The board of election commissioners of Lenawee County met at 1:10 pm this afternoon and approved the clarity of the language of the Walberg Recall Petition. Petitions are at the printer now and the recall will begin as soon as the necessary administrative tasks have been completed.

To the editor,

As the petitioner who presented the recall petition for Congressman Tim Walberg to the Lenawee County Board of Election Commissioners, I would like to explain my motivation and purpose.

Congressman Walberg was elected with an obscene amount of campaign funds, a sizable percentage of which came from outside the 7th District. Further, he won the election with less than a majority of the votes cast in our district in November of 2006.

He had vowed, during his campaign and since, that he will oppose any increase in taxes, yet, each time that he votes for any bill in Congress that is not supported by sufficient tax dollars to pay for its enactment and promulgation, he is supporting the raising of taxes and passing that tax burden on as a tax increase on all of our citizens.

He voted against an effort to bring the troops home, thereby continuing the slaughter and maiming of one our our most important assets, our young soldiers. This conflict has been instigated and conducted without the approval of Congress, which is required by the U.S. Constitution. It has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, many of them women and children. It has destroyed that land, its infrastructure, its industry and its economy. It is time that this insanity by our federal government be brought to a vote of the people, which is not influenced by the money of special interests.

A recall petition by a citizen is the purest form of democracy that exists in this land. It is sanctioned by the US Constitution (Amendment X) and by the laws of the State of Michigan, namely Secxtion 168.149, Act 116 of 1954, Michigan Election Law.

This petition was written by me. Neither the Republican nor Democratic parties has had any influence on this action, and nor will they. The hiring of a lawyer to confuse the election board with a sheaf of papers only delayed the inevitable, which is that a recall petition will sooner or later be approved and circulated in the 7th Congressional District of Michigan.

Finally, the irony of this effort to stymie the recall petition is that in order for such a recall to come to fruition, the signatures of at least 45,000 voters will need to be gathered. I certainly cannot do that myself and I do not intend to do so. This is the challenge of the voters of the 7th District. Do you want to continue to be represented by Congressman Walberg or do you want to effect a change in our district’s representation? If you want to change, sign the petition; if not, ignore the opportunity and continue to line up for parades for our fallen soldiers and continue to pay an excessive amount of taxes solely to fund a destructive and poorly conceived conflict far from our shores.

James R. Carr

Jackson

No doubt James Carr is sincere in his desire to see U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg leave office. The Jackson resident disagrees with the congressman politically, particularly with Walberg's support for the Iraq war. Fine. Lots of folks don't agree with the congressman. But that's not reason enough to back Carr's effort to recall Walberg.

The Lenawee County elections board Monday may approve a recall petition, although Walberg's campaign maintains the Constitution should block that from happening. However that board rules, what should concern everyone is the idea of a recall in the first place. This shouldn't be about politics, but about doing right by democracy.

Since the Republican Walberg was narrowly elected in November, he has done little other than what he said he would. He is a fiscal and social conservative, and he has voted as such. He said during the campaign that he supported having U.S. troops in Iraq, and he still does.

He hasn't deceived the public. He hasn't been accused of a crime. He hasn't engaged in tawdry behavior that has disgraced his office. In all, Walberg doesn't deserve a recall effort.

Carr, who explains his recall petition on today's Opinion page, wants to put the Iraq war on the ballot. But if the war is your chief concern, you've had two chances to vote on the issue -- in 2004 and 2006. Republicans who supported the war won this area's congressional seat both times. Like it or don't, the voters had their say.

A recall raises other issues, too. Even if enough people sign the petition, a vote to oust Walberg wouldn't take place until next year. But as things stand, he will be challenged in the November 2008 election.

The congressman's critics will get their chance to give him the boot soon enough. There's no need to rush into things with an expensive recall, financed by taxpayer dollars.

Labels: Recall, Tim Walberg

posted by Fitzy  # 4:18 PM