We’re just not that into you. And neither are they.
In a true testament to exactly how politically polarized things have gotten in Michigan, former Monroe County Republican Party chair Jeff Andring has filed paperwork to recall Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville.
Andring says it’s because Richardville isn’t conservative enough.
I’ve always been critical of his policies because Randy’s a liberal Republican and I’m a conservative Republican. Randy’s a nice guy, but I disagree with his policies and it’s time to say enough is enough.
Here’s the petition language:
On February 29, 2012 Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, (17th District) co-sponsored and later voted “YES” on Senate Bill 0992, allowing real estate developers to avoid personal guarantees on foreclosed commercial loans in Michigan. Homeowners, losing their homes to foreclosure, are still held liable for such payments. This law was made retroactive to avoid a $2.4 Million dollar personal financial obligation for the brother of the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.Senator Richardville abused his legislative position by introducing “Right to Teach”, wasting our tax dollars on a personal, political message, threatening basic collective bargaining rights of teachers.
Senator Richardville introduced SB 410 and SB 411 which would have authorized a new government bridge, funded with our road repair tax dollars. These bills unfairly divert money from badly needed road repairs to build a bridge that a private company is willing to build at no cost or risk to taxpayers. This misallocation of funds can only result in substandard roads, or increased taxes to replace the money diverted for the government bridge.
For these abuses of legislative power, an election should be held to decide if Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville should be removed from office.
I’m with him 100% on the first bit about the retroactive law that benefited only one person. I’m with him on the second one, pursuing “right to teach” legislation, too. In fact, that statement is hardly “conservative”, if you ask me. I’m pretty ‘meh’ about the Bridge thing and don’t really have an opinion about it.
So, on two out of three points, I actually agree with the guy who says Richardville is a “liberal conservative”. Go figure.
Richardville issued a statement through a spokesperson saying, “[G]iven the broad scope of the language that was filed and multiple reasons (given for the recall), I could guess this is more the result of a political play by someone rather than a concerned citizen who’s actually concerned about policy.”.
Richardville faced a recall in 2011. That effort was headed by liberal Democrat Ernest Whiteside. Whiteside has said he will not be supporting this recall, saying “the reasons given are not reasons for which I would seek the recall of any senator.”
So that’s where we are today. A far-right conservative seeking to oust someone he calls a “liberal” conservative using reasons that are arguably much the same the as the complaints Democrats have against the so-called liberal. And the Democrats refusing to get involved because they hate him for different reasons.
Aye, aye, aye…
I’m pretty certain that Richardville is just giggling throughout all this. If you have enemies that are ideologically split and can avoid having them work together against, you’re in pretty good shape.
[Richardville photo credit: Senate Majority Leader official website]
