Our decision to endorse State Sen. Hansen Clarke to be Michigan’s next 13th Congressional District representative over incumbent Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick was not an easy one.
The editorial board of the Michigan Chronicle pondered for weeks on this decision before we arrived at an almost evenly divided vote with a slim majority to recommend Clarke to voters as the suitable congressional representative.
Not all of us agree with the majority decision of the editorial board, but we believe in the democratic process and that the majority opinion holds sway on such matters of crucial importance.
We do not take lightly the value that our readers place on us because of the public service we provide by ensuring that all that is in the public domain is in the public’s best interests.
We understand the complex nature of our role in the community as an entity between the people and the government, ensuring that our readers see the candidates for who they are beyond the periphery.
Leading to the endorsement vote, the Michigan Chronicle sat down with candidates Clarke and Kilpatrick to have them explain to us what they will do to bring badly needed jobs to their district and this region.
Kilpatrick said that is what she has already been doing, including the $1 billion in federal aid she’s brought to the district and the state. She talked about the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) and how it could be used to retrain people for new jobs.
She also discussed the funding she has made available to universities and for SMART and D-DOT buses, and noticeably on the campaign trail she has been referring to taxpayer transportation funding in this region as “that’s my money” instead of tax dollars funded by those who sent her to Congress.
As the only member of the House Appropriations Committee, an important seat in this tough economic time, Kilpatrick, has not adequately explained to her constituents what that means. Naming big projects and dropping high figures, yet failing to explain how that improves the lives of average people in her district does not bode well for a veteran lawmaker.
Two years ago when she was barely returned to Congress, Kilpatrick said she will retire from her seat when she decides to. This is an affront to democracy because it means that her legitimacy is not derived from the people who elected her. For someone to have narrowly retained her position to tell voters after the election that she will make the decision to leave office shows that she is not holding on to the public trust, but on the strength of her ambitions.
Everyone has a right to offer themselves as a choice for public service, but it is the people’s decision to choose.
During the historic 2008 presidential campaign, we were painfully reminded of Kilpatrick’s appearance of neutrality in the race for president at the time when then Sen. Barack Obama was fighting for votes with then Sen. Hilary Clinton.
Kilpatrick was head of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) at that time.
Even when some members of the CBC, were cross-carpeting and forcibly removing themselves from the entrenched Clinton legacy to the Obama campaign, after they got the signal from their districts including civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis, Kilpatrick still remained neutral.
She only came out in support of Obama after Super Tuesday, when it was overwhelmingly evident that America was about to witness the first Black person to be nominated for president by a major party.
The race neutrality shown by Kilpatrick was in striking contrast to Congressman John Conyers who was the first major lawmaker in the nation to support Obama for president.
We support a congressperson who supports the president. Nothing less and the political waiting game shown during the unprecedented historic campaign speaks volumes about the courage to take positions no matter how unpopular they were at the time. Political expediency should not be the benchmark for how our representatives do business.
Though Clarke has never been elected to Congress, he served as chief of staff to Congressman John Conyers which explains his familiarity with the inner workings of Congress.
While in the Michigan, Legislature, Hansen championed for improved public education, led the fight to save home values and to stop foreclosures, and wrote legislation to cut the costs of home, auto and business insurance.
He is Democratic vice chair of two committees — Health Policy, and Commerce and Tourism — and he serves on the Judiciary, Banking and Financial Institutions, Government Operations and Reform, Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committees.
Yes we gave deep thought to Clarke’s status as a newcomer should he be elected. Some would label him a “risky” choice because he would not have the seniority that Kilpatrick has in the House.
If Clarke is a risky choice as his critics are saying, we submit to them that taking a risk has been the hallmark of our struggle for political, social and economic empowerment. Those who dared to pave the way for us to enjoy the freedoms we have today fought for needed change by taking risks and in demonstrating, in the words of Obama, “the audacity of hope.”
Clarke is very passionate about fighting on behalf of the average man and the so-called “little people.” His story is an improbable, the son of an immigrant from Bangladeshi and an African American from Detroit, Clarke fought his way to the top. His parents were no longer alive to see their son’s ascension. Since he began serving in the Michigan Legislature, Clarke has maintained the bedrock of his platform – fight against special interests and maintain the will of the people.
This is the time for Congressman Hansen Clarke. We have supported Kilpatrick numerous times in the past. We believe as the nation looks forward to a new breed of elected representatives, it is time for Detroit to have a new face in Congress. The Obama adminstration has ushered in an era of new vision, faces, ideas and programs as evidenced in the elections that happened since then, as well the various legislation the president is pushing.
People want new blood. The old guard has not succeeded in transforming the lives of ordinary people. Now with the new faces heading to Congress we can hope to move toward a better nation, state and city. We believe that voters in the 13th Congressional District should send Sen. Hansen Clarke to Washington.