Quicky on the Charlevoix County GOP Picnic

Hey y’all. I was downstate most all of yesterday. The picnic ended about 3pm yesterday. But the people I was riding with went to Charlevoix to visit a relative of their’s. I had a really nice time at both. We had to drive through downtown Boyne City to get to the picnic near Whiting Lake. I saw all these cute little shops. First thought would be that I would try to sneak off to the shops while I was at the picnic. Then I realized that the picnic was quite a ways from downtown. Keeping me from shops that I know exist, well ya might as well send me to Gitmo. The picnic was quite a good deal, considering that I am a female Libertarian version of Ted Kennedy. Seven bucks for admittance got attendees free beer and soda and a large selection of the potluck style meal. Each person got half a chicken on their plate. Great deal if you ask me. Of course I piled up on the food. There was no leftovers of my oatmeal raisin white chocolate chip cookies. Must bake more cookies. On the way to Charlevoix I get to ride the Ironton Car Ferry for the first time, or at least for the first time I can remember. I was also able to go inside of an old Victorian in Charlevoix. There was an art fest going on at the same time. Well, let’s get to the business of politics.

This is going to be a quick recap of the picnic, until I can get my notes together and comment more on the individual candidates speeches. I took quick shorthand notes from the speeches. I plan on going on the interwebs and searching more on each candidate and combine that with my notes. Be ready for some honesty, good and bad. Just a warning .

Tim Boyko, Chairman of the Charlevoix County GOP, was the emcee for the combined doorprizes and auction. I think the the doorprize distribution was fixed. Winners were the candidates and important people. But it was still fun. Mr. Boyko was very creative. Instead of just having us sit through continous of announcing winners, he interspersed the announcements through the beginning, dinner and in between speeches. State Rep Howard Walker (R) (T.C.) gave the blessing before the meal.

Keynote speaker was Representative Pete Hoekstra (R) (MI). He is one of the Primary candidates for governor in 2010. His speech was freakin awesome! Unfortunately, he had to leave early, so he had to be the first speaker and spoke during the meal. If I wasn’t doing this blogging thing and brought my blog notebook it wouldn’t be that bad. But his speech was great and of substance that I had to keep interrupting my meal to write notes. I suppose that is good for a candidate to be able to say something of substance. I want to get into the details of his speech and what he said, but I will do that later. One thing I do want to say is that recall when Nanny State Pelosi “claimed” that the CIA lied to her regarding the 2002 intelligence briefing? Well, Mr. Hoekstra took her on and said she is basically full of shit. Well not quite in those words. Mr. Hoekstra supports freedom for Michigan citizens.

Tim Boyko made a joke about a fantasy of Sarah Palin, some Norm Oleson fella and Ted Nugent opening up a gaming ranch in the U.P.

Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land announced that she will not be running for governor. Instead, she is endorsing Mike Bouchard’s run for governor. She talked a bit about why she supports Mike Bouchard and suggested checking out his website, http://bouchardforgovernor.com/.

Bill Schuette spoke on why he is running for Michigan Attorney General. Mr. Schuette had formerly served served on the 4th District Court of Appeals, U.S. Congress and State Senate. A good majority of his speech was about family values, so 1990’s. He also talked about hometown values. I suppose I am okie-dokie with that. Of substance though, he does support the eliminating of the business tax.

Anne Norlander is running for Secretary of State. She currently serves as Clerk and Register of Deeds in Calhoun County. I was quite impressed with her speech. She handed out pamphlets to learn more about her campaign. A couple stand outs, she supports the Second Amendment. She has a great catch phrase, “Stop complaining and start campaigning!” I plan on learning more about her.

Cameron Brown is another candidate for Secretary of State. OK, I wrote “POETIC!” in caps, in my notes. This is because at the beginning of his speech he started waxing poetic about family values and blah, blah, blah. His speech seemed to get better after that. He believes customer satisfaction is job #1. Plans on exposing ACCORN and voter fraud.

Howard Walker who is running for State Senate in the 37th thinks that the way to create jobs is to remove the hurdles of bureaucracy.

Tim Boyko is currently the Charlevoix County GOP Chair who is running for state rep in the 105th district. He understands business and has signed the front of a check.

Jack Hoogendyk, who is currently not running for anything. Mr. Hoogendyk talked of Core Conservative Principles and holding candidates and politicians responsible. He also handed out pamphlets for Citizens Voice for Property Owners. I will take time to read that sometime.

I know I already came out as a Libertarian. I still hold to libertarian principles. So I am not a die-hard Republican “no matter what.” I am just here to find the information and report it. I plan on learning all about the Republican and Libertarian candidates, finding out who I believe is best for Michigan and letting y’all know about the info I find. And welcoming input from you.