Republican candidates challenge U.S. senator

Wednesday, February 08, 2006
By Steven Harmon
The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS -- In a debate where the moderator got the biggest hand -- not to mention a standing ovation -- there is little question the three Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate have a distance to travel before they're household names.

But once Matthew Dowd, the revered GOP strategist who helped President Bush to two electoral victories, got down to business asking questions Tuesday night at the Republican Party's "Great Western Showdown," Keith Butler, Michael Bouchard and Jerry Zandstra made clear their differences.

Their most pronounced differences involved the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, the proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw all preferences for university admissions and private/public contracts.

Zandstra, a Cutlerville minister, had the hometown advantage with about 60 percent of the 200 or so who filled Grand Valley State University's Loosemore Auditorium in downtown Grand Rapids.

But, he appealed to what he said was a majority of Republicans on the MCRI issue, which he has made his own in the campaign. In one of his answers, Zandstra read aloud the GOP platform, which rejects preferences, quotas and set-asides based on race, color or other characteristics, and said 80 percent of Republicans support it.

"It's a core plank of the Republican platform," he said. "This is an issue Republicans need to take a stand on and say it's time to support this."

Butler, a Southfield minister who is black, said the proposal "goes too far. It doesn't get rid of discrimination, and we'd still have the legacy and financial discrimination." He also noted GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and other Republican leaders oppose the initiative.

Bouchard, a former state lawmaker who is Oakland County's sheriff, also opposes it, speaking of the single-sex schools he said would be outlawed.

"I went to an all-boys high school, and my daughters are in an all-girls school," he said.

Zandstra countered Bouchard's children would not be affected, since private schools would not be covered.

The three were in agreement on the need to defeat the woman they're all hoping to challenge: U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who leads against all three in separate head-to-head matchups by at least 20 points.

But, they all tried to draw comparisons by way of personal histories.

Bouchard stressed his background as a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"I don't want to have our children face down al Qaida 20 years from now," he said. "We need to take that fight now and put an end to it."

Butler said, that as a former Detroit City councilman, he has the best chance to draw away from Stabenow's Democratic base. The pastor of a church that is in 15 states and four countries, Butler tied morality with the economy, saying the number of abortions has a direct affect on the economy.

"People are a resource," he said.

Zandstra, who boasted of lecturing on economics in 25 countries, said the party needs someone who "understands the economy. That's the person who can beat Debbie Stabenow."