CANDIDATES OF THE COMPASSION MONGERS AND THE PYRAMID BUILDERS

There two contested Grand Rapids City Commission seats in this year’s municipal elections.  Incumbent James Jendrasiak and challenger David Shaffer are vying for the First Ward seat.  Competing in the Second Ward for the seat Lynn Rabaut is vacating are Rosalynn Bliss and Shaula Johnston.

Both races offer genuine choices for the voters.  The bleeding heart liberals are Jendrasiak and Bliss.  They are backed by the usual lefty crowd.  Jendrasiak, an unemployed electrician and self-styled (and largely AWOL) tribune of the workingman, has received contributions from the local UAW and from the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Bliss is well-known as a political protégé of Mayor George Heartwell, whose so-called progressiveness is as sanctimonious as it is soft-headed.  In addition to his endorsement, his wife Susan, former City Commissioners Linda Samuelson and Mary Alice Williams, philanthropist Peter Wege, some local unions, and the Progressive Women’s Alliance have given Bliss the thumb’s up.

Shaffer and Johnston are the stone-hearted conservatives opposing Jendrasiak and Bliss.  A host of Amway pyramid-builders and their allies are backing Shaffer, including Rich DeVos, Helen DeVos, Doug DeVos, Daniel DeVos, Pamela DeVos, David VanAndel, Stephen VanAndel, and Peter Cook.  Shaffer also got some attention during the primary by winning the support of the quasi-Republican Mavericks.  Johnston is getting some of the same backing from the DeVoses and the Van Andels plus the campaign contributions from Peter Cook and Peter Secchia.

So, I as said, dear readers, you have a real choice this year.  You have the candidates of the compassion mongers who would have us follow the same feel-good “social justice” path that put cities like Detroit in the toilet.  And you have the candidates of the pyramid builders who would expect to have their big projects greased with taxpayer funds in corrupt public-private partnerships that put cities like Detroit in the toilet.  Hmm, maybe there’s not such a difference.  Of course, no candidate is necessarily defined by his or her supporters, which is why Jendrasiak, Shaffer, Bliss, and Johnston need to make clear to the voters whether or not they endorse the agendas of those who endorse them.