Trump was never named Michigan GOP Man of the Year like he claimed, but it's just a matter of time before Jean Cramer is named Michigan GOP Woman Of the YearMarysville, Michigan is a small town, population 9,959. It's a very red bastion of very, very conservative ideas in St. Clair County, part of Michigan's Thumb northeast of Detroit. It's part of the 10th congressional district (R+13), represented by Paul Mitchell who is retiring. In 2016 Bernie beat Hillary in St. Clair Co. but the Democrats are vastly outnumbered by Republicans. Trump won the general election in the county in a rout-- 40,067 (56.5%) to 24,583 (36.9%). Mitchell breezed to reelection last year despite the anti-red wave. St. Clair, the second biggest county in the district, performed especially well for him-- R+22.When Mitchell announced he is retiring, Republicans began lining up to replace him. Two have already jumped in and another 8 are preparing tp. The two Democrats in the race are Kelly Noland and Kimberly Bizon, neither of whom has much of a chance and both of whom looks pretty progressive. Actually either probably could win... if the GOP puts up it's new Thumb star, Marysville City Council candidate Jean Cramer. On Thursday, Cramer was at a Republican Party candidate forum and was asked "“Do you believe the diversity of our community needs to be looked at, and if so, should we be more aggressive in attracting foreign-born citizens?"Her response was kind of Trumpy. "Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible," she responded. The other candidates were shocked.
Council candidate Mike Deising and incumbent Councilman Paul Wessel were more succinct in their responses.“Just checking the calendar here and making sure it’s still 2019," Deising said, while Wessel added that anyone "anyone who can find their way to Marysville should be allowed to live in Marysville."Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Hayman said she took Cramer’s comments personally.“I don’t even know that I can talk yet, I’m so upset and shocked. My father was a hundred percent Syrian, and they owned the Lynwood Bar. It was a grocery store at that time. So basically, what you’ve said is that my father and his family had no business to be in this community,” she said. Hayman's late father Joseph Johns, served 55 years as an elected Marysville official. The council meeting room where Thursday’s forum was held is named for him."My son-in-law is a black man and I have bi-racial grandchildren," she told Cramer. "And I take this very personally what you’ve said, and I know that there’s nothing I can say that’s going to change your mind... We just need to have more kindness-- that’s it.”Cramer, a political newcomer who moved to Marysville fewer than 10 years ago, expanded on her comment when she spoke with the Times-Herald after the forum."As long as, how can I put this? What Kathy Hayman doesn’t know is that her family is in the wrong," Cramer said. "(A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I’m not."...Mayor Dan Damman, who isn’t running for re-election in the city, condemned Cramer’s comments in a statement of his own following the forum."The racist comments by the City Council candidate at the Marysville city candidate(s) forum were as vile as they were jaw-dropping,” he said in an email. “It must be noted that this person has declared herself a City Council candidate for the November 2019 election but has never served on City Council for the city of Marysville.“Mrs. Cramer’s disturbing and disgusting ideology is flatly rejected by me, our entire City Council, all of city administration, and our employees. The candidate forum was to be a mechanism to learn about the candidates and their viewpoints, thus empowering our electorate to make an informed decision before voting. The only positive result from this clear expression of overt and unapologetic racism is that this candidate’s views were put on display before our voters go the polls in November."Damman later called for Cramer to step out of the race in another interview.
UPDATE: Cramer Still Refusing To End Her Racist CampaignThe day after the forum, Cramer spoke with the local ABC News affiliate and insisted she isn't racist, just the way Trump always does after his own blatantly racist outbursts. She told the TV reporter that she wouldn't have a problem with black people moving into Marysville and that it wouldn't bother her as long as they kept their properties looking nice.Sounding very Trumpy, she said that she didn’t want "pushy" foreigners moving in and that they should "go back" to their native countries and fix issues there. And like Trump, she said her own ancestors were Nazis Germans.Auschwitz Revisited by Nancy Ohanian-- property was always nicely kept up
