The midterm election is fast approaching, and two local candidates are making a final push to let their positions be known.
Michigan State House district 38 candidates Joey Andrews (D-Stevensville) and Kevin Whiteford (R-South Haven) each took some time to talk to former Berrien County Prosecutor John Smietanka to talk about what they believe to be the most important issues facing the lakeshore district.
Where are you from originally?
Andrews: “I grew up in southwest Michigan. I’ve lived here my whole life. I tell everybody that if you look at every immigration wave from Germany that came to southwest Michigan, you’ll find a great-grandparent of mine of some flavor coming over. My family’s been here for about 150 years, so, we go way back in the area. I live in St. Joseph currently. I’ve lived there for about 21 years. Um, my dad’s family is from Dowagiac, and my mom’s from Decatur. So kind of really encapsulates the whole region.”
Whiteford: “My childhood years were mainly in the south side of Chicago. My dad was a bricklayer for a good part of his life. I am one of five. We lived a decent amount of our time in a three bedroom, one bath house that he made as a bricklayer. Yeah. Um, and so he worked his, he worked, he worked very hard. Um, I could say this, my work ethic definitely came from him. I worked extremely hard my entire life, and actually I don’t think I know another way.”
Why are you running for office?
Andrews: “Where I live on the lakeshore here in southwest Michigan, these communities rarely have a voice in Lansing. And one of the things that we’re seeing is that, especially since the recession, the local economies here have ebbed further and further towards tourists and service based economies, and it’s not always to the benefit of people who actually live here year round. … If we don’t start advocating for the kind of community we want to see here, decisions are going to get made for us. We’re going to lose a lot of what makes this place such a great place to live. So for me, running was about trying to be that voice for my community and to help pass the sorts of laws and advocate for the kinds of policies that’ll let us continue to have a fighting chance and, be able to live and retire and raise our families here.”
Whiteford: “I want to do this because I want a better future for my kids and grandkids. … I want to make sure that businesses not only are left alone and get maintained and are allowed to function. But I also want to grow it. I want businesses to grow here so that the jobs are so plentiful for everybody’s kids and grandkids so that the kids and grandkids want to stay here. This is not only the most beautiful part of our state, in my opinion, it’s got to be one of the most beautiful parts of the country. … So, we’ve got to make it so that these kids and grandkids want to stay here and they flourish. And my opinion is if they work hard, they should be able to be allowed to spend and take care of their families and their friends the way they want to, because they earned it and they worked hard to do that. If you work hard, you should be rewarded for that.”
What are the most important issues to you?
Andrews: “Building a sustainable economy, especially locally, is one of my top priorities. The tourism and service-based economy has become an increasingly large part of, what we see in this Lakeshore region, but those jobs don’t always create the most stability. … To me, building a sustainable economy runs straight through the skilled trades. … We have so much development that goes on locally – building hotels and businesses and redeveloping our downtowns – but so often we outsource that labor and it comes in from South Bend, or it comes in from Kalamazoo or Grand Rapids, and those dollars leave our community when those workers go home. … We can have the people who live here building and rebuilding their communities and, you know, I think create something that’s a little more durable.”
Whiteford: “Business growth, that’s number one. With business growth, you need affordable housing. I’ve worked on this for years, and I think I have the solution. … The bottom line is we need to figure out not only how to bring businesses here, but we have to plan and understand how to build around that to allow affordable housing to occur on a private level. We don’t need federal government to get involved in this, or the state government to get involved in affordable housing. … The other thing I think is important … I would’ve made it a priority to lower the income tax or at least eliminate the income tax associated with retirement income on senior citizens. If we had a raise in taxes that was unexpected, that is going to occur on a yearly basis, we should look at the other taxes that are being assessed against the residents of this great state that can be reduced.”
On what you want to accomplish / being held accountable:
Andrews: “I’d like to be able to say that we’ve made some significant progress towards building these CTE programs and getting kids access, but I don’t think that two years is enough time to see the fruits of that labor. But hopefully we can at least say, you know, we’ve increased the budget, we’ve created some new programs, things are moving. I’d also like to be able to say that we have found a solution to this issue with the short term rentals maybe found some kind of compromise that keeps our communities here safe while not completely killing the industry. … I think finding a solution to that short term rental issue and starting to get motion on trades programs and schools would be two things that I really hope, in two years time, if we have this conversation again, I can say ‘yeah, we got some stuff done.'”
Whiteford: “Well, I could tell you this – anyone who has ever dealt with me in my entire life … They could say ‘man, this guy, whenever he said he was going to do something, he did it.'” I will make things happen. I will work with people as long as they become workable. … I feel that people working on both sides of the aisle to try to make things happen for the people. Somebody asked me the other day in a survey, they said, ‘Hey what are you gonna do long term in politics?’ And I told ’em, I said, That’s a great question. I’ll ask all politicians. But the answer should be, you should be in politics for a very short period of time to solve long term policy issues.”
Listen to the full interviews here.
