Matt Schonert

Tyler Horning/Collegian

Earlier this week, H​i​l​l​s​ d​a​l​e C​o​l​l​e​g​e administrators stopped College Republicans from holding a rally in protest of the health care bill, citing a 50-year old unwritten policy dating from the days of college president J. Donald Phillips, who opposed student activism in the 1960s.

“We just simply have a policy: no rallies on campus”

This policy didn’t stop the College Republicans from holding a rally in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom back in 2004. Hardly a under-the-radar event, the rally took place in front of the Central Hall, was attended by Michigan legislator Bruce Caswell, and was patrolled by campus security personnel.

Not only did this demonstration (which was accompanied by an anti-war counter-rally) fail to “arouse the passions” or “get out of control”, but the event was ridiculed by Collegian editors as one of “the most pathetic displays of political activism” they had ever seen, adding that if nothing else, “it proved that this sort of thing should never be attempted at Hillsdale again.”

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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.

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