Preview of Democratic 60th & 61st District State House primaries

By: Andy Robins
Kalamazoo, MI
July 27, 2010
WMUK

CORRECTION: This story corrects an earlier version that said Kalamazoo State Representative Robert Jones was term limited in the 60th District. Jones has served only two terms in the House and is eligible to run for a third but chose not to in order to seek the Democratic nomination in the 20th State Senate District.

On Tuesday, August 3rd, voters will decide Democratic state House primary races in two districts that cover much of Kalamazoo County. As WMUK's Andy Robins reports, the contest on the 60^th District that includes the City of Kalamazoo was expected. But the race in the neighboring 61^st District that covers Portage was not:

Democrats Sean McCann, Chris Praedel and Dustin Harback are running for the chance to replace Kalamazoo state Representative Robert Jones in the 60^th District. Jones is running for state Senate. McCann spent ten years as a Kalamazoo City commissioner and says that prepares him to be an effective state lawmaker. McCann says he believes Michigan should continue current efforts to re-invent its economy:

"We're talking about retooling our manufacturing sector so that we can make jobs for the next century. Talking about embracing green energy and topically we know that we just had a battery plant groundbreaking up in Holland. I think that that's a tell-tale sign of more things to come. Here in Kalamazoo we've had life sciences success as we've been compelled to diversify our economy after, you know, a major pharmaceutical presence changed and left. So, we have a recipe here for, I really think, the rest of the state to follow."

McCann says the state needs to overhaul its tax system and consider spending cuts, tax increases, and reforms to balance the budget. Chris Praedel, who's an elementary school teacher, agrees. Praedel says he got into the race because he wants too strengthen Michigan's education system, something he says can't happen unless the state fixes its tax system:

 "If you look at Michigan we've transitioned drastically from a goods society to a services society and our tax code doesn't reflect that. And until we treat this as if it's a structural issue and not a cyclical issue and just play it like it's a game of whack-a-mole and, you know, pull and draw from wherever we can each and very year and pretend that it's just gonna get solved each year, there's not going to be any change. So I think we need to see some shift to a tax on services if we don't want to find ourselves in this mess every year."  

McCann also says lawmakers should consider extending Michigan's sales tax to cover some services. So does the third Democrat in the 60^th District primary race. Dustin Harback is an electrical worker. Harback agrees with the other two candidates on most issues but Harback says he'd take a different approach. He says divisive partisanship at the state Capitol has gotten in the way of finding solutions:

 "And I see that every few years we elect new players that play the same game and the people that lose are the citizens of Michigan. And I want to bring something new to that. I want try to facilitate the creation of a new style of politics where it's centered on the people in the neighborhoods, where we're listening to the ideas that are bountiful in our neighborhoods rather than the people who have been in Lansing for decades."

The winner of Tuesday's primary in the 60^th House District will face Republican Jeff Fernandez in November.

The Democratic primary contest in the 61^st District almost didn't happen. The seat which represents Portage and western Kalamazoo County has always been held by Republicans. But it is open this year because GOP Representative Larry DeShazor is stepping down after just one term to run for state Senate. Thomas Batten of Portage was the first Democrat to file for the chance to be DeShazor's replacement and is the party's only candidate on the ballot. But he faces a last-minute challenge by write-in candidate Grant Taylor. Batten says the deeply unpopular Michigan Business Tax is a major obstacle in the way of efforts to turn Michigan's economy around, especially the part that taxes a company's revenue:

 "Those companies must pay one percent; they must go to the bank, borrow one percent of their revenues and give it to the Treasury, which disincentivises new companies from coming into the state and accelerates the bankruptcy or downfall of struggling companies. That doesn't make much sense either."

Batten's opponent agrees that the MBT needs work and that the state should do more to help small businesses. Grant Taylor filed to get on the ballot earlier this year but dropped out when it was revealed that he hadn't lived in the 61^st District long enough to be a candidate. But Taylor did meet the residency requirement in time to register as a write-in candidate. He claims support by the Democratic "base" in the district and doesn't believe controversy over how he got into the race will hurt his chances next Tuesday:

 "I believe the fact that there was a technicality on my residency issue and so I had to remove myself from the ballot. But people came to me and said that they wanted to see me run as a write-in and so I felt compelled to run as a write-in. I don't believe that there's any hindrance of the fact stemming from that residency issue."

The winner of the 61^st District Democratic primary will face Republican Portage City Councilwoman Margaret O'Brien in November.

More information about state House candidates on the August 3^rd primary ballot is available at MI Vote.org.

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