Setting the Record Straight on Curt Vanderwall

[XLFD]

Aah, the election season, where the daily mail is littered with glossy two sided leaflets beatifying a candidate of choice or demonizing their opponent.  Usually they are paid for by the party that supposedly benefits from the distribution, other times they may come from some organization that will benefit if their candidate wins. 

The glossy pictures of outrage you receive often gloss over the truth; if a party, organization or candidate endorses such mythology, they generally should not be supported for their dishonesty, unless their opposition party or groups do the same. 

Of late, I have been receiving a variety of mailers criticizing Republican Curt Vanderwall from the Michigan Democratic Party down there on Townsend Street in Lansing, and promoting his opponent Dan Scripps up to the level of sainthood while looking concerned and dapper in his collared shirts conversing with real people just like us.  They don't ever tell us what they are running for:

But we have had Dan Scripps be our representative before Republican Ray Franz served a half dozen years, he comes with the typical baggage that a losing incumbent bears when trying to launch a comeback, especially when he seems to have been busy being a lobbyist during his time off advocating things that most voters in our Michigan district don't fully agree with. 

Curt Vanderwall is a Mason County resident, and I have noted that I felt he won the local primary debate for the 101st House District over two other challengers, nominally chose him as the better of two evils in the 2012 county commission race, and as better than Ron Smith in the same contest of 2014.  So you may believe that I would defend his good name, and I will, sort of.

The first has a picture of Curt and says he was raising fees on residents and spending it on himself.  The statement is basically true, he has voted to raise fees and he does get some of that money in his salary.

What is deceiving about this side of the mailer, however, is that they have taken Vanderwall's head off of his body and put it on the body of a much slenderer individual. 

Curt is a bit stocky, even if he didn't have a little bit of a gut, his shoulder girth is considerably bigger than the ad indicates.  It seems odd, however, that if they are trying to portray Vanderwall as one of the fat cats living off your money, that they would use his own body.

  

The other side of the mailer has him again dressed like a dapper rail baron and makes some more specific charges with references to them if you are so inclined to check the accuracy:

I have not been able to verify the accuracy of the Mackinac Island trip, but it is common policy to remunerate public officials doing official business for a necessary trip in the performance of their duties, including their lodging and a reasonable per diem for their expenses.  Being that the political ads never go into more detail (and I cannot find the article referenced), one would have to consider there was no impropriety. 

But it does make a compelling case for the appearance of impropriety if the trip is not properly defended by the candidate.  The raising of fees for building permits, birth certificates, and death certificates are just part of the realities that happen all the time.  This isn't special, unless it wasn't justified or he expressly advocated for them. 

But then they tell a gigantic whopper.  They say he voted to raise his pay by 300%, and that is clearly not reflected in the record.  When Vanderwall became a county commissioner in 2012, his base pay rate was $3100, just like all other commissioners (other than the commissioner chairman at $3700).  By the end of his first year, he was getting a salary of $11,200-- that's a salary increase of 361%, not 300%.

But that doesn't tell the full story.  While the two actual fiscally conservative women in the commission were arguing to get rid of all the extra benefits the commissioners got in compensation for their part-time job, Vanderwall had sided with Lewis Squires in claiming his entitlement to a pricy list of perquisites, which pushed Curt's annual compensation up over $20,000 in his first year. 

In a spot on editorial comment, John Fellows rightly commended the women and lamented: 

"It is worth noting the two that the two newest commissioners are Sue Boes and Curt Vanderwall. Sue understands public service and receives $5,101 compensation. It didn’t take Mr. Vanderwall long to dive into the public trough to the tune of $21608.

It is also worth noting that the biggest abusers of the system are those from “the businessman’s perspective.”

In closing I have this to say to the commissioners who are milking the system, I can’t afford you.

Mary Nichols, Sue Boes and Chuck Lange, I can afford. They truly do understand what public service really is."

Frankly, if Vanderwall wants to paint himself as a real conservative Republican, he has to acknowledge that early in his career he decided that his own economic health was more important than yours.  One could spin this to say that Curt Vanderwall voted himself nearly a 50% pay cut in that first year, but it's harder to spin away the reason why he was accepting over $18,000 worth of 'optional' compensation for his service.   Otherwise, the Democrats have a valid point in claiming him as an aficionado of 'taxpayer chocolates'. 

 

[Willy]

Very interesting article X. I don't know anything about Mr. VanderWall except that using another capital letter in the middle of one's last name is a bit strange. I vote that he install a period after Vander. Sort of like spelling McdonAld like this.

[XLFD]

It's all part of a plan to slowly move his whole last name to all capitals to show he's part of the angry electorate. 

Let me clarify that I think VanderWall is a better choice than Scripps for the position, but I do question his conservative (and libertarian) ideals.  He will not be a replacement for conservative Ray Franz, his history shows he is more likely to develop into a RINO, voting for tax increases and laws restricting liberties like his opponent.