Hoekstra brings Senate campaign to county - from the January 29th Lapeer County Press

[William Gavette]

                     BY PHIL FOLEY 810-452-2616 • [e-mail]

Pete Hoekstra visited Lapeer last week. Photo by Phil Foley LAPEER — Former Second Congressional District U.S. House representative and one-time gubernatorial candidate Peter “Pete” Hoekstra paid a visit to the Lapeer County Republican Party’s executive committee meeting last week to pitch his run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by two-term Democrat Debbie Stabenow.

While he has to square off against eight other GOP hopefuls in the August primary, most notable among them Grosse Pointe conservative Clark Durant, who is best known for founding Detroit’s Cornerstone Schools, Hoekstra said he’s focused on November.

Although the Democrats have held both Senate seats in Michigan since 2000, when Stabenow unseated Spence Abraham, Hoekstra believes he has a real chance at taking down Stabenow this fall, even though she defeated popular Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard by 57 percent in the 2006 election.

Hoekstra told party members meeting in Lapeer City Council chambers last week that he’s a “proven conservative.”

In 2010 Hoekstra gave up his U.S. House seat in an unsuccessful bid for governor against Rick Snyder. Since then, Snyder and virtually the state’s entire Republican Party establishment has endorsed his run against

Stabenow.

Noting that his base is in west Michigan, where the Second Congressional District runs from Holland north to Benzie County, and includes some of the state’s most conservative voters, Hoekstra said he’s been spending a lot of time in southeast Michigan. Prior to meeting with Lapeer County Republicans Thursday Hoekstra met with GOP activists in Livonia and Plymouth.

He told Lapeer County Republicans that a recent poll showed his statewide name recognition within six points of Stabenow and “for a 12-year incumbent, that’s not a good place to be.”

Hoekstra said that while 50 percent of his career has been in the private sector, 100 percent of Stabenow’s has been in the public sector. “I just want to give her a chance to get some private sector experience,” he said.

He said the country’s current tax code “has got to go,” and that he likes former presidential candidate Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan.

Hoekstra added he doesn’t believe the federal government should be involved with K-12 education, highway funding or Medicaid.