Archive for the ‘Detroit Free Press’ tag
Mike Cox vilifies opponent’s success
In Michigan’ gubernatorial primary race, competition is heating up between Republican front-runners Mike Cox, Pete Hoekstra, and Rick Snyder.
Last fall, Snyder, an Ann Arbor businessman and former Gateway CEO, called on his Republican primary opponents to refuse campaign funding from PACs and lobbyists. Snyder, who has made significant personal contributions to his own campaign, said in a 2009 editorial that he would reject PAC and lobbyist money.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox issued a terse response. “We’re not about to take a lecture from a millionaire who lives in a gated community,” a spokesman said.
This is a surprisingly populist remark coming from a Republican whose household earned $195,030 last year (2-3 times the median income in the state) and who shares at least $581,499 in assets with his wife Laura, a Wayne County Commissioner. This is according to voluntary financial disclosures Cox submitted for public review this week, when he challenged Hoekstra, Snyder, and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard to do the same.
What is most striking about Cox’s “millionaire” quip is that while Rick Snyder earned his fortune entirely in the private sector, taxpayers have paid the salaries of Cox and Hoekstra since they both took office—in 2003 and 1993, respectively.
What does Mike Cox find so dishonorable about earning a living in private enterprise? We can’t all be career politicians.
Popularity: 42% [?]
Michigan smoking ban shows favoritism to casinos
For some time, Michigan has been chomping at the bit to ban smoking statewide, but all legislation to that end has fizzled out one way or another. Not content to let the issue “smolder” (thanks Freep), the Michigan Legislature is giving it another shot this year.
State Representative Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park) pushed for an exemption for Detroit’s casinos in the House version of the bill. The Detroit casinos argue that without an exemption, they will lose customers to gaming facilities on Native American reservations, which are exempt from compliance.
It is clear that this is a rent-seeking victory, and not a victory for individual freedom and enterprise. There are few voices in Lansing crying over the revenue our state’s hundreds of restaurants and bars will lose when their smoking customers are forced outside. But Johnson is happy to have saved three casinos while the legislature throws other business owners under the bus.
Popularity: 11% [?]