Richner Honored for Service

<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>Richner Honored for Service</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> <bR> <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="pledge.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grosse Pointes Role in Pledge Controvers"><U><I><B>Pte's Role in Pledge Flap</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_terrorist_threats"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <I><U>Explains Impact of the 2002 General Election</U></I></div> <div> <B>Andrew Richner Makes His Final Report as District 1 Representative</B></div> <div> by Bob Cosgrove</div> <div> State of Michigan Representative Andrew C. Richner, representing the five Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods, addressed the November 19th Eastside Republican Club meeting at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial for his final time as State Representative. Term limited, Richner won the November 5th Election for the second seat on the University of Michigan Board of Regents along with Republican Andrea Fischer Newman.<IMG SRC="c4e902c0.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="300" ALT="Rep. Richner addresses November 2002 session of the ERC at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="6" VSPACE="4"></div> <div> In introducing Richner, Eastside Republican Club Chairman Thomas R. McCleary, Jr., pointed out that Richner is a local boy who went to Grosse Pointe South High School, the University of Michigan, where he also received his law degree, worked for a major Washington, D.C. law firm and then came back to Michigan, ”because this is where his and Sue's roots are.“</div> <div> Grosse Pointe Park Mayor Palmer Heenan recruited Richner for the Park Council and he won. Richner ran for the Wayne County Commission and he was only the second Republican elected that year to the Commission! Reelected to a second term, Richner was joined by Republicans Bruce Patterson and Thaddeus McCotter on the Commission. Patterson has stepped up the Michigan Senate and McCotter is off to Washington as a Congressman.</div> <div> Richner ran for State Representative in the First District and was elected to three terms. McCleary said, ”The good thing Andrew did is he stood for principle and he stood for openness, he held meetings in all of the communities in his district on a rotating basis, so everyone had their chance to say their piece.“</div> <div> McCleary pointed out it was Richner's idea when he was first elected to the Wayne County Commission to form an east side Republican club. ”He called some people including John Petz, Rick Cunningham, John Stempfle, Jeff Neilson, Cheryl Costantino, myself and a number of others.“</div> <div> McCleary went on to say, ”It's a great pleasure for me to introduce our State Representative, Andrew Richner, in his farewell performance before the ERC and to welcome him as our representative on The University of Michigan Board of Regents.“ Richner responded by saying, ”Tom's introduction sounded like a eulogy.“<IMG SRC="c508cce0.jpg" border=0 width="140" height="206" ALT="Rep. Richner" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="8" VSPACE="4"></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Richner went on to say, ”If it hadn't been for the Eastside Republican Club, I don't think I would have run in the County Commission and the State House races, but especially this race for the Michigan Board of Regents.“ </FONT>(<I>Editor's Note: </I>Republican<I> </I>Andrea Fischer Newman received 1,418,767 votes, Richner 1,281,929 and Democrat Greg of Saline 1,274,687. Richner's win was by only 7,242 votes, which emphasizes the importance of turning out the Republican vote.)</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >”It was a tremendous year for Republicans, despite the fact we lost the top spot on the ticket. Of course, that was sad for all of us to see Dick lose. Dick Posthumus ran a tremendous campaign. The biggest problem Dick had was he knew he was able to win, but he wasn't able to convey that to enough people. This hurt during fundraising and it hurt when he couldn't convince people the polls showing a 13% variance were wrong. </FONT>(<I>Editor's Note: </I>Democrat Jennifer Granholm did not accept State matching funds, which enabled her to raise unlimited monies for her campaign.)</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >”The polls always overstate the Democratic turnout, especially in a non presidential year. The polls did show that Dick was tightening the gap, and fortunately he did, because I, and others like Mike Cox running for Attorney General, would not have been elected. So we do have to thank Dick Posthumus for the campaign he ran and in keeping it close. He would have pulled it off if he could have raised a little more money and swayed a few more people. </FONT>(<I>Editor's Note: </I>Dick Posthumus lost 1,633,796 to 1,506,104. So, out of 3,139,900 votes, Dick lost by only 127,692 votes or 4.06%.)</div> <div> ”Michigan was not unique in losing a Republican governor. Republican governors lost in other large states including Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, even though nationally I think, we did very well overall. And we did very well here, thanks to you turning out our voters.”</div> <div> ”Terri Lynn Land helped all of us on the ticket too, taking 55% of the vote for Secretary of State over Butch Hollowell. You talk about a 'Firewall.' When you lose the top of the ticket, you've got to have someone down the ticket to bring Republican voters back, and I think Terri Land did that. She ran a wonderful campaign, she spent a lot of money, and much of it her own money.“</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >”Terri was a true team player. Towards the end of the campaign, she knew she was in good shape, so she started campaigning for Mike Cox, the Republican Attorney General candidate. She provided resources to help him along, and if she had not done that, Mike would not have won." </FONT>(<I>Editor's Note: </I>Terri defeated Democrat Hollowell 1,703,261 to 1,331.441 out polling even Jennifer Granholm.  Mike Cox defeated Democrat Gary Peters 1,499,066 to 1,493,866. His 5,200 vote margin gave Michigan its first Republican Attorney General in 48 years.)</div> <div> ”In my campaign things didn't look good Tuesday night after the election. Dick Posthumus had conceded. I thought with only 25% of the votes counted, that I had finished last. And, frankly, I said 'I'm going to bed.' I don't think I could have survived the night watching the election results going back and forth.”</div> <div> ”At six o'clock in the morning, I awoke with a call from my mother. She said, 'You're not to going to believe this, but WJR announced you won!' I called WJR's Paul W. Smith's producer, Ann Thomas, and said, 'Ann, what's going on here, my mother just told me I won.' She said, 'Hold on a second,' and she got Paul W. on the phone. Paul, said we didn't say you'd won, but we did say 'It is a very close race and right now you're winning.'</div> <div> ”I ran to my computer and checked the election results. With 97% of the votes counted, I was ahead by a few hundred votes with about 100 precincts uncounted, hoping they were all in friendly areas. Unfortunately, they weren't, so it was up and down the entire day, but by 5 p.m. when 100% of the vote was counted, I had won.”</div> <div> ”The Democrats won the U.S. Senate race with Carl Levin receiving over 60% of the vote versus Rocky Raczkowski, one of my colleagues in the State House. But, it wasn't a firewall for the Democrats, since it didn't seem to impact the races below it. The next races on the ballot were the U.S. Congress and there we took a 9 to 6 majority.”</div> <div> ”Then in State Senate voting, a lot of attention was paid by the Democrats because they thought redistricting really didn't help us.”</div> <div> “The ultimate result was we had great candidates and we won a 22 seat majority, losing only one seat. That's two more than needed to pass any legislation, so we're in good shape there. We have great leadership in the Senate with Majority Leader Ken Sikkema. That body is changing dramatically with 27 new members because of term limits and retirements. I believe only with one exception, those Republicans serving in the new Senate are former legislators from the House. So, it's not a dramatic change in the Lansing establishment.”</div> <div> ”Now in the State House, we did a very good job there with a 63 seat majority, versus 47 for the Democrats. I think Ed Gaffney will have a good time serving in the majority over there, and with great leadership with Rick Johnson as Speaker of the House. Of course, things are going to be a little bit different with a Democratic governor, but now there are going to have to be some compromises and concessions.”</div> <div> ”There are races that don't get much attention. On the State Board of Education we split in the election going from three of the six seats to two. Now the university boards are where the exciting news is. On the university boards, we took four out of the six seats. I think the way you win elections is to have good candidates, even at this level where a lot of attention isn't paid.”</div> <div> On the ballot issues, Richner spoke on Proposal 1 to eliminate the legislation we passed to eliminate straight party balloting, He said, ”The bad thing is it passed. The good thing was the Democrats spent a lot of money to get it passed. Perhaps there wasn't as much straight party balloting as we supposed. When you look at winning 4 of 6 university board seats while losing the top of the ticket, that's just unprecedented.</div> <div> ”Proposal 3 was also defeated, fortunately. This one required binding arbitration for state employees. It would have cost state government about $500 Million over three years. It was defeated surprisingly so, since there wasn't much spent in opposition to that proposal. I don't know if anyone here saw the television ads or heard the radio promotion by unions in favor of it. They spent a lot of money and failed.”</div> <div> ”Proposal 4 was defeated by a 2 to 1 margin. This would have forced the state to spend money from the tobacco settlement on health care. That would eventually have bankrupted the state. The money would have been taken from the General Fund including funding higher education and transferred all to the control of unelected and unaccountable administrators. The voters made a wise decision in turning it down.”</div> <div> ”I do want to mention the problems Ed Gaffney will be facing in the coming year. Revenues are down $500 Million and my class in the legislature must leave the budget balanced, since we're constitutionally required to do that. The governor is working on an executive order he'll present to the legislature to reduce spending. We're not going to raise taxes, which is the other alternative. We're going to have to cut spending and it's going to be very painful. I think everything is on the table, with the exception of K12 education.”</div> <div> ”I do think the economy is turning around and is stabilizing. The budget is not as bad as the one the Democrats left us back in 1990. It's a function of the economy. Car sales have been holding up until September, which represent about 25% of our sales tax revenue. When they fall off, that has a dramatic impact on our General Fund as well as K12 education.”</div> <div> Richner ended by saying, "Everyone here I want to have up to the U of M for a tail gate party. Thank you very much on behalf of myself and the Republican Party.“</div> <div> Chairman Tom McCleary speaking for the ERC Board presented Richner with an attractive wood case desk clock. It bore an engraved plaque reading, ”<I>To the Honorable Andrew C. Richner from Friends in the Eastside Republican Club, November 2002</I>.“</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#top_of_terrorist_threats" TITLE="Richner Honored for Service"><U>back to top</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>