We just can’t stop trumpeting the new bipartisan caucus of 44 freshman legislators in Lansing. Here’s a photo just to prove we’re not making it up…
Front row, seated, left to right: Andrew Kandrevas (D – Southgate), Roy Schmidt (D – Grand Rapids), Lisa Brown (D – West Bloomfield), Kate Segal (D- Battle Creek), Ellen Cogan Lipton (D -Huntington), and Dian Slavens (D – Canton Twp).
Second row, standing, left to right: Jim Slezak (D – Davison), Mike Huckleberry (D- Greenville), Wayne Schmidt (R – Traverse City), Kevin Daly (R – Attica), Larry DeShazor (R – Portage), Lesia Liss (D – Warren), Bill Rogers (R – Brighton), Hugh Crawford (R – Novi), Jim Stamas (R- Midland), Matt Lori (R – Constantine), Cindy Denby (R- Fowlerville), Jon Switalski (D – Warren), and Robert Genetski (R – Saugatuck).
Back row, standing, left to right: Timothy Bledsoe (D-Grosse Pointe), Joseph Haveman, (R – Holland) and Pete Lund (R – Shelby Twp).
Ron Dzwonkowski at the Detroit Free Press took note of the caucus a column last week…
Understand that while this new caucus has no issues agenda, its members have wrapped their arms around an attitude that, despite lip service, has not been standard operating procedure in Lansing. They’ve adopted a mission statement of sorts declaring that caucus members, 26 Democrats and 20 Republicans, “are willing and eager to look beyond partisanship and philosophical divides to accomplish what is necessary to find long-term solutions to Michigan’s problems…” They vow to “know each other on a level that presents civility and camaraderie even when we disagree passionately on policy” and hope the caucus “will be remembered for its ability to steer Michigan away from economic calamity and unnecessary bickering…” But for heaven’s sake let us not disparage the idea. In fact, let us hold them to their pledge and hope they can hand it down to freshman classes to come. Because they’re right: People are sick of a government that’s perceived as being at perpetual partisan loggerheads and full of people forever jockeying for a chair on the next-higher deck while the ship is sinking… Granted, in tough times such as these, political leadership becomes an easy target for ire. But if those leaders aren’t perceived as pulling together, the people will never fall in behind them. So I hope this new caucus hangs tough and remembers those voters who sent them to Lansing for climate change. Perhaps by the time they become leaders, the people will have someone to follow.
