Hoekstra Focuses on Job Growth in Swing Through Plymouth

With a comfortable GOP primary poll lead, U.S. Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra has his sights set squarely on challenging Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s record on jobs and spending.

The Holland Republican, a candidate in Michigan’s race for a seat in the U.S. Senate, was in Plymouth on Tuesday for a series of meetings with local officials, business owners and media.

The trip took the candidate to in downtown Plymouth to meet with local business and government leaders, then through Sealant Equipment & Engineering, Inc. to meet with employers and workers.

The focus of Hoekstra's visit mirrored that of his campaign: Job growth and the economy.

“There are a lot of people who aren’t ready to give Debbie Stabenow 18 years in the U.S. Senate,” Hoekstra said. “A lot of people are really concerned about the economy right now. They’re concerned about jobs, they’re concerned about the deficit, they’re concerned about what’s happening with health care. I think there’s a tremendous opportunity this year to retire Debbie.”

Hoekstra looks to get economy 'moving again'

Hoekstra went on the offensive early this year, airing a controversial Super Bowl advertisement in February that featured a Chinese-American actress speaking broken English, thanking "Debbie Spend-it-Now" for helping send American jobs to China.

The commercial drew national criticism and gave Stabenow donations in record numbers during the first three months of 2012.

Hoekstra admitted the advertisement upset some voters and said the campaign has since taken a different approach to relaying what he said was the advertisement’s overall message.

“The message we were driving is out-of-control spending hurts the economy,” he said. “Out-of-control spending and huge deficits enables and empowers countries like China, which end up buying a lot of our debt.  We strengthen them, we weaken America.”

The job loss highlighted in the Super Bowl ad, Hoekstra said, is one of Michigan and Wayne County’s biggest challenges.

“The people who have paid the biggest price in this economy are the kids who are between 20 and 30 years old,” he said. “This is about making sure, regardless of who is in the White House, making sure we get some things done to get this economy moving again.”

He said while meeting with Sealant Equipment & Engineering, Inc., a global business based in Plymouth, on Tuesday, the employer expressed apprehension about investing and growing locally with costs from taxes, energy and health care escalating.

“It’s about taxes, it’s about rules and regulations, it’s about health care, it’s about energy,” he said. “We have to come up with long-term policy solutions in each of those areas.”

Hoekstra looks to give latitude to local officials

Hoekstra said he also is looking to give state and local governments more room to make decisions, rather than making decisions at the federal level.

“The key thing here is moving responsibility for making and setting the kind of directions that would help people at the local level, make sure those decisions are no longer made in Washington,” he said.

Hoekstra also has taken President Barack Obama’s administration to task for its Affordable Health Care Act, popularly referred to by the GOP as “Obamacare.”

Hoekstra this week unveiled a seven-point plan he said he hopes will “repeal and replace” the legislation.

“We put up seven simple legislative fixes,” he said. “Smaller, narrowly focused bills that address the issue of affordability and address the issue of access, which are two of the biggest issues we hear people talk about.”

Hoekstra will face Clark Durant, Gary Glenn and Randy Hekman in Michigan’s GOP primary for U.S. Senate on Aug. 7. The winner of that race will face incumbent Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, on the Nov. 6 ballot.