Election Summary

Here it is the day after the elections, and unfortunately many of our predictions came true. A number of MCRGO's best pro-gun friends went to defeat and they can honestly report that MCRGO wasn't there for them. Many of MCRGO's members undoubtedly were, but the organization as a whole didn't mobilize this year and the Board of Directors needs to answer for that. 

In Ingham County, Doctor Paul DeWeese lost to anti-gun Virg Birnero. It sure would have been nice having a pro-gun doctor in the Senate but after MCRGO's leadership dissolved the Ingham and Eaton County chapters last summer by ousting chairs Lance Ward in Ingham and Gary Sowers in Eaton, the organization disappeared from the area. Ward and Sowers were experienced election workers and organizers but both reportedly had disagreements with MCRGO President David Felbeck and their chapter chairmanships were revoked. They weren't replaced and when DeWeese needed help and asked MCRGO for it, there was no one local to give it to him. This is especially tragic since MCRGO helped elect Paul DeWeese to the State House two elections ago. And he repaid that help by supporting MCRGO on every issue. Hell be sorely missed. 

The story was the same in Jackson County. Pro-gun state rep. Mickey Mortimer sought the help of MCRGO in what was predicted to be one of Michigan's closest senate races. But even though he was 100% behind MCRGO on his votes, he got no help when he asked for it. MCRGO doesn't even have a Jackson County chapter any more. Chairs Al and Tera Miller who had run that county so well in years past moved away over the summer and reportedly aren't even MCRGO members any more. The Board didn't replace them and there's some question as to whether or not they even realize that they're gone. BOD member Pat Alzady just recently deflected member questions about the lack of an MCRGO presence in Jackson by telling members that she did not know why the Millers had stopped organizing meetings and gun shows and she urged local members to call the Millers and find out. If Pat Alzady had bothered to pick up the phone shed have found out that the Millers were long gone months before. Yet the MCRGO website and newsletter still lists them as chairs to this day. It was incredible negligence on the BOD's part to let one of its most productive chapters just up and fade away and not even notice it for several months. 

Then there was Eileen DeHart. One of the first pro-CCW legislators in Michigan and one of the strongest Democrats on the gun issue. She was a member of MCRGO since it began and served on the PAC committee until the BOD ousted her to make way for Chuck Perricone and David Felbeck on the committee. And despite all her selfless work for MCRGO the BOD issued an endorsement for her then turned around and told everyone that Eileens Republican challenger, Laura Toy, was equally pro-gun.

That was nothing but a bald-faced Republican lie. Toy actually voted against parts of our CCW bill when it was in the House. But the BOD wanted a moderate Republican over a strong pro-gun Democrat because they were more worried about Republicans losing control of the Senate than they were about pro-gunners losing the majority. Eileen got no volunteers and no public meetings in her district and MCRGO chapter chair Neva LaRue has been beating the drum for Toy for weeks and she's not even from that part of the state. Eileen would have written legislation for MCRGO. Eileen deserved MCRGO's support. And the BOD let her crash on the rocks in spite of her years of involvement with MCRGO. 

Mike Green. Author of the CCW bill. Traveled the state on behalf of MCRGO and urged people to join everywhere he went. He lost too, after the NRA endorsed his opponent Jim Barcia and MCRGO bowed to NRA pressure and backed away from Green. Like in the DeHart race, Green supposedly got the MCRGO endorsement but members were then told that Barcia was equally qualified. And of course there was no official effort to help Green out. Member Dan Wholihan worked on his own to build support for Green, and he recruited a few other MCRGO members to help, but the BOD refused to host any meetings or raise any volunteers to help him. Without Mike Green we would not have a CCW bill. And the MCRGO BOD cut him loose as soon as the NRA endorsed Barcia. 

Miles Handy. This MCRGO member from Redford only lost his election by a few hundred votes. He was one of us, a candidate from the membership but the BOD refused to allocate any money to his race and no events were set up in his district to help mobilize voters. We could have had this one, but nothing was done for the man. In fact it took a member crusade led by Fred Mager to even get the BOD to endorse Handy a few months ago despite his appearance at several MCRGO events prior to the primary election. He was our guy and he begged for help. And while he may have gotten it in years past, he sure didn't this year. 

Don Vickers also went down to Dianne Byrum in Ingham County. It was probably a foregone race since Byrum was coming from the State Senate to run for a House seat, but she has a personal vendetta against MCRGO and Vickers was one of our members for a long time. He deserved at least some help and support and he got none from the BOD. And MCRGO member and ex-PAC Treasurer Dan Wholihan tried to help Vickers by recruiting members to work for him, but Wholihan was canned by the board for exposing bad endorsements and when that happened, all of the candidates that Wholihan had supported were basically ignored by MCRGO. 

Clark Bisbee, anti-gunner from Jackson County, did win his race. Of course he had the NRA endorsement even though he voted against CCW, against dove hunting and against the Vear bill when it was first introduced. Bisbee had one of the most anti-gun records in the House two years ago but suddenly the NRA decided to back him as part of some back-room deal and MCRGO was following suit until MCRGO PAC Treasurer Dan Wholihan alerted the members and member outrage caused the BOD to rescind an endorsement that they had given Bisbee. Then they fired Wholihan.

And even though Bisbee didn't get endorsed, neither did his opponent and Bisbees anti-gun history was not relayed to local members. They may have stopped short of helping him thanks to Dan, but they sure didn't try to stand in his way. 

Elizabeth Weaver. The MCRGO BOD is still defending their decision to endorse Justice Weaver despite her anti-MCRGO decision on our lawsuit to preserve the CCW law last year. Pat Alzady continues to claim that Weaver is a strict constructionist who only voted against us because the law was against us, and Alzady continues to describe Weaver as pro-gun and pro-constitution.

Balderdash.

Weavers ruling in our case went against the Constitution and it was definitely NOT constructionist. The State Constitution says that legislation with appropriations attached are not subject to referendum attempts to overturn them. Our CCW law had an appropriation attached, and when the anti-gunners circulated their petitions and got enough signatures to overturn it, MCRGO sued to stop them. Justice Weaver sided with the minority on the court that declared that even though the state constitution barred referendums on bills with attached appropriations, the law did not apply in our case. 

Five other justices, including Robert Young, said that the Constitution always means the same thing in every case, and because of their decision, we kept our CCW law. If Weaver had gotten one more vote on her side, wed be a non-CCW state today. She's NOT a Constitutionalist and nobody who knows her record would ever call her a Constitutionalist, but the MCRGO BOD still refuses to drop the charade and admit that they only backed her because she's a Republican. Elizabeth Weaver almost killed our entire CCW law and the BOD endorsed her anyway. 

And then Alzady tried to get cute and say that Elizabeth Weaver isn't a legislator and she doesn't vote on laws. How patronizing. If Pat Alzady thinks that were all that simple, then its probably time for her to move on. 

Gerald Van Woerkom. State Representative from Muskegon. Ran for State Senate and even though he'd backed MCRGO and spoken at local MCRGO meetings, the BOD ignored him and didn't arrange a single event in his area to help him. Van Woerkom did win by a scant few hundred votes, but it was no thanks to MCRGO's BOD. The members may have supported Van Woerkom locally but he got no assistance at all from the BOD and now he owes MCRGO exactly nothing. This race had a happy ending but its still a case where a friend of ours was ignored when it came time to repay legislative favors. Does our BOD actually think that legislators doesn't see this sort of thing and remember it?

Tuscola County Sheriff Tom Kern lost his bid for the state house too.  Kern, a long-time MCRGO member, wasn't even endorsed by the organization after all of the times he'd spoken at meetings back when MCRGO was active in the Thumb area. Kern says that he's finished with MCRGO now. But is there even a Thumb Chapter any more? There hasn't been a single MCRGO meeting east of Flint or north of the Detroit Metro area since last spring.