…Is this thing on? Monday marked one year out from the general election, but you wouldn’t know it by the silence from all 12 candidates this week. Here’s the highlights:
Fix the Damn Roads, Cowards!
The entire slate of this crowded primary at one point or another has thrown some pithy, baseless, and often hyperpartisan attack Governor Whitmer’s way and swore up and down how they’d do a better job. This week offered them the perfect opportunity to say something, anything at all, about one of Michigan’s biggest issues: Infrastructure. Yet instead of letting Michiganders know where they stand on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the more than $10 billion headed our way, no one said a word. Where is all this leadership Michiganders have been promised? We’re waiting, GOP.
Craig’s Budding Paid Speaking Career
MIRS broke this week that Craig has a paid speaking company, as apparently he’d much rather talk to people who pay him than he would to Michiganders. So much for that listening tour he promised months ago that “apparently never materialized.” Craig set up ‘JC Entertainment and Consulting’ in May, so that explains why his “public accessibility since announcing his candidacy has been limited.” This week, MDP Chair Lavora Barnes called on Craig to release his clients so Michiganders can know which special interests he’s being paid to prioritize, since we know it isn’t Michigan families.
Tudor Dixon Reaches for Craig’s Crown
Dixon is struggling on the fundraising front. So much so in fact that she made the “brazen” choice to artificially inflate her standing amongst the field by combining her campaign’s direct fundraising total ($215,000) and the $200,000 Michigan Strong, an aligned super PAC, raised from a single wealthy donor.
Nevertheless, it was enough to snag a slot on Fox News this week, which up to this point had almost exclusively been Craig territory. It would seem Dixon is angling to be the next insider darling, or at least outgrow the residency she has on OANN sideshows.
Finally…Garrett Soldano. Where to Begin?
Look, running for office is hard. And up against “poll-tested politcian[s]” like James Craig, candidates are under considerable pressure to counter his crafted talking points with personality and authenticity. That however doesn’t have to mean stream-of-consciousness, which is what Garrett Soldano gave us in spades this week.
First, he apparently found a bipartisan tax cut he didn’t like, the tampon tax repeal signed into law last week by Governor Whitmer. His criticism of the tax cut was an unintentional masterclass on exactly why men shouldn’t be legislating women’s bodies, especially as they are broadcasting they have no idea where a uterus is, much less how one works.
During one of his endless Facebook live rants, Soldano decided to try his hand at tampon math: “Okay. So I did some math, and I looked it up. […] So I looked it up on Amazon. And I found a box, Playtex sport tampon multipack. Right, a 36 count pack of two is $13.46. Okay, $13.46. That’s how much it costs on Amazon. A pack of two, 36 count. So I don’t know if that’s enough to get through your monthly cycle, but let’s just say it is okay?”
If anyone reading this is burning through 72 tampons in a single week (!!!!), do not walk, run to your gynecologist.
Soldano asked viewers to “Please feel free to message me or comment and say, Garrett, you’re way off.” Garrett, you’re way off.
And if that wasn’t enough, Soldano sat down with Detroit News to equate his rabid COVID-19 disinformation campaign that put him on the extremist map to, no really, the civil rights movement. Excerpt: “Soldano said he wanted to learn about the civil rights movement…[and] wanted his campaign and push against COVID-19 mandates to also be a ‘nonviolent, nonpartisan movement.’”
Then, of course, he disclosed in the same interview that “he had never met a Black person until he went to college.” It must’ve been a real Remember the Titans moment as the piece notes Soldano wrote about the “‘racist belief[s]’ based on music he heard and movies he saw” he maintained prior to joining the football team.
360 days to go folks. Have a great weekend.
