What's in Store for Me in 2012, Part 1: Politics

Howdy all (this, of course is the definition of "all" that means "the half-dozen or so family members and friends who stop by occasionally, mostly in hopes of a new beagle haiku.")

Now that I have a bit clearer idea of what I'll be doing with myself in 2012, I thought it might be a good to lay out a few of those things on the ol' Patio Boat blog. We'll start this post on my plans for the 2012 campaign. Later this week I'll have a couple more posts, one on what to look for on the blog itself this year, and finally a slumgullion of a post on the other stuff -- from MGBs to beagle haiku -- that seems likely to come across my radar in 2012.

But first, Campaign 2012:

So, let's start with what I'm not doing in 2012. As my Facebook friends might already know, I am not running for the Michigan State House this year. It feels a little weird to loudly proclaim what I'm not doing, but quite a few people whose opinions I respect -- from both parties -- had asked me if I'd consider it.  So I took a good look at what it would take to run a state house campaign, then thought about my own personal goals for the next couple of years.

Put it all together and it all added up to me not running for anything in 2012.

So what am I planning to do with my political self in 2012?  Probably two things will take up most of my time:

1) I'll be working on Andy Meisner's re-election campaign for Oakland County Treasurer. I'll try not to digress into campaign speechifyin', but as you all know, I'm a big believe that local governments have the most direct impact on people's lives. This is a great example of that. Four years ago Andy foresaw both the looming foreclosure crisis, and the opportunity for a good county treasurer to minimize the impact on the rsidents of Oakland County. He campaigned on "Preventing foreclosures and protecting property values" in 2008. Four years later I'm proud to say that he's been successful in doing just that.  This is a local official who's had an enormous positive impact for folks who most needed help. And in doing so he's benefited all of us who live in Oakland County by helping to maintain our neighborhoods during an enormously difficult time. I'm very much looking forward to helping him continue to do that for another four years.

2) I'll be taking a closer look at how our state government in Michigan functions these days, and what can be done to make it work better. I already had some thoughts on this before I took a look at a state rep campaign. I think that investigation confirmed some of those thoughts, while also giving me quite a bit more to chew on. It's not all bad, but it could and should be much better.

I don't like to complain about things unless I have a better and practical alternative to offer.  So, I'm going to try to spend some time in 2012 looking a bit more closely at Lansing, thinking about what we can do to have a state government that is more effective and more responsive to all of us in Michigan. I'm not sure what'll come out of that, but I'll be sure to let you all know what I come up with.