February 8, 2007
Mr. Jeff Payne
Editor
The Lapeer County
Press
1521 Imlay City Road
Lapeer, MI 48446
Dear Editor:
Following the November general
election, Mr. John Schlack, writing representing the Lapeer County Republican Party’s Editorial Committee, submitted
a letter in which he discussed the recent convention of the County
Republicans. He discussed
the fact that they had met in convention and elected their leadership for the next two years.
I want to offer my congratulations to Ms. Karen Mersino on her election to the position of Chairperson and to the rest
of the elected officers and board members.
Mr. Schlack went on to discuss
the most recent general election and talked about the big wins the Republican Party enjoyed.
He pointed to Candice Miller’s re-election to Congress from the Michigan
10th District. He pointed to Jud Gilbert and John Stahl being returned
to the State Senate and House, respectively. He pointed out that Secretary of
State Terry Lynn Land and Attorney General Mike Cox had both been re-elected. And
he pointed to a host of local elections in which Republicans were returned to office.
Mr. Schlack then made reference
to the fact that the Republican Party is still the dominant party in Lapeer
County and that they will be visible and working for the next two years,
unlike the Democratic Party, which only shows up during election years. And there
is the rub, as they say.
I was first elected Chair
of the Lapeer County Democratic Party in 1998. Over the past eight years, the
LCDP has built itself into an organization which is vibrant and strong and growing rapidly.
We have worked hard to be visible in the community and to throw our support behind issues and candidates that we believe
represent the best interests of all Lapeer County
residents. We have taken public stands on issues of the day and have fought to
secure passage of ballot proposals which impact Lapeer County residents.
In one such case, the Senior
millage proposal, we encouraged our members to support the proposal, put up yard signs, worked the polls, distributed literature
at parades and festivals around the county and even made a monetary contribution to the campaign. I ran into Jack Little, the former Chair of the Lapeer County Republican Party during Columbiaville Days
(it was still the Lily Festival then) and asked him if his party was also working to pass the millage proposal. I was dumbfounded by Jack’s response. He said, and I
quote, “Oh, No . . . We don’t get involved in local politics”. What
he meant, of course, was not that the Republicans are not interested in running candidates for office, rather they are not
interested in taking a stand on an issue like passage of the senior millage proposal.
The County Republican Party
was also not interested in taking a position opposing the indiscriminate spraying for mosquitoes put forward by the Lapeer
County Commission a couple of years ago. More recently, they were not interested
in taking a position on either of the Library millage requests or the GLTA millage proposal.
The were not interested in taking a public stand on either of the bond proposals sought by the Lapeer Community Schools
and we’ll see how they feel about the next one, when it likely comes up in May.
What the Lapeer County Republican
Party is interested in taking positions on are issues that have federal or state import but really do not affect the lives
of every County resident in any direct way. They found their voice when the issue
before the County Commission
was to support a constitutional ban on gay marriage. In fact, in Commission chambers,
then Chairman Little said that if we don’t take a stand against gay marriage now, at some point down the road we will
be asked to sanction marriage between people and animals.
The Republicans railed against
affirmative action programs and label everyone who happens to be pro-choice as pro-abortion.
And we’ve all heard how the Democratic Party wants to take away everyone’s guns and we never met a tax
increase we didn’t love. It’s all a big show – smoke and mirrors
– big talk, but when it comes down to working to help improve the lives of Lapeer
County residents, where is the Republican Party then?
This years marks the 4th
year that the Lapeer County Democratic Party has partnered with the Human Development Commission to raise funds for the Walk-for-Warmth. This tremendously important program provides heating assistance to county residents
who are in need of a helping hand to make it through the winter. . Most of these residents who benefit from this program are elderly, many are employed but are still struggling,
many are single parent households and most do not qualify for other government assistance programs. Our work here happens over several months beginning with providing dealers for the Home Builders Association
Vegas Night for the last three years, staffing and walking in the Walk-for-Warmth on the last weekend in February, and staffing
the Walk-for-Warmth luncheon at the County Annex
building for the last three years
We proudly support the Family Literacy Center,
the Lapeer County Equal Rights Alliance, 4-H, and the Zonta
Fantasy Forest. We contributed to the building of the Michigan Moving Wall honoring Vietnam War veterans and, along with
County Republicans,
placed a bench in Veteran’s Memorial Park here in Lapeer on the anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Last July we held our first Al & Shelby Cicchini Memorial Golf Tournament and awarded our first ever
$1000 scholarship to a Lapeer West graduate, Ms. Heather Ziegenmeyer.
As did the Republicans, we
also met in convention in December and re-elected our entire leadership team. And
for the first time ever, the Lapeer County Democratic Party has opened a permanent office.
It is located in the HDC building at 1559 Imlay City Road. Make no mistake Mr. Schlack, the Lapeer County Democratic Party is not hiding as much
as you might like folks to believe we are. We are here, we’re now easy
to find – our telephone number is 664-2006 – and we are going to continue to speak out about issues that matter
to Lapeer County
residents. And as the County continues to grow and change, look also for the
Democratic Party to begin to make significant inroads into those elected offices you boast about. Tip O’Neill once said “All politics is local.”
I challenge the Lapeer County Republican Party to join us in the cold on February 24th at the historic courthouse
for this year’s Walk-for-Warmth. It’s time to walk the walk now –
not just talk the talk.
Sincerely,
Bill Marquardt
Chairman
Lapeer County Democratic Party
1559 Imlay City Road, Suite 8
Lapeer, MI 48446
664-2006 (Office)
667-1997 (Home)
810-240-0546 (Cell)
bismarq@charter.net
