Chris would like to sincerly thank his many supporters and volunteers during this part of his journey.

Come November be sure to support our fellow Democratic nominee.

As you head into the voters booth tomorrow (August 3rd), we have a few reminders.

1. Make sure to vote for the same party in every race. Since this is a primary election, for your vote to count for Chris Praedel you must also vote for a Democrat in any other selection you make.
2. When you have finished voting, let others know about it. Post it to your facebook status, tweet it, or text your friends.

Simple and easy, if you need more information about where to vote click here.

Voter Guides & News

We have never felt more momentum than now and with your help we can assure victory in the Democratic Primary next Tuesday August 3rd. Just a mere seven days away.

Simply put, this is it.

We have a rare opportunity to show the community and state that you don’t need fancy endorsements, a loaded warchest, or the political or social elite to make a difference in your hometown. We can do it by reminding EVERYDAY people that there is someone on the ballot for the rest of us.  Someone that is only liable to the voters, who won’t forget those people he grew up with, and that is in-touch with regular people.

Here’s how you can help:

Make a personal goal to encourage FIVE people to vote for us next Tuesday August 3rd. Just 5! The best way to do this is to encourage the people you live with, are related to, and are friends with. Just pick up the phone or send a messsage online.

Thank you for any and all help in the home stretch. We can only win this with YOU.

Sincerely yours,

Chris

It’s easy to use buzz words but that won’t solve our problem.

There are lots of factors that will determine a positive economic outcome. But for the longterm, we need stable and consistent business climate. To do so, we need to make a commitment to our small business owners that we won’t send them on a taxation rollercoaster in already rough economic times. I’m calling for a stable and consistent small business tax code.

In the short-term, we need to incentivize businesses that are interested in expanding, relocating, and starting anew within our state. Just last week, a health billing systems company announced plans to grow 2,000 jobs downtown thanks to tax incentives.

In order to diversify our economy, we need to enhance research and development in technology and health sciences. We can encourage BTR Park-style partnerships with each of the fifteen public universities to cooperatively fund higher-ed, while incubating start-ups.  A health research business owner, recently told me he feels, “its that best way to retain our talent.” He hires his college interns from WMU!

We need to have a tax code that doesn’t punish small businesses and that reflects the trends of society. We have become a services society and our tax code needs to reflect that.

Research has been conducted around the country making the argument that universal and full-day preschool and kindergarten programs are instrumental to gained early age social skills and preparation to keep kids on grade-level.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a University of Georgia study found that preschool drastically improved academic readiness scores compared to any national averages that exist. And from a perspective of public investment, research shows a payback in lower needs for social services later in life.

From an economic improvement perspective, majors factor when companies look to expand, start, or relocate is based on quality of life and the availability of a well-educated workforce. Our state’s education system may serve as a instrumental “selling point” when recruiting businesses to our borders.

• Chris Praedel pushes education platform in bid for 60th District House seat – Kalamazoo Gazette
• AnnArbor.com Voter Guide Profile
• WOOD TV8 Voter Guide Profile
• MiVote.org Voter Guide Profile

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been doing my best to stay out in the neighborhoods 8-10 hours per day.

I am amazed at the kindness of voters. As I’m out in the heat each day, people have invited me into their homes to talk and often people have stood outside on their steps talking for 45 minutes or more. Yesterday, I had two of those home on one small street alone.

I just made a call to a voter that posted on a previous blog posting a week ago. I told her how much it means to hear from voters that care enough about our community’s and state’s future to post question and shop and compare.  The first thing we posted on our site was our Constituent Compact, which is my commitment to voters should I get elected to remain responsive and in-touch.

As a legislator, I think there is no greater responsibility than to be a professional listener and to do everything you do doing a campaign, while you serve the people.

My goal is to make personal calls each day to constituents that have contacted the office, continue to walk neighborhoods with surveys on hot-topic/controversial issues, and to hold dinners with random constituents to talk about local issues. I think it is important to consistently hold open office hours and to hold monthly open forums on varying issues.

Hope to see you soon!

Chris

Major thumps up!

Now the next big hurdle, what to do with the unanticipated $350 million in the SAF ?  Some legislators want to shift those dollars from the SAF to the General Fund to fill a $300 million gap that currently exists there. Don’t let legislators shift those dollars! In my opinion, it should be used to restore any lost funding, to enhance educational opportunities (afterschool programs, extracurriculars, or specials) or should be saved for a rainy day fund in education. If those funds were intended for schools, they should stay in schools.

President Obama’s visit to Kalamazoo was an exciting moment for our community and highlighted so much about what we are doing right. We are in a great position as the city leading the nation in what going to college should be about.

As an educator, I’ve seen the struggles students go through both in and outside the classroom. If there are too many challenges in the classroom at a young age, we’ll never get those children to college to take advantage of what our community has awarded them. I will bring this knowledge and experience to Lansing.

But most of all, I want to wish the graduating classes of 2010 from all our community schools a very big congratulations and best of luck in their future endeavors…especially my fellow Giants.