This must make Virg Bernero feel better about his nascent gubernatorial campaign: The Michigan Republican Party is attacking him.
It’s not a particularly clever attack and it carries a whopper of an error, but still, an attack is an attack. And if your potential foes think it worth the trouble to run you down, that’s far better than simply ignoring you.
To quote the state party release:
“As Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, also a potential candidate for governor, gives his State of the City Address tonight, the Michigan Republican Party asks: Where will the focus be—on the job the residents of Lansing elected him to do, or his self-interested potential gubernatorial bid?
“Tonight’s address will give us insight into where Bernero’s priorities lie,” said MRP Chief of Staff Josh Venable. “Is he building Lansing’s future, or his own?” ...
During his time in the state Senate, Bernero voted in favor of at least 23 tax and fee increases, costing Michigan taxpayers an estimated $1.9 billion.
In 2006, Lansing’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent and in 2009, it was 11.1 percent, nearly an 85 percent increase on Bernero’s watch. And while residents are hurting, he is watching as The Lansing Board of Water and Light, a public utility company, holds hearings on proposed water and electrical rate hikes. The proposal would result in an annual hike of $80, on average, to Lansing-area families.”
I didn’t know it was Bernero’s fault that local unemployment doubled. I do know, however, that BWL says its rate increase plan would raise an average bill by $8 dollars, not $80. (Correction: The GOP's Jennifer Hoff was kind enough to point out that their mention of $80 refers to an annual increase, whereas the $8 increase I refer to is a monthly boost. So the GOP figure is not a typo.)
None of us are immune from the occasional typo. I would be curious, though, what the state Republican Party’s business advice would be to BWL to help the utility close a budget gap. Would it be job cuts -- which would drive up local unemployment and thereby make Bernero an even worse mayor?
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