said, “but many of us lived through that history. From 1945, the end of World War II, up until 1980, we grew together. We expanded the middle class. We created the largest, most prosperous middle class in the history of the world. We had policies in place which made it easier for people to get jobs, get health care and to go to school and through college. In 1927, the richest 2 percent of the country got 23 percent of the income that year. By 1979, the richest 2 percent got 9 percent of the income. But we took a wrong turn in the 1980s and put in place a set of policies which turned away from working people in favor of those who were at the top.”

By 2007, Cooney continued, “the richest 2 percent got 24 percent of the income in this country — worse than 1927. Our struggle is to turn that around. Our struggle, what we want to preserve, is the American dream this country was built on, that all people have inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Dr. Martin Luther King said one time, ‘If you don’t have a job that pays a living wage, all those promises are just a sham.’ ”

“This country is not poor,” said Cooney, who lived in Nicaragua. “This country has an annual $15 trillion economy” — three times the size of China and Japan, next closest at $5 trillion.

“With $15 trillion,” he said, “we could provide a decent life for every person in this country, and the rich could still be rich.”

“The times we face right now are not unlike the Depression,” when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “The measure of our success is not that we give more to those who have an abundance, but whether we do enough for those who have too little.”

“That is what this campaign is about,” Cooney told an audience of about 30. “The people of 1847 had to stand up for justice. We have to fight for this country to be what it says and to live up to what we say on paper. At the end of the second World War President Roosevelt said this country needs a new Bill of Rights. We have a political Bill of Rights. What we need is an economic Bill of Rights that every person in our nation has a right to a job that pays a living wage, to a decent place to live, to health care and to an education. That’s what our struggle is about, and we have to fight hard because these guys are tough. We just looked at Fred Upton’s Web site last week and he had already received for his campaign from corporations $760,000. We can’t let that stop us. They’ve got the money, but we’ve got the people.”

www.CooneyforCongress.org

Scott Elliott

state Senate

Elliott, of Benton Harbor, said Democrats possess a  “great slate of candidates, from governor (Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero) on down. I think with a lot of hard work we’re going to make this happen, but it’s going to take more work than we’ve ever needed before. As Cathy said, there has never been a more important election. My position is that working families should get preference over corporations. Every decision I make in Lansing will be based on that principle. Small businesses, yes, we have to streamline regulation — but let’s not do without. It will help business grow. We need to give them greater access to capital. That’s one of the most important things. Funding for education is sacrosanct and shouldn’t be part of a shell game. Health care is a human right. We cannot allow Republicans to take control so they can turn it over to pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies to dictate what the rates and policies will be. I don’t believe anyone should be sentenced to prison for life without possibility of parole — particularly a child. I believe that very strongly. I also believe in the Constitution that says we all have the right to pursue happiness, even when it comes to love, marriage, sex and what we do with our own bodies. It’s none of the government’s business.

www.scottelliottforstatesenate.com

Cindy Ellis

state House

Ellis, candidate for state representative in the 78th District, which includes the Dowagiac area, is announcing today that if elected over Niles Republican Sharon Tyler she will use her entire first year’s salary to implement a Return to Work Resource Program exclusively for district residents.

“Today’s employment crisis calls for an aggressive plan to help our citizens get back to work, one by one,” Ellis says. “I will use my salary as state representative to invest in state-of-the-art software that matches workers’ skills to jobs.”

Ellis’s plan includes conducting forums that bring together job seekers, employers and job training resources to help job seekers learn how to write a resume, develop interview skills and learn how to use today’s job searching tools.

According to Ellis, of Sawyer in Berrien County, although the job market is down, there are still jobs available, but many displaced workers are unsure how to find them.

“I can’t tell you how many times a worker has told me he was employed at a factory for 20 years,” Ellis says, “only to have it close down with short notice. These people need help figuring out what to do next.”

Ellis is an expert at getting people back to work.

As the 20-year owner of Ellis and Associates, a company specializing in getting displaced workers back onto the job, she placed more than 10,000 people displaced by on-the-job injuries back into the workforce.

She plans to use this expertise to get displaced workers in Michigan’s 78th District back into the workforce one by one.

Michigan’s 13.4-percent unemployment rate is second only to Nevada, she says.

www.electcindyellis.com

Carol Higgins

state House

Higgins, of Mendon, is making another bid for state House after losing in 2008 to former St. Joseph County sheriff Matt Lori, R-Constantine. The 59th District includes the rest of Cass County and all of St. Joseph County.

A retired Marcellus teacher and coach, she grew up the oldest of eight children on a fourth-generation family farm, earned a master’s degree from Western Michigan University and, since 2005, co-owned with her husband, Larry, Arrowhead Cove Bed and Breakfast.

“We let the Republicans set the idea that there aren’t any Democrats here,” Higgins said. “There are a lot of Democrats and independents. It’s kind of one third, one third, one third. If we can excite independent voters and get Democrats to the polls, we might be amazed, so hold your head up and let people know why you feel the way you do about the issues.”

Higgins when she was about 12, her father did business with a pipeline company which came across the two counties. Today it’s known as Enbridge.

She lives a mile from the pipeline. In June, it found a pipe section in need of repair. However, in July, when another section near Marshall ruptured and released almost a million gallons of crude oil that  polluted the Kalamazoo River Watershed, “Marshall wasn’t even on the list.”

“Michigan is way behind what other states require. Companies are allowed to inspect on their own,” Higgins asserted.

“Our environment is key and we’ve got lots of rusty pipelines. Forty years old, things wear out. Why do you hear people on the other side who run for office say, ‘I’m going to Washington or Lansing and cut waste and spending?’ Then you turn around and they’ve cut state-level employees in education, social services, police and environmental inspections. We’re at risk for more damage because there aren’t enough people working those jobs to inspect things so we can stay ahead of major catastrophes. Companies know that it’s cheaper for them to fix a break than to really get ahead of it and to keep things in good repair. Those are regulations we need for the betterment of all. Michigan is a great place to retire. We need to make it the best place to retire because senior citizens spend money and have time to go to the opera or the high school football game and anywhere in between. Let’s make great communities for them to live in and keep them here. Let’s keep our population here spending money, putting people to work, and do the right thing environmentally with renewable energy.”

www.higginsformichigan.com

E. Clark Cobb

County Commissioner

“When Carter left office our total national debt was $79 billion,” said Cobb, who seeks his second two-year term as Dowagiac’s commissioner. “When Reagan left office eight years later, the national debt was $3.5 trillion. That does not count $900 billion taken out of Social Security and never paid back. When the first George Bush came into office, his campaign slogan was ‘Read my lips, no new taxes.’ Two years later he raised taxes. Not because he wanted to, but because the Office of Management and Budget set the books down in front of him and basically said we couldn’t make the payments on the interest to the debt. It scared nations lending money to the United States. Consequently, George Bush had no other choice than to raise taxes. At the end of Clinton’s presidency we had $265 billion surpluses. When George W. Bush took over, the national debt soared again to $460 billion every single year. We didn’t get all this debt all of a sudden. We had $10.5 trillion debt from the previous administration. We didn’t get here over night. Bush dug the hole deeper and deeper for eight years and people expect to turn this around in 20 months? We were at the edge of a cliff, about ready to fall over, when we pulled back. And now we’re talking about putting the same people back in office?”