McMillin, VanRaaphorst: On Leadership

Republican State Rep. Tom McMillin and Democratic challenger Joanna VanRaaphorst, candidates for the 45th District House seat, debated local issues at a candidate forum earlier this month. 

In a series of stories, we're bringing you excerpts of that forum, organized by the League of Women Voters. The forum can be watched in its entirety here on the Rochester Hills website. 

McMillin of Rochester Hills, is seeking his third term as state representative. VanRaaphorst, of Oakland Township, is seeking her first elected office. The 45th District includes Rochester, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township.

Here's a look at the candidates' answers to an audience member's question at the forum.

Question: How do you define leadership and how would you take those leadership skills and be able to represent Rochester and Rochester Hills with other people across the state because it can't be a vote of one, it has to be a vote of many in order to get anything passed?

VanRaaphorst: If you know me from my church, you know I'm a leader. If you know me from my book club, you know I'm a leader. If you know me from my family, you know I'm a leader. Some people are just plain leaders. I'm also a communicator and I'm also a sales and marketing person. So what does this combination do? You meet with people. You're in Lansing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Friday you can meet with everybody and anybody to work on issues that are important here and then you go to Lansing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and you talk to people. I am a consensus-builder — I believe you can disagree with somebody but you don't have to make them your mortal enemy. I don't want to be enemies with anybody. I want to work together. I have a pretty good aptitude for that and so I think that will be the easiest part of my job.

McMillin: As far as the Legislature goes, a good example of leadership would be the first two years I was in Lansing we were in the minority. The Democrats held the majority in the house. For two years they refused to put forward a budget. They didn't want to show that there was actually going to be cuts. We put forward proposed budgets when we were in the minority. Some would say that's not very smart because you're in the minority and here you're putting forward the areas you're going to tighten and cut to balance the budget but that's what leadership does. It shows some of the tough choices that need to be made. Now that we're in the majority, again we're putting forth budgets but the Democrats have yet to put one forward. Again there's no leadership; there's no interest in actually saying "Here's what we should do." I think leadership says: When tough decisions need to be made, we made them.

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