What a bold move on Speaker Chatfield’s part. Please come Mr. President!

GOP Congressman Jack Bergman, MI-01, had this to say about border security and the partial shutdown of the federal government:

“One of the main priorities of Congress is to fund the federal government and prioritize our national security, yet Democrats are refusing to come to the negotiating table to do just that. I support President Trump in this fight for border security because there is no greater responsibility than protecting the American people.

As negotiations continue, I’ll be donating my salary to local charity organizations in Michigan’s First District. If Congress fails to do its job resulting in a shutdown, then we should forfeit our pay as well. American citizens sent us to Washington to solve problems, not cause them. If we can’t do that, we don’t deserve to get paid.”

Hello to all our Emmet County Republican members and friends. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Our first ECRP Board meeting of the year will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, January 7, 2019.  We will not be having a general meeting that evening, but all are invited to attend the Board meeting as we brainstorm future plans. We welcome our members’ input and ideas.

Locale: Northern Lights Recreation in Harbor Springs in the meeting room.

May your holiday week be pleasant and joyous; safe travels to those Emmet County residents who are afar.

Paul Stephens, a 21-year-old candidate* vying for the position of MI GOP Youth Vice Chair, stopped by Emmet County yesterday to meet with local party leaders. (He is pictured with ECRP chair Geri Szymanski.) Paul is currently a mechanical engineering student and the Oakland County Republican Party Youth Chair. If elected at the February convention, he hopes to recruit and educate young voters throughout Michigan about “true conservative values through methods they understand.”

The Youth Vice Chair position is currently held by Mike Sullivan, a northwest Michigan native, who has decided not to run for re-election and has endorsed Paul.

*The other candidates are Maryn Setsuda and Ben McLeod.

In the final installment of the immigration series he has written for the Petoskey News-Review, Dr. Lou Zako makes a bold closing argument on behalf of the American people. He writes, “Any government that places the interests of foreigners above those of its own citizens, including those at the bottom of the economic ladder, is not the government I wish for myself, my children, my neighbors.”

Dr. Zako, ECRP vice-chair, is the son of immigrants from the Middle East (Syria). Here is a delightful photo of him and M.J. from their “salad days.”

The new ECRP Executive Committee, elected last night at the Northern Lights Recreation banquet room, will serve a two-year term. The 14 members range from Precinct Delegates in their twenties to one in his eighties and everything in between.

Officers: Geri Szymanski, Chair; Lou Zako, Vice-Chair; Fred Simons, Treasurer, and Carolyn Whittle, Secretary. Other newly-elected members: Jerome Weedman, Nick Collias, Allen Elya, Johnathon Klonowski, Doug Byron, Rusty Chatfield, Robert Igielski, Jenny Nolan, Janet Szymanski, and Stephen Graham. Several county officials also serve on the Committee as at-large delegates who have voting rights.