By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
NILES – With the August primary election just a little over a month away, more and more candidates are coming to Southwest Michigan to campaign. That was the case last week when two Democratic gubernatorial candidates came to Niles for a debate.
Over 100 people attended the forum held at the Niles District Library. It was sponsored by the South County Democratic Club, the Berrien County Democratic Party, the Harbor Country Progressives and the Berrien County Democratic Women.
Candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Bill C. Cobb took part in the two hour forum. El-Sayed is one of three Democratic gubernatorial candidates on the ballot Aug. 7, while Cobb is running a write-in campaign after failing to make the ballot earlier this spring.
The other two candidates, Ann Arbor businessman Shri Thanedar and former Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, did not attend.
The winner of the August Democratic primary will face the Republican primary winner in November. Four Republicans are running for governor including Lt. Gov. Brian Calley and Attorney General Bill Schuette as well as Patrick Colbeck and Jim Hines.
Strengthening the economy by raising the minimum wage and spending more on
education and infrastructure as well as making Michigan a sanctuary state when it comes to immigration were among the suggestions made by El-Sayed and Cobb at the Niles candidate forum last week.
Cobb worked early on as a Detroit police officer before getting his law degree and working in the corporate world, for companies like Xerox and Ricoh. El-Sayed is a medical professional and has worked in health care administration.
“I don’t look like your usual candidate,” El-Sayed said. “I’m a little bit young, a little bit brown and a little bit Muslim … I believe in a government for the people and by the people, not for the corporations and by the corporations.”
Cobb said he’s spent his life developing leadership skills. “I’m absolutely determined to get the job done and create public policy that works for the citizens and not just politicians.”
Both candidates said they favor single payer healthcare, finding more ways to fund public education including no money for charter schools, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, spending more money on infrastructure and working to restore the prevailing wage law and reversing “right to work” legislation.
Immigration was a hot button issue at the forum, both because of the current controversy about separate parents and children as well as the need for migrant labor on Michigan farms. Both noted the importance of migrant labor to Michigan agriculture and said they’d do all they could to support bringing immigrant labor into the state.
“Everybody in this room is an immigrant or child of immigrants,” Cobb said. “If we develop exclusionary practices, it eats away at the fabric of our country. What makes this country great is its diversity.”
El-Sayed spoke of his father’s decision to emigrate from Egypt in 1978. “My dad took a bet on this country that we’d have the best shot at life here,” he said. “As we speak, the government is tearing children from their parents and that’s wrong.” He said he would direct Michigan law enforcement to not work with federal officials if he is governor.
When asked about what they’d do to convince Republicans and Independents to vote for them, Cobb said he will focus on non-partisan issues that everyone can agree on like funding public education, lowering auto insurance and protecting water systems.
“Healthcare costs, safe water supplies, lower car insurance costs, these are issues all of us face,” El-Sayed said. “Politics is not working. We know Republicans take corporate money but more Democrats than we’d like to admit are taking corporate money.”
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