Meet and Greet

This morning about 20 Presque Isle residents gathered at Pat Hart's home to visit with Jerry Cannon, the Democratic candidate for Michigan's 1st Congressional District.  We shared good eats and good talk.  The event lasted over two hours and had a very positive tone.

Jerry Cannon talks about the coming election.

Making a point...

...to a crowd of about 20 people.

The 1st District is a big piece of turf.  It covers most of northern Lower Michigan and all of the Upper Peninsula.  The district comprises 44% of Michigan's land area, and includes all of 30 counties plus a portion of one more.

The District runs from Ludington on Lake Michigan north to Traverse City and Petoskey, east to Alpena and Cheboygan, and then to the Straits of Mackinac.  Once across the Mackinac Bridge, it runs north to Sault Ste. Marie, and west to Marquette and the Porcupine Mountains.  By land area Michigan's 1st is the second largest congressional district east of the Mississippi.  It also has the second longest shoreline of any congressional district in the U.S., save only for Alaska's At-Large district.

To drive from Ludington on Lake Michigan to the far western border of the U.P. takes a bit over 9 hours.  That's about the same amount of windshield time as driving from Detroit to New York City.

The incumbent is Daniel Benishek, a Republican physician from the U.P.  This man likes to stress his medical credentials.  Several months ago I read a press release from his office.  It repeatedly referred to the Congressman as "Dr. Benishek" — in almost every sentence, in fact — and the subject of the release had nothing to do with medicine or health care!

A more fitting descriptive would be "Dr. Do-Little."  Rep. Benishek has accomplished hardly anything in his 3-1/2 years in office.  For several months the top item on his congressional web site was passage of a bill he sponsored to name a post office in some small Upper Peninsula town.  Aside from that, he has little to show for his substantial salary and benefits.    

Jerry and his wife were in the central U.P. yesterday.
Liz (left) looks like she has already heard all this several times!
How spouses put up with campaigning, I just don't know.

Jerry talks about cell phone service in
northern Michigan.  It's a mess.

Jerry Cannon is a retired General in the Michigan National Guard, and a retired county sheriff.  I have listened to him twice and find him engaging, articulate, and well informed — a decided contrast with the incumbent.  Jerry is a fiscal conservative, but progressive in many areas.

Michigan's 1st District is one of just a handful of congressional districts that are "in play" in the November election.  I think Jerry Cannon can beat "Dr. Do-Little" provided Democrats get out and vote.  Rep. Benishek's margin of victory in both elections (2010 and 2012) was about 1,800 votes.  That is not an insurmountable barrier for someone like Jerry Cannon. •••