Old news

Michigan held a primary election this week. It was pretty much a nonevent locally. Just about every candidate running for office on the local (township or county) level was running unopposed and no one really seemed to give a rat's patoot about the state and national contests. It was pretty much of a given that the US Senate race was going to come down to incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow facing Republican hack Pete Hoekstra, and the poor sap planning to run against our tea bagger Congress critter* was unopposed (and who says backroom politics and insider deal-cutting is dead?). When it came to the state house of representatives, I think I heard radio ads for one guy, but that was it. Political advertising (yard signs, for example) was pretty much nonexistent in Baraga County -- the one exception being signs for the incumbent state rep (a Republican), although why he bothered is a mystery. I didn't see much of an effort, if any, on the part of his party to mount a challenge against him. It's not just the voters who are apathetic -- so are the candidates.

In any case, voter turnout locally was about what one expects for a primary: 22 percent of registered voters took the time to show up, probably because there were millage renewals on the ballot. They all passed. We've got our share of tea baggers and fools locally, but even most of them recognize the need to fund the county road commission and to make sure the ambulances keep running.

[*The man spends a lot of time fulminating about the evils of the federal government and the wonders of the private sector. Guess where he worked before he got elected to office? The federal government. Why is this no surprise? I think a lot of the federal employees who are anti-government have a classic case of "the grass is always greener" syndrome. Because they've never worked in the private sector, they fantasize that it's always better than the public.]