‘Different Kind of Democrat’ Offers Contract to 50th House District Voters
Glen Miller — a hardworking Howell Township home repair specialist — is running for the new 50th State House District with solid, actionable ideas for how to make Lansing responsive to the real needs of Livingston County families.
“In coming weeks, I will release my Contract with Livingston, a contract that I will enter into with you, the voters of District 50. It will be my checklist and my promise of how I will make Livingston County a better place to live and raise your family. If I do not keep my promise, promise me one thing — that you will fire me and move on. But if I honor the contract, then I will ask you to reelect me in 2024 so we can continue our progress together,” he said.
The contract will cover making sure the entire district is connected to affordable, high-quality internet; fair elections; transparency; violence prevention; individual liberties; protecting public schools; help for real farmers; and protecting our natural resources.
“Like many of you, I am no stranger to hard work. I work with my head and my hands every day, and I will bring that same work ethic to the job of representing you in Lansing,” he said.
Miller notes that he doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of the typical Democrat, being a self-employed business owner and an avid hunter. But he says that his background as a blue-collar worker fits better with the average person in the district than if he were a lawyer, a lobbyist, or a career politician like most members of the State House and State Senate.
“I don’t think many people really know what State Reps really do. It’s really important. They set budget priorities, manage public health, fund public schools and community colleges, and oversee law enforcement and corrections,” he said.
Miller said he will seek out leadership roles in Lansing to fight for these issues and will do a better job than the incumbent of sharing his views on them with his constituents.
Miller describes himself as a “different kind of Democrat,” as someone who is free from “the handful of well-connected interests that give Livingston County its own version of the ‘swamp’.” He pledges to hold regular meetings and coffee hours in the district to hear what is on residents’ minds and to let them know about the legislation being considered in the House. He will also share information at least weekly on a Facebook page.
While he pledges to run a positive campaign, he says that 50th District voters need to face up to what the Republican Party has become. In Miller’s words, it’s now “a collection of ideologues with no real policy ideas, just a commitment to using hot-button social issues like abortion, so-called critical race theory, and disinformation about the 2020 election to keep their base fired up so they won’t stay home on election day,” despite their candidates offering no solutions beyond slogans about “owning the Libs.”
“My opponent,” Miller says, “has recently debased his integrity another big notch” in calling for a forensic audit of 2020 election results in the state. He notes that such audits have already taken place in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and “not a single one has found any irregularities in ballot-counting. He knows perfectly well that Biden’s 7-million vote trouncing of former president Trump was a landslide, but here he goes playing to diehard Trumpers who refuse to move on. God help us if my opponent actually believes the nonsense on Fox, Breitbart, and OAN!”
If he is elected in November, Miller pledges to support “our hard-working State, County, city, and township clerks,” who ran the cleanest election in American history despite an unprecedented pandemic. “When people like my opponent raise fears about ballot-counting, they undercut our clerks — and hell, nearly all of those clerks are Republicans! — and stoke mistrust of the system that makes our democracy work,” he says.
Miller has clear ideas for how to reorient the State’s budget priorities, with an emphasis on public health, mental health, senior and veterans’ services, and especially affordable broadband. High-speed internet should be a regulated public utility, just like the post office, gas and electric utilities, and waste treatment, he says. “The internet is to our century what the post office and Ma Bell were to the previous one.” Trying to function without affordable access to a high-speed connection has become impossible, which, Miller says, gives those with good connections a big and unfair advantage over those who don’t. With lots of federal funds sloshing around to address the lack of affordable high-speed broadband, Miller says, “There’s just no excuse for us not making a once-in-a-generation investment to fix this.”
The new 50th House District in which Miller is running includes nearly all of the western half of Livingston County — the entire townships of Cohoctah, Conway, Deerfield, Handy, Hartland, Howell, Iosco, Marion, Oceola, and Unadilla; plus the southern part of Tyrone Township, the western half of Putnam Township, and the city of Howell.
Miller serves on the Howell Township Planning Commission. He has lived in Livingston County for 17 years, the past ten of those in Howell Township. He is a licensed builder and has operated Glen Miller the Home Doctor, a home remodeling business in the county, for more than 32 years.
He is a member of the Masonic Lodge #121 and was a member of the United Auto Workers Local 235 while working at Detroit Gear and Axle. In 2016, he was active in Bernie Sanders’s primary campaign. As a youth, Miller was active in Boy Scouts and achieved the rank of Life Scout.
He and his wife, Michelle, have been married for 44 years and have one grown son.
People wishing more information may contact Miller at friendsofglenmiller@gmail.com or visit his Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/GlenMiller4rep. A map of the new district is on the Facebook page.
(Paid for by Friends of Glen Miller, 2384 Amberwood Trail, Howell, MI 48855. Labor donated.)
