Candidate hopes to expand the dialogue
Candidate hopes to expand the dialogue
By Kurt Hauglie
DMG Writer
BARAGA — For Travis Peterson, there simply isn’t enough discussion in Michigan about issues important to him and many people he knows, so he decided the best way to get the discussion going was to run for political office.
“I feel as if there’s no voice for me and there’s no voice for me and there’s no voice for most of the people I talk to,” Peterson said.
The 24-year-old Peterson, who was born and raised in Baraga, is running as a Democrat for the 110th district seat in the State House of Representatives currently held by Rich Brown, D-Bessemer, who will be out of office in January due to term limits.
The other Democratic candidates for the seat are Baraga Village President Wendell Dompier and Houghton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Lahti. Ontonagon County Commissioner Dave Schmidt and Pelkie resident James Niemela are running as Republicans.
Although most voters in the 110th District have been identified as conservative, Peterson, who calls himself liberal, said in talking to those people, he’s realized they care about many of the same issues he does.
That list of issues is fairly long and includes education, expanding the middle class, the environment, health care and establishing a living minimum wage.
“The buying power of the minimum wage is at a 50-year low,” Peterson said. “Nothing’s being done about it.”
It will differ from community to community, but Peterson said a living wage is one that allows people to take care of all their monthly expenses without falling behind on payments.
“To be able to stay on top of the bills,” he said.
Expanding the middle class comes down mostly to changing the state’s tax system, Peterson said. Rather the current flat rate, a graduated system should be established.
“We have to increase people’s income,” he said. “We have to get more people into the middle class.”
The most important issue for the state is increasing the quality of education for all students, which will in turn lead to an improvement in the economy, Peterson said.
“Right now our economy is so bad and I think it’s because of a lack of forward-looking policy,” he said. “Education is about socializing (rather than producing free thinkers).”
The high school system should be changed so that people who don’t want to go to college can come out with certificates for certain types of employment, which would allow them to come out of school directly into a job.
“So many people lose interest in high school because they can’t dive into what they’re interested in,” he said.
Enrollment in any school should be available to all residents, Peterson said.
“Kids should be able to go everywhere in the state,” he said. “It should be open to adults, too.”
Opening up the education system should include the post secondary schools, also, Peterson said.
“College tuition should be free to everybody,” he said.
Having an educated and interested public will lead to an increase in the quality of life in the state, Peterson said.
As with most states and the nation, health care is a pressing issue in Michigan which needs some imaginative thinking, Peterson said.
“I would like to see the state sponsor insurance for everybody, at least for catastrophic health care,” he said.
If the state established a not-for-profit health care insurance program, monthly premiums would cost less than consumers pay for private insurance, Peterson said.
Although many people will be concerned about how the changes he’s suggesting will be paid for, Peterson said it’s really about priorities of how residents want to spend money.
Millions of dollars can be saved by not putting some nonviolent criminals in prison, Peterson said. Establishing a graduated income tax will increase revenue for the state, also.
Peterson said he started thinking about the idea of running for political office after he graduated from Baraga High School in 2001. In 2004, he made a run at Brown as an independent with less than satisfactory results.
“I guess people weren’t as receptive to the issues as I hoped,” he said. “There’s a lot more apathy than I expected. People just aren’t ready for an independent.”
Peterson said that if the issues he’s talking about as a candidate are ever realized, Michigan will be a state that takes care of the needs of all its residents fairly and equitably.
“It’s all of us working together,” he said. “Let’s play this as if we’re all a team.”
Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com
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