My campaign is based on issues. I believe that a candidate’s position on the issues should greatly determine a citizen’s vote. But it is fair to ask about my background. Political candidates should not just fall out of the sky.

Over thirty years ago, I came to the U.P. from Lower Michigan. I was born and raised in the town of Big Rapids, home of Ferris State University.

My father was of Danish extraction, my mother’s people came from English and French Canadian stock. My father, Veggo, was a small businessman, whose father had died too young from tuberculosis. Despite having spent much of his own youth in a tuberculosis sanitarium, my father worked hard. Once he almost made it big with gas stations. He ended up running a small water-softening business.

My parents had six children; I am the third of their five sons and one daughter. When I was 13, my mother, Ruth, died of leukemia. At that time my youngest brother was 6 years old. My father then raised us on his own. When he passed away in 1987, the local newspaper printed a front-page tribute to his life, praising him for bringing up his children without food stamps, welfare, unemployment, or any juvenile delinquency.

Money was tight. I earned money for clothes and school supplies as a paper boy, cutting grass, farm work during the summer. I was a Boy Scout. I loved and played baseball, and also spent time playing with friends and brothers at the local creek and swimming hole. We caught many a crayfish and brook trout. I bought my .22 rifle and bow and arrows with my own earnings.

In 1975, when I was 26, I accepted a job in the U.P. selling recreational lands. Since then I’ve earned my living here with my own small real estate business and other business ventures.

My political ambition is issue-driven: someone (determined) must step forward to deal legislatively with this sulfide mining crisis. I take on this task with the same dedication I used to disassemble the historic McCormick Great Camp wilderness cabins. My wife claims she’s married to a missionary. That’s a somewhat apt comparison, but I see myself as a warrior. When I believe in the worth of a project, I will sacrifice for it.

I want to be your next State Representative. I offer an antidote to sulfide mining: Four Parks. It’s all on my website.

This August 8th, please vote for me. My persistent and trusting nature will be an asset in Lansing for you, the people, as we face the challenges ahead. If you don’t trust, you don’t receive.