James Tyler

Reasons Not to Vote Representative Robert Jones of Kalamazoo, Michigan for the Michigan Senate’s 20th District

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Hopefully voters are smart enough to see through the candidacy of Jones. If you haven’t seen my video about him, check it out here.  I can sum up the basic reasons not to vote for him:

• Progressives have no reason to support Jones, yet he is still championed as a progressive candidate. Jones is one of few Democrats not to be endorsed by Michigan Equality in either of his campaign cycles in 2006 and in 2008.  While this does not necessarily mean that he is not in support of equality for LGBT people, it certainly is something he ought to address before the Democratic primary. One would assume that if a politician is a proponent of LGBT equality, she/he would seek the endorsement of the biggest LGBT advocacy group in Michigan.It would be prudent to note that Jones’ biggest competitor in the Senate race, Lorence Wenke, was the only Republican to be endorsed by Michigan Equality.
• It would seem that based on the introduction of House Bill 5207, Jones is not a friend of the environment either. Rewriting legislation, which was intended  to preserve one of the few remaining green spaces in Kalamazoo, to wipe out said green space can hardly be considered the move of anyone who claims to be an environmentalist.
• Jones is an establishment candidate in every sense. He takes money from some of the wealthiest business people in the area (even more so than any prominent area Republicans), doles it back out to his political allies in the State House and the local level, gets powerful committee appointments (i.e., the Commerce Committee chairmanship), and does favors for the people who got him in power.  He is completely groomed by the Kalamazoo elite to represent their interests in Lansing.Again, we can look to House Bill 5207 as proof of this.  The proposed plan would hack up the land that was meant to be preserved for public use and sold off to private entities.
• Jones dealings with his PAC, Jones Advocating for Michigan, are tantamount to corruption, through manipulation of campaign finance laws.Here’s how it works: An individual can contribute only $500 to a candidate’s campaign committee. However, a PAC can contribute up to $5,000 to a candidate’s campaign committee.  So Jones can funnel more money from his wealthy friends to his candidate campaign committee he creates a PAC, has them contribute to the PAC, then has the PAC contribute to the campaign committee. Jones’ PAC was his number one contributor in 2008 – go figure. (View the records here; his candidate committee ID is 512555)
• Jones is bad for Western Michigan University students. Thanks to House Bill 5207, WMU will be out $985,000 to Michigan State University to break the lease MSU has for research on the land.  How can Jones claim to be a supporter of removing the tiered funding system (which gives higher funding to Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, and MSU over the other public universities) while handing over money to Michigan State University?

Jones may as well run as a Republican, because he embodies the “virtues” that Republicans are known for.

Tags: Colony Farm Orchard, House Bill 5207, Lorence Wenke, Robert Jones