We sent out my press release yesterday formally announcing my candidacy to the 91st District. We are ahead of the pack in terms of our announcement, establishing our website and producing literature, but we are also a grassroots effort that will require hands-on activity every day to move this campaign forward. I attended Representative Peter Hoekstra’s town hall meeting in Holland on Monday and was amazed that nearly 1,000 people attended the event. Clearly, people (including myself) are agitated about more than just a proposed health care bill. This is a clear discontent with the direction that the national government is heading in terms of fiscal policy. Citizens are truly concerned about the national debt and where it is taking this country. The bill for all of this stimulus spending is coming due soon. As a state, that bill is due. Stimulus money is giving us a false security but that will soon disappear as we deal with the 2011 fiscal year budget. The 2010 fiscal budget is still far from being resolved and that is with stimulus money included. Paying for education and state mandates will be an ugly process. On the positive side, perhaps as a state we will take an honest look at what we can or cannot afford. Fiscal responsibility must be the watchword for this state as we determine our identity as a state in the next decade.