Planet Detroit Candidate Survey
What are the three most pressing environmental issues facing the communities you seek to serve? Please rank them in order of priority and briefly explain why you chose each.
The three most pressing environmental issues facing Southcentral Michigan are the crashing of an AI economy powered by data centers with environmental conservation; the sensitivity of our local environment in context of regional and global climate shifts (witness the Canadian wildfires smoke infiltration to Southcentral Michigan in the several past summers, but especially in 2026); and the prospect of an invasive carp break-through into our Great Lakes ecosystem by reason of indolence or even malevolence by the federal government in relation to a response to such issue.
Michigan law requires utilities to reach 100% clean energy by 2040. If elected, would you support maintaining this law, or would you support revising or repealing it? Please explain your position.
I supported this 100% Clean Energy bill as a member of the Michigan House in September, 2023, and am being attacked by Republicans this election season for such vote, those Republicans fallaciously claiming that such vote cost a voter an arbitrary number like $2700.00 a year. Climate change is the central existential issue of our time and of this election, and I stand by that vote - we needed every Democratic vote in the MI House last session to pass this legislation. I would vigorously support maintaining the Clean Energy by 2040 law were I elected in November.
More than two dozen Michigan communities are considering or have approved large-scale data center developments. These facilities can consume as much electricity as a small city and place significant demands on local water and energy infrastructure. What role should state government play in overseeing data center development, and what guardrails should the state legislature enact to protect communities where data centers are proposed?
Now that we better know now what we didn't know in 2023, I would support a moratorium on approving any additional Michigan data centers for a one year's time. Then, after robust legislative committee hearings on data centers, I would sponsor or co-sponsor bills to erect the highest possible guardrails in relation to state approval of data centers, including safeguards on water usage, noise, and effects on utility rates of community residents. I too would give local community stakeholders an enormous say on whether or not a large data center should be sited in their neighborhoods.
PFAS contamination has been detected in drinking water, groundwater, and surface water across Michigan. Cleanup efforts are underway, but many affected communities are still waiting for action. What is the single most important step the officeholder in this position should take on PFAS in the next term?
PFAS has affected the community of Springfield (adjacent to Battle Creek) in this state house district, especially, but we know it's ubiquitously everywhere and even within each one of us. As a MI legislator I would fight for more PFAS remediation dollars in the state budget process, applying more budget dollars to this life-and-death fight. I would too apply more budgetary muscle to properly funding MI EGLE staffing and enforcement. I would additionally sponsor or co-sponsor legislation intended to mandate more aggressive and speedy PFAS remediation in many of the PFAS hotspots in our state, including Rockford and Oscoda.
Michigan residents in some communities face disproportionate exposure to air pollution, contaminated water, and industrial waste. Do you support requiring Michigan regulators to assess cumulative environmental and health impacts on overburdened communities before approving new permits for polluting facilities?
I without hesitation support laws requiring Michigan regulators to assess cumulative environmental and health impacts on such overburdened communities like southwest Detroit before approving new permits for polluting facilities. Michigan government cannot allow more polluting entities to despoil these communities some more - we in fact must require remediation of the pollution in these communities before there could be any other permits for more potentially ruinous activities.
Utility rate cases directly affect what Michigan residents pay for electricity and gas. DTE and Consumers Energy have requested frequent significant rate increases in recent years. Should elected officials play a greater role in holding utility companies accountable for rate hikes and rising energy costs?
Elected officials must play a bigger role in holding monopoly utility companies accountable for rate hikes and rising energy costs. In a time of significantly less reliable electricity service - not coincidentally connected to climate change - legislators need to reign in the utilities' almost drumbeat-repetitive requests for rate increases. The Michigan Public Service Commission members are not elected, and have all too frequently rubber-stamped the utilities-made requests for rate increases. It's time to fight back, and compel better service at more modest rates.
Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline runs through the Straits of Mackinac and carries crude oil and natural gas liquids between Wisconsin and Ontario. A proposed tunnel beneath the lakebed to house a replacement pipeline has faced legal and regulatory challenges for years. What is your position on the future of Line 5?
I served as a Calhoun County Commissioner when an Enbridge pipeline burst and poured tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River just downriver from Marshall in July, 2010. It was the largest inland oil spill in North America to that time, and thankfully remains that largest spill to date. It significantly affected Battle Creek and Augusta, and we Michiganders are fortunate that the spill didn't make Lake Michigan, being stopped at Galesburg east of Kalamazoo. I practice law in a office on the Kalamazoo River, and had and have opportunity to see firsthand the airboats and dredging on the river since the 2010 oil spill. Battle Creek is a resourceful community, and we have soldiered on despite the 2010 oil spill, but none for the better in comparison to pre-July, 2010. Given such experience, I am opposed to a pipeline continuing to transport tar sands oil under the Straits of Mackinac. A spill there would have widespread devastating effects on our Great Lakes.
Drinking water is becoming increasingly unaffordable for Michiganders in both rural and urban areas, leading to water shutoffs. Would you support legislation that caps water bills for low-income Michiganders and adds shutoff protections?
The City of Battle Creek has only this late summer of 2026 lifted its moratorium on municipal water shut-offs for failure to pay the water bill. This comes at a time when many Battle Creek citizens are up against it because of inflationary high prices without concomitant increases in wages or wage-replacement benefits. I presently represent a law client (I'm a lawyer) in a disability claim, and that client cannot now afford to pay his water bill, and is presently living without running water at his home. I would indeed sponsor or co-sponsor legislation tying water charges to the level of income of the water consumer as well as legislation affording some procedural due process protections against water shut-offs.
Michigan is home to more than 18,000 contaminated sites. Do you support or oppose legislation to hold polluters accountable for cleaning up these sites?
I support legislation holding polluters accountable for cleaning up contaminated sites. At a time when state resources are scarce, it's imperative that the bad actors are mandated to remediate a site when green ooze flows from a contaminated parcel onto a greater Detroit-area freeway as happened just a few years ago.
Data center proposals have multiplied across Michigan since the spring, and it is by far the most common topic readers have asked candidates about. Would you support a pause on new hyperscale data center approvals until state guardrails on water use, noise, utility rate impacts, and local approval are in place? Please explain, including whether data centers should keep their state tax breaks, whether local communities should be able to reject them, and whether they should pay the full cost of the grid and water capacity they require.
Yes
I would presently support a pause on new data center approvals until more sturdy guardrails on water use, noise, utility rate impacts, and local approval are in place. Compared to 2 and 3 years ago, we Michiganders now know much more about some of the deleterious effects of large-scale data centers. Given that greater knowledge, I would support - after a moratorium and rigorous state legislative committee hearings - allowing data centers only if such projects might surmount the very highest, the very most challenging guard rails. I would push for legislation to eliminate the state tax breaks extended to data centers development, passed historically under a theory that such data centers would bring significant economic development that would otherwise go to Indiana or Ohio. I would support local communities having a presumptive "No" in relation to the siting of data centers within those environs, knowing now in 2026 what we didn't well know in 2023 and 2024, in contexts like Saline and Dowagiac. And if any data centers developments are in fact authorized, there cannot be any question that such data centers must pay the full cost of the grid and water capacity requirements.
Communities near heavy industry see frequent air quality alerts, wildfire smoke now adds unhealthy-air days statewide, and EGLE has limited staff to inspect facilities and enforce permits. Do you support stronger air pollution enforcement, such as higher penalties for repeat violators or emission limits on unhealthy-air days? What specifically would you do to protect vulnerable residents, including those in the most polluted zip codes, on those days?
The most urgent and in fact the most existential issue before the voters this autumn is that of climate change. When Michiganders experienced the most significant infiltration of Canadian wildfires smoke than ever before this past July, it was and remains remarkable that the issue of air pollution is not more central to more statewide and state legislative campaigns. There's no question that the most socioeconomically challenged communities in our state are the ones most infected by pollution. These communities are not coincidentally more significantly populated by black and brown residents, suggesting a disparate impact on racial minorities in Michigan in comparison to white residents of more affluent communities. I definitely support stronger Michigan air pollution standards and more robust Michigan air pollution standards enforcement. I would sponsor or co-sponsor state legislation to build up MI EGLE staffing; enable stricter MI air pollution standards; and would support enhancement grants in the MI budget to remediate the effects of pollution in hard-hit by pollution communities like southwest Detroit.
Michigan is already seeing more extreme heat, storms, and flooding, and households pay some of the highest electric rates in the Midwest for some of the least reliable service. What specific steps would you take in your first term toward the MI Healthy Climate Plan goals, and would you support community solar and expanded weatherization so residents can own or share in clean power and lower their bills?
I would sponsor or co-sponsor bills intended to enact the mechanisms by which the MI Healthy Climate Plan goals are accomplished. To accomplish this effort requires an election of a majority of members in both MI legislative bodies who do not, as acolytes of Donald Trump, deny climate change as a hoax, notwithstanding evidence to the very contrary in their noses and in their lungs. I would be among a majority of members in the MI House who will proceed constructively toward proactive climate change legislation, as I did in September, 2023 when I voted in support of legislation mandating renewable energy by not later than 2040. I do support community solar and expanded weatherization as additional measures to fight back against climate change worsening.
Federal cuts to EPA staffing, enforcement, and Great Lakes funding are shifting responsibility for air, water, and public health protection to the states. Should Michigan backfill that funding and enforcement, and how would you pay for it? What would you do to make Michigan's own environmental protections durable against future rollbacks?
Michigan should step up and prioritize air, water, and public health protections in light of the disastrous federal disinvestment in such fundamental to life community needs. In anticipation of the coming Medicaid cuts, Michigan legislators and the governor's office found a way in this most recent state budget cycle to prioritize communication about such pending Medicaid changes to Michigan citizens, in order to make medically needy Michigan medical services consumers more prepared for what is coming at the end of 2026. Similarly the budget tool must be utilized to prioritize funding of environmental tools necessary for a vigorous defense to adverse climate change. Future rollbacks by a backwards-looking future governor or a neanderthal future state legislature are always hazards of our democracy - witness that which has occurred in Washington, D.C. in the past 21 months for corroboration of that declaration. I would consider state initiatives and state constitutional amendments to better buttress state environmental protections infrastructure from any future rollbacks.
Michigan's forests, wetlands, and public lands support clean water, wildlife, outdoor recreation, and flood protection, yet the DNR estimates nearly a billion dollars in backlogged capital needs. What are your top priorities for protecting these lands over the next term, including wetland and floodplain protection, groundwater withdrawals by bottlers, and native habitat, and how would you fund them?
I would sponsor or co-sponsor legislation to better protect Michigan's invaluable wetlands and floodplains, so vital to out Great Lakes-unique habitat and circle of life. I would more strenuously than those who came before fight groundwater withdrawals from bottlers, so that our abundant groundwater isn't swallowed up by commercial piracy. I would ensure that native habitat is better protected than some of the poor stewards of Michigan's past allowed, protecting Michigan from the figurative and virtual clear-cutting of the past. The state budget process is the way to prioritize such efforts, and I would fight to ensure robust appropriations for Michigan environmental stewardship. I am endorsed for the 44th Michigan legislative seat by both the MI League of Conservation voters and the MI Sierra Club.
Campaign Money
- PURI MAJORITY FUND$15,750
- MICHIGAN LABORERS POLITICAL LEAGUE$12,250
- CREEK PAC$12,250
- INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS POLITICAL ACTION CMTE$12,000
- Building Power PAC$11,000
Transactions reported to the Michigan Secretary of State through Aug 24, 2026 (Post-election 2026 campaign statement), summed for the 2025–26 cycle. Search the state database →