Marlinga explains his tie to conservation Supreme Court justices – Macomb Daily
[ad_1]
Tenth congressional district candidate Carl Marlinga said he was referring to his “judicial style” 10 years ago when he aligned himself with two conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices, one of whom recently overturned Roe v. Wade.
Marlinga last week responded to criticism from opponent Angela Rogensues, who accused him of supporting justices Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia when he “submitted and sought out the endorsement of a pro-life group” in 2012 during his campaign for Macomb County probate judge, which he won.
“I did not seek an endorsement because it would’ve been from an organization I would not have accepted and wouldn’t have had a snowball chance in hell of getting,” Marlinga said last week during a candidates forum. “I have fought against Right to Life my whole career. … This questionnaire was asking for a judicial style. It wasn’t asking for any comments on a particular issue.
“I remain staunchly pro-choice, pro-gay rights and pro-gay marriange, and anything said to the contrary would be terribly unfair and misleading.”
Moments before, Rogansues said she no longer trusted Marlinga because of his answer to Right to Life.
“In his endorsement request, his judicial philosophy most aligns with Judge Scalia and Judge Clarence Thomas, the same justice who just undid nearly 50 years of progress for women and appears to be just the start of his plans,” Rogensues said. “The stakes are too high for women, and as women, we can no longer rest our fate in the hands of people who say one thing and do another. As a woman, I can no longer trust you, Mr. Marlinga.”
The exchange came during a candidates forum held June 29 by the League of Women Voters of Macomb County at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library Auditorium. A video recording of the forum, moderated by Maria Rivera, can be found on youtube.com and other web sites.
All five Democrats running the primary attended the event, while the two Republican candidates, John James and Tony Tony Marcinkewciz, did not attend.
The Aug. 2 primary will narrow the field to one Democrat and one Republican for the November run-off.
The 10th District comprises all of Macomb County south of Hall Road (M-59), Shelby Township, a southwest section of Macomb Township, and Rochester and Rochester Hills.
Marlinga and Rogensues did agree on one thing: if elected, they said they would seek to pass a law to legalize abortion.
The forum’s participants also included Huwaida Arraf, Rhonda Powell and Henry Yanez.
Yanez, a Sterling Heights councilman and former state representative, frequently touted his experience serving three two-year terms in the Legislature, representing parts of Sterling Heights and Warren. He said he “can hit the ground running” when he takes office in Washington D.C., noting the winner will have to work the 434 other representatives.
“There’s a certain skill set that you have to have,” he said. “I’ve honed that skill in Lansing and I’m the only one who can hit the ground running, be ready to work on Day One and to work for you and make sure you get what you deserve from your representative in Washington.”
He said he will focus on constituent services since that will be a big part of the job beginning immediately.
“It’s about working in the system and figuring out how you can be effective for the folks back home,” he said.
Meanwhile, Powell focused on her 20 years of experience helping “the vulnerable and the marginalized” while working for nonprofits where she ran homeless shelters and in government.
“Trying to untangle people from the laws that strangle them, we need someone who knows the ramifications of bad policy, actually understands how government supposed to work,” she said. “That way, we can write laws that benefit people instead of corporations and profits.”
She said she has led teams to achieve goals.
“A multi-cultural, multi-racial coalition is the only thing that has ever moved the needle on big issues in this country, and that is what I have spent a career building,” she said.
Arraf, a first-generation Palestinian-American, pointed to her experience as a human-rights activitist and lawyer as she protested around the world and co-founded the International Solidarity Movement, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
She said she has witnessed and was subjected to atrocities during her protests around the world.
“I have spent most of my adult life fighting for people’s rights, their human rights,” she said. “I have been beaten, I have been shot at, I have been hijacked at sea standing up for people’s rights, so I am not afraid of a fight.”
She added “people’s rights are being violated” here, although it is not at the same level as in other countries. But, she said, “when you have to ration your medicines, when you don’t have any equity in our schools and our schools are crumbling, and corporations are poisoning our water, when you have to decide between putting food on the table and heating your home, your rights are being violated, you are not free.
“I know I have the experience and coalition-building to fight and I think that’s the type of representation this district in this county needs.”
Rogensues, a member of the Warren City Council, ephasized to her experience in working for a nonprofit and as a social worker prior to her current job as president of a marketing company.
She said she is running because “the needle was not being pushed enough on the things I cared for most.”
“I read a great quote by the late (U.S. Supreme Court justice) Ruth Bader Ginsberg that said, ‘If you want to want real change you have to be with the people that hold the levers (of power),’ and to me there is no greater levers in society or our society than those who set policy and appropriate money.”
Marlinga, a former judge and long-time Macomb County prosecutor, criticized James for the support he received from former President Trump while explaining he decided to run for Congress due to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Marlinga said he is concerned about 2025 if Trump loses the presidential election in November 2024.
“It’s important that we have a Democrat representing us in this seat because the person (James) who is not here … didn’t have to seek the endorsement of Donald Trump,” Marlinga said. “He didn’t have to accept the endorsement of Donald Trump but in doing so has wedded himself to the political philosophy that says, ‘We can win at any cost. We can overturn any rules. We can subvert the Constitution if we like because one man, Donald Trump, should be our president.’
“We shouldn’t take the chance of a Republican loyal to Donald Trump in the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2025, … because we want to make sure the mischief, the unconstitutional actions, the attempt to overthrow the government does not have support in the Congress in the United States in 2025.”
James is a businessman and military veteran from Farmington Hills. He performed relatively well in losing recent elections to Democratic U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow.
Powell said her No. 1 goal for the 10th District election is to prevent James from winning the seat, pointing out his outsider status.
“We have a John James problem in this district, and it’s up to all of us to make sure that he does not get the opportunity to come into Macomb County and decide what is best for all of us,” she said. “He doesn’t live here. He doesn’t know us. He doesn’t know the (Mount Clemens) Bathers from the (Clintondale) Dragons, and we will not have it.”
Arraf added, “John James proudly accepted the endorsement of Donald Trump, who tried to overthrow democracy and has come (here) to buy this district.”
Among other issues, the candidates discussed the economy, health care, mental health care and gun control.
“Everything is tied to economics,” Yanez said, pointing out that big companies benefit from the education of youth paid with tax dollars so should pay more in taxes.
“Corporations are not paying their taxes, and we are being over-taxed,” he said.
Marlinga and Arraf accused the oil companies of price gouging in recent months.
Marlinga said the country needs to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels not only to combat climate change but to reduce the negative world-wide influence of nations such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran “who can control foreign policy and intimidate their neighbors because they sit on top of a lot of oil and gas.”
Arraf said removing “big money” from politics would “make this economy and government work fo working people, not those that are writing the big checks.”
Rogensues said the ongoing supply-chain issues, which she said contributes to inflation, could be reduced if companies are incentivized to relocate their production facilities from other countries.
On guns, Yanez said he would like to revive some aspects of the Brady Bill that were once in effect.
“We need to get guns of war off the streets,” he said.
Arraf and Marlinga said he would like to see the government mandate manufacturers to use fingerprint technology to prevent guns from being fired by anyone but their owner..
Marlinga and Rogensues agreed the age requirement to purchase a firearm should be higher; Marlinga said he favors 21.
Powell said she would like to see “the same fervor” of support that is seen for the Second Amendment for the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from illegal search and seizure, and children’s lives.
“There is no right that is more important than the lives of our children,” she said.
Several candidates mentioned the rising cost of health care, especially when someone receives a diagnosis for cancer or other life-threatening disease or condition.
Arraf and Powell said they support “Medicare for all,” while Marlinga said he supports a “single payer” system and Yanez and Rogensues said they support a modified form of Medicare for all. Rogensues said she would like to see “a buy-in option which creates competition in the system and hopefully and ideally lowers the costs for all people to buy insurance.”
Yanez said one of his proudest moments as a legislator was when the state House passed Medicaid expansion in 2014.
Regarding mental health care and its role in criminal behavior, Marlinga touted his creation of the Mental Health Court judge at Macomb Circuit Court over which he presided for nine years.
“I want to take the success I was able to bring about in Macomb County and use it as a model nationwide,” he said.
Powell and Arraf said a key to improving mental health care is making it a part of health-insurance coverage.
“That’s what creates the inequities so that folks are not able to pay for that type of health care,” Powell said. “Access is provided, and we curtail people from entering our criminal-justice system.”
Yanez said there is a shortage of mental health workers, notably psychiatrists.
[ad_2]
Source link
