EDITORIAL: Free Press endorsements for U.S., Michigan House seats

Sept. 25--We hold these truths to be self-evident: The U.S. House of Representatives and the Michigan House of Representative are both paralyzed, unable or unwilling to pivot from partisan sloganeering to the hard work of political compromise and responsible governance.

As a result, it has been impossible to craft responsible solutions to Michigan residents' most pressing communal challenges, and especially so in the last two years.

In Washington, the urgent tasks of reforming an immigration system that has been broken for decades and a financial system that remains vulnerable to catastrophic collapse lie not merely unfinished, but stymied.

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In its efforts to promulgate a coherent trade policy and marshal effective responses to terrorism and climate change, the Obama administration has been met by an undifferentiated policy of obstruction.

In Lansing, the Legislature's chronic neglect of cities and infrastructure has left one community's water supply poisoned and allowed bridges and roads across Michigan to reach a dangerous state of deterioration. The fanciful funding mechanism contrived to address the latter challenge is a fiscal time bomb waiting to go off when incumbent lawmakers have moved on to their next political offices or lobbying gigs.

Where the buck stops

There is no simple explanation for this protracted season of legislative dysfunction. The growing, largely unregulated influence of both parties' largest political donors; congressional and legislative districts drawn to protect incumbents and discourage bipartisan cooperation, and term limits that punish long-term thinking and enhance the power of lobbyists and un-elected bureaucrats have all contributed.

But the most obvious cause -- and the one most susceptible to correction in the approaching November election -- has been a failure of leadership in both the U.S. House and the Michigan House.

Former GOP Speaker John Boehner's resignation last year may have averted a federal government shutdown. His successor, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, has had no more success in corralling a Republican House majority more interested in harassing Planned Parenthood and the Internal Revenue Service than in addressing the Zika virus epidemic, gun violence, or climate change.

At the state level, Michigan House Speaker Kevin Cotter has effectively relinquished leadership of his own balky GOP caucus to a small coterie of mega-funders led by Grand Rapids billionaire Dick DeVos, with dire consequences for schoolchildren in Detroit and working people across the state. The latter have borne the brunt of a historic tax shift from employers to employees and retirees.

The need to replace both Ryan and Cotter with more committed and competent bipartisan-minded leaders is urgent. And that leads us to focus, in this election cycle, on a handful of competitive congressional and legislative contests in which Democrats could win enough seats to force a change in legislative leadership.

This newspaper has a stout tradition of avoiding entrenched political allegiances in its endorsements, choosing instead to support the best choices in any given electoral contest, irrespective of party. Governors like William Milliken, John Engler and Rick Snyder have all won Free Press endorsements, despite their GOP conflicts with our more progressive ideas. Our legislative endorsements have been focused on which candidates would best represent the voters of a particular district -- not solely whether those candidates were Democrats or Republicans.

But this year is, inarguably, quite different. Given the awful GOP leadership of the past two years and the profound warping of the Republican brand to accommodate, and even embrace, the maniacal beliefs of Donald Trump, we find it unimaginable to pursue a course in support of continued Republican control.

In this election, the benefit of the doubt, in the small number of congressional and legislative districts where both major party candidates have a fighting chance to win in November, should go to the Democrats, whose election would precipitate urgently needed change.

1st Congressional District

The GOP-controlled reapportionment following the 2010 Census helped Republicans achieve their 9-5 majority in Michigan's current congressional delegation.

Among Michigan's 14 congressional districts, the 1st is one of just two in which the general election outcome is not a foregone conclusion.

The retirement of incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Crystal Falls, has set the stage for a closely contested race between former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson and Retired Lt. Gen. Jack Bergman, neither of whom has previous experience in elective office.

Johnson, 44, easily bested former Kalkaska County Sheriff Jerry Cannon in the Democratic primary. Bergman, a career Marine Corps officer, was the surprise survivor of a three-way GOP race in which two better-known state Senate veterans, Tom Casperson and Jason Allen, made each other the focus of negative ad campaigns.

Both candidates have spent most of their adult lives residing outside the district, which encompasses all of the Upper Peninsula and all or part of 16 counties in the northeast Lower Peninsula.

But despite coy dog whistles to Donald Trump's non-traditional Republican constituency, Bergman's campaign rhetoric -- he emphasizes the need to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, privatize Social Security and crack down on immigrants -- is in lockstep with the Republican hardliners who have brought bipartisanship, and sometimes the government itself -- to a standstill.

The superior choice for voters in the sprawling 1st is LON JOHNSON.

With the exception of trade policy -- like Bergman, he has been highly critical of NAFTA and the TPP -- Johnson has embraced far more pragmatic positions on immigration, health care and reproductive rights than his Republican opponent. He also favors congressional action to repeal the Citizens United decision and reform of the reapportionment process, both critical to the restoration of representative democracy.

7th Congressional District

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, a former minister and state legislator who has represented this southeastern Michigan district since 2011, in many ways epitomizes everything that is wrong the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ineffectual, ideologically driven and seemingly disinterested in the difficult business of governing, the 65-year-old Walberg has squandered much of his congressional tenure casting meaningless votes to repeal Obamacare, place constitutionally suspect restrictions on abortion, and express symbolic disapproval of the way President Barack Obama has administered the executive branch.

On those occasions when responsible lawmakers in both parties have reluctantly collaborated to pass stopgap legislation in order to keep the federal government functioning (or, as in 2013, to reopen it after a pointless shutdown), Walberg has invariably sided with the petulant extremists who resist compromise at any cost.

In his eight-year career (he also served a single term from 2007-08 before being defeated in his first bid for re-election), Walberg has sponsored just three bills that were signed into law; two of those renamed post offices in his district.

The voters' best choice by far is state Rep. GRETCHEN DRISKELL, D-Saline, who has served her Washtenaw County district capably since she was elected to the Michigan Legislature in 2012.

Driskell, 57, was elected mayor of Saline for a record seven terms before unseating Ann Arbor Republican Mark Ouimet in a district that leans Republican. She won re-election by an even larger margin in 2014, when GOP candidates handily won most of the state's other competitive races.

In the Legislature, Driskell has championed investment in public education and alternative energy, a stance that has been rewarded with enthusiastic support from environmental groups and former Michigan Gov. William Milliken.

Her voice has been muted by her party's minority status in the state House, but she provided critical support for successful bipartisan initiatives to expand Medicaid eligibility and fund an insurance exchange that has facilitated health coverage for hundreds of thousands of previously uninsured Michiganders.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has made Driskell's race a priority in its national Red-to-Blue campaign. Her election would contribute to the U.S. House's resurrection as a meaningful player in federal policy-making.

State House

MACOMB COUNTY

24th District, Harrison Twp, Clinton Twp and Macomb Twp.

DANA CAMPHOUS-PETERSON is the best choice to represent Macomb County's 24th District. Her experience as an advocate for abused children, as the founder of Mt. Clemens-based Care House, and on the Macomb County Commission, will stand residents of the 24th in good stead.

30th District, Sterling Heights and Utica

MICHAEL NOTTE is the best choice for the 32nd District seat. Notte, the son of longtime Sterling Heights mayor Richard Notte, offers thoughtful policy solutions to improve our state.

32nd District, Riley Twp., Kenockee Twp., Kimball Twp., Wales Twp., Columbus Twp., Casco Twp., Ira Twp., Chesterfield Twp., Memphis, Richmond and New Baltimore

Retired auto worker PAUL MANLEY will ably serve Macomb County's 32nd District. Manley's solutions to some of the state's most pressing problems are rooted in a sense of fairness that should guide him well in Lansing.

OAKLAND COUNTY

39th District, Wixom, Commerce Twp. and West Bloomfield Twp.

Small business owner MICHAEL STACK is our pick for the 39th District seat. Stack understands the state's obligation to its cities, and to the residents who live in those cities.

41st District, Troy and Clawson

CYNDI PELTONEN should be voters' choice to represent the 42nd district in Lansing. Michigan must arrest its educational decline; Peltonen's more than 20 years of experience on the Clawson Board of Education should offer valuable insight.

51st District, Flushing Twp., Clayton Twp., Gaines Twp., Argentine Twp., Holly Twp., Rose Twp., Groveland Twp., Atlas Twp., Fenton and Linden

For the 51st District, marketing consultant RYAN BLADZIK is the best choice. Bladzik currently serves as president of the Holly Village Council. His understanding of the state's obligation to properly fund its cities is a perspective that's crucial in Lansing.

WAYNE COUNTY

20th District, Northville and Plymouth, Northville Twp. Plymouth Twp. and Canton

Jeff Noble, 55, is a minister and the Republican candidate for this western Wayne County district, and as the GOP goes these days, he's pretty reasonable. But he also hues to the GOP's willful blindness to issues such as mass incarceration and the need for tax structure changes. The better choice is Democrat COLLEEN POBUR, 57, a Plymouth city commissioner whose sense of issues like local government financing and tax structure are more fleshed out and nuanced. She gets the crises Michigan faces, and supports thoughtful, broad solutions.

21st District, Belleville, Canton, Van Buren Twp.

State Rep. KRISTY PAGAN, 33, a Democrat, has earned re-election to a second term in this western Wayne County district. She has been a voice for strengthening schools and cities through greater investment, and is deeply skeptical that Michigan's multi-billion-dollar tax shift from businesses to individuals is yielding positive results. She's a member of the important appropriations committee, and would play a key role if Democrats win control of the House.

23rd District, Gibraltar, Trenton, Woodhaven, Brownstown Twp., Grosse Ile Twp. and Huron Twp.

In this Downriver Wayne County district, newcomer Democrat DARRIN CAMILLERI, 24, is a former staffer for retired Congressman John Dingell and a strong candidate to continue the kind of compassionate, thoughtful policymaking that defined Dingell's nearly five-decade career. He believes in investment in cities and schools, and wants to expand, rather than curtail, civil rights protections.

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