From The Livonia Observer

By Karen Smith

Jan Schimmel of Livonia dragged her sister to gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder’s town hall meeting Tuesday at the Italian-American Banquet & Conference Center in Livonia.

Her sister, Mary Jane Larson, also of Livonia, liked what she heard.

“I will be taking my Hoekstra sign down,” she said after the meeting. “The ethical component is the one that really moves me.”

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Schimmel has supported Snyder since January, when she first heard him speak on radio station WJR-AM (760) because he is the only candidate who isn’t a career politician. She said she wants voters to “kick them all out and start brand new.”

“I think people need to personally meet Rick,” she said, explaining why she brought her sister and daughter, Mary Lytle, also of Livonia, to the town hall. Lytle was already a Snyder supporter.

Larson said she was impressed with Snyder’s plan to restore ethics, accountability and transparency to state and local government. She asked him during the question and answer session of the meeting how he would surround himself with people with an ethical core if elected.

Snyder said his campaign workers carry around a card with a code of ethics printed on it. “If you don’t live these, you’re not involved in our campaign,” he said.

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Snyder asked attendees to get involved, not just in his campaign, but in helping to reinvent Michigan during the next few years. “This isn’t about me; it’s about we,” he said.

“I’m here tonight to provoke you. We let this happen. We dropped the bar too far on our government.”

He said it’s time for a customer-service government that answers to residents and where the annual State of the State address is a report card, not a cheerleading session.

Noreen and Don Maahs of Livonia attended the town hall to start learning about the candidates after returning home from being out of town. They read about the town hall in the Livonia Observer.

“I’m very impressed,” Noreen Maahs said as she held one of Snyder’s yard signs on her way out. She liked how Snyder talked about his plans for Michigan instead of criticizing his opponents. “He wasn’t putting people down,” she said.

To read the whole story, visit the Livonia Observer website.

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