Road Report: Brooklyn & Hillsdale

Last night we continued our series of events leading up to the August 5 primary with a town hall meeting in Brooklyn and a candidate 'meet and greet' in Hillsdale. Here's a quick update on the two events:

BROOKLYN

We managed to pack the Evelyn Bay Coffee Company in Brooklyn, and it was a pretty enthusiastic crowd. There was a good mix of people at the event – we had a girl as young as 11, at least one student who was getting ready for her freshman year of college, some folks my age, and a handful of retirees.

We had a good discussion about what we need to do to bring jobs to our region, and I talked about some of the companies in Jackson County that I've worked with to retain and create jobs (TransPharm of Napoleon and Production Engineering of Jackson are two good examples).

One gentleman worked for a machine tool company, and we talked briefly about how his industry had been hurt by Bush's unfair trade policies. There was also a woman at the event who worked as a local mental health professional, and we talked about the importance of mental health as part of the healthcare coverage people need.

The girl who was getting ready for her first year of college asked about rising tuition costs, and we touched briefly on Tim Walberg's vote against lowering rates for Stafford loans to make higher education more affordable.

At one point I asked people to raise their hands if they thought our country was on the right track under President Bush – no one did.

HILLSDALE

There were about 100 people at the Hillsdale Chamber of Commerce candidate 'Meet and Greet' event last night. We each had about three minutes to address the crowd, and I talked about the need to bring people together and work in a bipartisan way to create jobs. I also mentioned the fact that my wife and I were new small business owners, with the recent opening of our store in Battle Creek.

Afterwards we split off and were able to talk with folks one-on-one. I spoke with about 15-20 different people and got a warm response when I told the story of Production Engineering – a company I helped that was being courted heavily by Indiana to re-locate. Being in a border county, the story resonated with people who have seen jobs get shipped off to other states. That's why I'm committed to making sure our workers and businesses can compete for jobs and resources on a level playing field.

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS

We have more events coming up this week, including another town hall tonight in Saline. Check out our events page for times and locations.