Randy Hekman

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="044005a0exvipq.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFCC33" FACE="Copperplate Gothic Bold" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eastside Republican Club"><U><B>Home</B></U></A><B>  </B><B> </B></FONT><B>  | </B><B> </B><B> </B><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Copperplate Gothic Bold" ><B>Eastside Republican Club</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="erc_meeting_dates.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Events"><U><B>Events</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="eastside_republican_review_summary.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ERC Review"><U><B>ERC Review</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="michigan_s_13th_district.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Congressional District News"><U><B>Congressional District News</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="civic___governmental_links.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="erc_officers.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U><B>About Us</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Randy Hekman</B></div> <div> <A HREF="link_to_michigan_gop.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michigan Republicans"><U><B><IMG SRC="05358580.gif" border=0 width="88" height="88" ALT="Michigan GOP" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="michigan_s_13th_district.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Congressional District News"><U><I><B>Congressional District News</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="erc_testimonials.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Theyre Saying About Us"><U><I><B>Read what they've said about us</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="erc_meeting_dates.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Events"><U><B><IMG SRC="81b871f0.gif" border=0 width="135" height="31" ALT=">>Events" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <A NAME="top_of_page"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <I><U>Candidate for US Senate</U></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B><IMG SRC="1caa90600.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="352" ALT="Randy Hekman with ERC membes Shirley Nagle and Peggy Hennigan at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="8" VSPACE="4"></B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Randy Hekman Makes Appeal</B></div> <div> <B>For Unity in Talk to F</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>ebruary Forum</B></FONT></div> <div> “We have a lot of work to do on Capitol Hill,” declared Randy Hekman, candidate for the GOP nomination to face off against incumbent U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow in the November General Election.</div> <div> Speaking in Grosse Pointe Farms, he told the February 21 Eastside Republican Club Forum, “We won't just wave a magic wand.”</div> <div> Realistically, coalitions are needed, he said, to change our culture. To make it happen, “We have to pull together,” said the Navy veteran and member of the Republican Party.</div> <div> Pointing to campaign appeals directed at various interest groups, he said, “Right now, our president is dividing our country.”</div> <div> “My goal is fixing our country, and I want to bring people together, because we are Americans,” Hekman told his audience gathered at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial.</div> <div> “In my view one of the key roles of a Senator is to use the bully pulpit.”</div> <div> Though in some respects the federal government is broken, he cautioned that it is merely a reflection of our culture, noting, “Government is a lagging indicator of our nation's culture.”</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="307" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 376 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1cac2c720.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="370" ALT="Randy Hekman with ERC chairman Jenny Nolan and Andy Walker at the February 21 Forum" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 459 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1cb42cc50.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="453" ALT="Randy Hekman addressing questions from the audience at the February 21 Forum" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 320 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1cb22c3a0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="314" ALT="Randy Hekman makes a point talking with ERC members following the February 21 Forum" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> On the issue of mounting debt, he reported, “Every tick of the clock, every second of the day and night, $76,000 is added to our national debt.”</div> <div> “And this does not include all of the unfunded liabilities such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” he added.</div> <div> He said this proves the cost of subsidizing welfare is too great to sustain.</div> <div> <I><B>High Cost of War</B></I></div> <div> Offering a comparison, Hekman said the U.S. has spent $6.4 trillion to fund all the wars since our country was founded.</div> <div> “Yet since 1964, the cost of the federal War on Poverty has cost over $16 trillion, and in the process it is hurting the very people it is intended to help,” he said.</div> <div> Hekman noted it is no coincidence that our total national debt now approaches $16 trillion. “Remember, what you reward, you get more of,” he said.</div> <div> With urgency, the former Kent County prosecutor and judge warned, “Today we are at a crossroads, as we were in 1776, 1861, and in 1941.”</div> <div> “The freedoms we enjoy were paid for in blood, and I want to pass them on to the next generation,” he vowed.</div> <div> Returning to his call for unity, he asked the audience to remember, we are “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”</div> <div> Speaking about the incumbent senator, Hekman said frankly, “I like Debbie Stabenow.” But he was quick to note, “Sixty percent of her campaign contributions are from outside Michigan.”</div> <div> As for outside influence on his positions, he said, “My positions on the issues are clear, and I pledge to accept no money from any PAC when the intent is to influence me to compromise.</div> <div> Going one step farther, he added, “I won't run negative advertising.”</div> <div> As for his prospects of winning the nomination, he said, “All candidates are within percentage points.”</div> <div> Hekman announced in early 2011 his intention to run for the Senate. <I>>></I><A HREF="http://randyhekman2012.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://randyhekman2012.com/"><U><I>Learn more</I></U></A>.</div> <div> “The big question is, 'Who has the <I>chutzpah</I> to bring about change?' Make your own call. We're making progress,” he noted.</div> <div> Hekman was the second of four children born in Grand Rapids to John and Mary Lou Hekman in 1947. He attended Wheaton Academy (West Chicago, IL), and graduated in 1969 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. from the Sloan School of Management. In 1972, Hekman received his JD in Law from the George Washington University Law School.</div> <div> <I><B>Military and Community Service</B></I></div> <div> From June 1969 to June 1972, Hekman served in the Pentagon as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy assigned to the Office of the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy where he developed Department of Defense computer systems policy.</div> <div> Following his military assignment, Hekman returned to Grand Rapids to serve as assistant prosecuting attorney in the Kent County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. He left that post in 1975 at age 27 after a successful campaign to bring "Fair and Firm Juvenile Justice" to the Kent County Juvenile Court. Hekman became the youngest judge in the state, and worked to make significant improvements in the court, resulting in a substantial juvenile crime reduction.</div> <div> After 15 years, Hekman left the bench to become the founding executive director of Michigan Family Forum with headquarters in Lansing, Michigan. He led that non-profit research and education organization from 1990 to 1996. He then served as executive director of CBH Ministries for six years before taking on the role of executive pastor at Crossroads Bible Church, which he left to enter the Senate race.</div> <div> <I><B>Advance Technology Interests</B></I></div> <div> Among his other interests, Hekman has an ongoing desire to explore alternate energy research and technology. In 1996, he formed his own company to provide energy research and consultation, particularly in the growing area of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). Mistakenly called "cold fusion" by some, science now understands that this process, while nuclear, involves neither fusion nor fission. Because of its nature, LENR does not require heavy shielding nor does it produce radioactive waste, yet it offers incredible potential for safe and inexpensive energy.</div> <div> <I><B>Key Campaign Positions</B></I></div> <div> Major planks of Hekman's Republican campaign for Senate include:</div> <div> - Balance federal budgets expeditiously without raising taxes through a reduction in the enormous size of government.</div> <div> - Take aggressive action now to begin reducing the staggering federal deficit which exceeds $14 trillion, through cost cutting and without raising taxes.</div> <div> - Deal realistically with astronomically large unfunded entitlement liabilities in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.</div> <div> - Encourage the non-profit sector to greatly increase its contribution to human need caused by the federal government's major reductions; consider a nominal tax credit for individuals who contribute at least 10 percent of their gross income to non-profit entities.</div> <div> <I><B>Personal Life</B></I></div> <div> Hekman married Marcia Bealer of Fenton, Illinois, in 1969. They have 12 children, ranging in age from 18 to 40, and 21 grandchildren. Each of the ten Hekman children who are already graduated from college attended a college different from any of his or her siblings.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>~ ~ ~</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.hoekstraforsenate.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.hoekstraforsenate.com/"><U>Pete Hoekstra</U></A>, another contender for the GOP nomination to oppose incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow in the November 2012 General Election, spoke to the club <A HREF="hoekstra196.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pete Hoekstra"><U>November 15, 2011</U></A>. </div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.clarkdurant.com/home/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.clarkdurant.com/home/"><U>Clark Durant</U></A> spoke to speak to the <A HREF="durant.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Clark Durant"><U>January 17, 2012</U></A>, ERC Forum.</div> <div> In addition to Hekman, Hoekstra, and Durant, other announced candidates in the Republican primary are <A HREF="http://garyglenn.us/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://garyglenn.us/"><U>Gary Glenn</U></A> of Midland, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, <A HREF="http://www.peterkonetchy.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.peterkonetchy.com/"><U>Peter Konetchy</U></A>, Roscommon businessman, <A HREF="http://www.boman12.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.boman12.org/"><U>Scotty Boman</U></A>, educator and Detroit libertarian activist, and <A HREF="http://www.chuckmarino.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.chuckmarino.com/"><U>Chuck Marino</U></A>, Brighton businessman.</div> <div> The Eastside Republican Club Forum is normally held on the third Tuesday of the month from September through June. Admission is free and the public is always welcome.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#top_of_page" TITLE="Randy Hekman"><U>back to top</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>