Laura Cox Supporters Try To Push Ken Crider Out Of The Primary

It pains me to write this, as I am a proud conservative Republican, who cast his very first vote for Ronald Reagan when he won his first term. I have served the Republican Party in a great many grass roots ways, especially in Livonia, where I spent my first 47 years. I see things though that disturb me, and locally, I am becoming disillusioned with the way things are being run, so I will say my piece, and make no mistake, I have earned that right.

There has been a bit of a kerfuffle in the Wayne 11 Republican Committee. It involves the primary race for the 19th District State Representative seat being contested between Ken Crider, and Laura Cox. This all involves a simple question posed on Mr. Crider's Facebook page. The comment is really a question, and here it is:

Can a Candidate claim to be a pro business, pro small government watchdog for the citizens when they have never worked in the private sector and that person and their spouse have 4 tax payer funded pensions?

This question was posed by Mr. Ken Crider on his own Facebook page, and it has the current 11th CDRC leader, and a former Wayne 11 leadership committee person losing their minds. It has the former head of the Wayne 11 Republicans trolling Mr. Crider's Facebook page, and making disparaging comments, and even an accusation about Mr. Crider's wife that he has since deleted.

I have always been of the opinion that if one has to delete a comment, it most likely was inappropriate at best, and more likely, downright shameful. I felt that Mr. Tom Stroup's comments were the latter. Tom Stroup is the former head of one of the Wayne 11 Republican groups.

Mr. Stroup immediately trolled the post: “The act of desperation by a failing candidate is to go negative against their opponent....4 months before the primary!” --- I spoke with Mr. Stroup on the phone, and he did not deny the validity of the question. Tom Stroup actually claimed to me that he likes Ken and Penny Crider, although you couldn't tell by this statement.,

More Tom Stroup: “For a candidate who claims that "god has called me to run for office", this comes across as petty, vindictive and not helpful to his campaign.” --- Who is Mr. Stroup to question a man's faith?

Even More Tom Stroup: “The voters will see thru this in August. They will look at the qualifications of each candidate and select the best one. Of that I am sure.” --- Well let's see. Laura Cox has sat on the Wayne County Commission for the last ten years, and let's just say that they do not have a sterling reputation, so what really has she accomplished? On the other hand, the Wayne County taxpayers have not been paying the salary of the Crider's for the last 10 or 20 years, and maybe that was Mr. Crider's point.

Moving on, this question also has the current head of Wayne 11 CDRC melting down. This fellow, named Mike Mitchell also had some very mean spirited things to say about Mr. Crider, while singing the virtues of Mrs. Cox. Mr. Mitchell challenged Mr. Crider on his “long list of achievements”

Mr. Mitchell said this about Laura Cox, while snarking about Mr. Crider: “She has compiled a long list of achievements as a well respectable public servant in this community. I am rather vague on your accomplishments (either to the local party or as a so called government "watchdog")... could you please share your long list?”

So Mr. Mitchell is basically saying that Mr. Crider has done nothing for the Republican Party. I have spoken to a few folks and they would tend to disagree.

I have come to find out that Mr. Crider has hauled his BBQ around to three local Republican Committee Picnics and cooked for them last summer. On a funny note, Wayne 11 had some sort of banner portraying Laura Cox to be a cook at some picnic, but Ken and Penny were doing the actual cooking. According to someone who was at said picnic, Laura did not touch one burger, or one dog. There were no BBQ tongs in her hand. Now I am not going to fault her for this, maybe she doesn't do BBQ? Maybe she was manning the condiment station? Who knows? I just know that she didn't cook one chunk of meat like the sign, or banner, or whatever advertised.

The point is that Mr. Mitchell was being disingenuous when he stated that Mr. Crider has done nothing for the Wayne 11 Republicans. Heck, he was being dishonest, and to me, he was being ungrateful. Is that how we Republicans say thank you to those that help? Is that how it is when you don't bow down to Laura Cox supporters, and get out of the election?

Oh yes, I forgot. Members of the past Wayne 11 leadership, including Mr. Stroup, told Mr. Crider that he needs to get out of the State Representative primary. Mr. Stroup said that it would be in his best interest to bow out of the race. What? Really? How is that in Mr. Crider's best interest?

I asked Mr. Stroup about this very thing in a phone conversation. Mr. Stroup told me that, “I like Ken and Penny, and I told them that it would be in their best interests if he were to bow out of the race with Laura Cox.”

Well I questioned his motivations. I asked him why a guy who has been building his campaign for nearly the last two years should bow out of a race, just because her highness, Laura Cox, got it in her head that she suddenly wants to be a State Rep. Laura Cox only announced her candidacy at the end of January. Mr. Crider had already been working on his campaign for a year and a half at that point.

How is it fair to tell a guy to quit at that point? Is that now the Republican way? If it is, I am disgusted with the local Republican Party, and if Laura Cox was behind this, I will have lost some respect for her. To be honest, I was actually disheartened to learn of the way she actually announced her candidacy.

I am told it was at Livonia Mayor, Jack Kirksey's birthday event that Laura Cox announced she was running, and Mr. Crider and his wife were in attendance. Now here is the hard part. Once Laura Cox jumped in the race, she became the heavy favorite. She has the money, and she has the name recognition. The Cox Machine as folks around Livonia like to call them.

This had to be a blow to Mr. Crider, but I am told he handled it with grace and dignity. The really appalling thing that happened that night was that someone from the Cox campaign actually walked up to Crider's table and slapped down a fund raising sheet for her campaign. To me, that was a completely unnecessary slap in his face. Was it intentional? I don't know. Was it ridiculously stupid? Yes.

Speaking of fund raising, Mr. Stroup indicated to me that Ken Crider had only been in the campaign in “name only.” When I questioned this, he indicated that “Mr. Crider has not even had a fundraiser yet.”

So Mr. Stroup, and the Cox campaign are apparently holding it against the guy because he hasn't asked for other people's money yet? Really? If you ask me, that is a check in the good column for Mr. Crider for gosh sakes.

Well, I spoke with Mr. Crider on the phone, and he indicated that he has funded his campaign with his own money up until a month ago, when he had a fund raising picnic of his own. So I guess, according to the Wayne 11 folks, Mr. Crider is now a “real candidate.”

I'll tell you another thing about Mr. Crider that folks don't know, and that he doesn't advertise. He once had a car he was going to sell. He and his wife thought about this, and they decided to make it a contribution. Instead of giving it to one of those charities, and getting a tax deduction, they made sure it was in fine running condition, and gave it to one of our disabled Afghanistan veterans that they had heard was in need of some wheels. They showed up with all the paperwork, and signed the car over to him on the spot. No catch, no hoops to jump through, no tax deduction, no photo op.

The Crider's did the right thing when nobody was looking. Another check in the good column as far as I am concerned.

I have spoken to many people about the folks involved, and I have heard the same thing over and over. Folks tell me that when they met the Crider's, they found them to be really nice people. They found them to be a good conservative couple, grounded in their faith, and humble.

So here is the bottom line. I do not understand why a man like Tom Stroup, who doesn't even live in Ken Crider's district, feels that he has the right to tell him to bow out of a race that he has been working on for two years. I feel that Mr. Stroup should maybe concentrate his efforts on Northville where he lives.

I feel that Mr. Mitchell should sit back and stay out of a race that he is not running in. The proper leader allows the primary contenders to fight it out, and then when the primary is over, bring both parties together, and work to achieve victory in November. This is really simple stuff here.

To use your power and your money to bully people around is wrong headed, and a lot of us Republicans are getting sick and tired of it. I don't need Tom Stroup, or Mike Mitchell to tell me who to vote for in my own darn primary, and I sure as heck don't like the Cox campaign trying to bully people out of the race.

When you try to bully someone out of a race, aren't you basically trying to pick winners? Isn't picking winners one of the things that Republicans are always railing against President Obama for? Sounds kind of hypocritical to me.

In closing, I would say that Mr. Crider was simply differentiating between him and Laura Cox. He was pointing out that he is just a common working man, and does not currently enjoy four taxpayer pensions like Mike and Laura Cox.

To a lot of folks, that is a good thing.

If I were Laura Cox, I would put on my big girl britches, and respond to Mr. Crider's statement myself. I would not put the party's bulldogs on him. If Mr. Crider's statement was a lie, point it out. Correct the man. Simple as that.

If Laura Cox wants respect, and wants folks to support her in November, she needs to put an end to these behind the scenes dirty games. Laura Cox was the overwhelming favorite in this race the minute she got in. To have folks try to bully the guy out of the race, seems to me like being a sore winner, and nobody like a sore winner...

I reached out to Laura Cox via Facebook before I posted this blog, and received no reply.

By happy coincidence, (at least for me) I managed to speak man to man with Mr. Mitchell at the Wayne 11 facility in Livonia tonight. Suffice it to say that he stands by his statement. I tried to explain to him that it is far better for a leader to let the primary candidates duke it out on their own, and then when the primary is over, have them kiss and make up, and then you can bring both sides together for the run in November. When the leader of the party is out there running his mouth about a candidate, what do you think that candidate's supporters are going to say when you come back after the primary looking for money and help? Mr. Mitchell just didn't seem to grasp this very simple concept.

I asked him about the BBQ picnics as well, and he claimed that Mr. Crider was only campaigning when he brought his BBQ down and cooked for the folks. So I guess that work doesn't count for anything. I never bothered to ask Mr. Mitchell about the “Laura Cox Is Cooking” banner. I guess though, that if she didn't actually cook anything, she technically wasn't campaigning...

One last thing I want to say to Mr. Mitchell. I spoke tonight to a person that you called earlier today. You asked this person to volunteer some time on Saturday. This person happens to like Mr. Crider. Whether they vote for him or not is another thing, but this person likes the guy, and they did not appreciate the way you treated him.

I honestly believe a simple apology would have ended the whole thing before it got to this point, but what do I know, I'm just one of the little guys...