As Tuesday’s primary elections approach, Macomb County is home to the nastiest, most expensive state House race in Michigan.

The pitched battle in north Macomb’s 36th House District between Republicans Stan Grot, the Shelby Township clerk, and Pete Lucido, a prominent local attorney, generated a flurry of negative campaign literature for weeks. Relying upon mailings and online sites, both candidates have harshly accused the other of all sorts of improprieties, including sinister ties to criminal elements or corruption.

At the same time, the campaign has become a record-setter in the annals of Michigan House primary elections. The two GOP contenders raised the bar by raising a combined $350,000 in the lead-up to Tuesday’s standoff. In addition, Lucido dumped an unheard-of $150,000 of his own money into his campaign war chest.

Voters in the heavily Republican 36th District (Washington Township, Bruce Township and most of Shelby Township) who are tired of the mudslinging may wonder where the two candidates stand on the issues.
Well, here is the answer:

Both candidates award Republican Gov. Rick Snyder high marks for his first term in office. But they each criticize the governor for raising taxes on retiree income and slashing eligibility for the Homestead Property Tax Credit that allows write-offs for relatively high property taxes.

They both believe the Republican-controlled Legislature erred in allowing the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid coverage in Michigan, and they want to ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.
As a result, they both support the Legislature’s decision to require women seeking health insurance coverage for abortion to purchase a separate “rider” to their policy – a new law that outraged Democratic critics who labeled the requirement “rape insurance.”

Overall, Grot and Lucido have campaigned as conservative Republicans, but Lucido, a first-time candidate, has clearly staked a position as the more moderate, nuanced candidate compared to Grot, a veteran political operative with ties to the tea party.
 

The two hopefuls part ways on the Legislature’s Detroit bailout, gay marriage, the Proposal 1 statewide business tax revision on Tuesday’s ballot, the state’s controversial fireworks law, and the dominant issue of financing repairs for Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges.

Grot, a former Sterling Heights councilman and county commissioner, proposes directing all of the revenues generated by the Michigan gas tax to repairing and replacing inadequate roads. Redistributing existing funds can solve the problem, he said. But Grot’s plan is based on a current 44-cents-per-gallon tax at the pump.
In reality, the state levies 19 cents per gallon and a typical purchase of gasoline generates about 22 cents per gallon from the 6 percent state sales tax. Much of that sales tax revenue helps support K-12 schools.

In contrast, Lucido offers a unique approach. He’s calling for creation of a new Michigan Lottery game to benefit the road system. Under his plan, all daily sales revenue from the special roads/bridges lottery above $1 million would finance improvements to thoroughfares at the state and local level.
However, all of the current Michigan Lottery games combined produced a profit of $734 million last year, which boosted financial aid for K-12 schools. In contrast, the Michigan Department of Transportation has estimated that a $1.2 billion annual increase in new road revenues is needed to prevent the pothole-plagued pavement from going from bad to worse.
Lucido also calls for tougher warranties and required bond postings by road contractors and a team of independent auditors who would be contracted by the state to keep tabs on construction projects with the goal of preventing waste and fraud. Under his plan, road construction companies interested in bidding on a job would have input into the road-quality specifications devised by MDOT for that project.
As for the $195 million Detroit bailout, Grot said he was “100 percent” opposed to the Legislature’s approval, while Lucido said he would have supported a revised version of the package.

Grot, a former Hamtramck restaurateur, said Lansing’s decision set a dangerous precedent as other cities such as Flint, Saginaw and Highland Park are flirting with financial collapse.
“Are we going to bail out everyone?” he said.
Rather than providing state assistance, Grot proposed all Detroit municipal assets, including the treasured art works at the Detroit Institute of Arts, should have been put up for bid at a massive “garage sale.”
Lucido said he would have backed the bailout if it was a loan that would be paid back with interest, similar to the federal government’s rescue loans for General Motors and Chrysler.
“I know that if the city fails, it will harm our suburban communities,” he said.
Grot opposes same-sex marriage while Lucido, a Catholic, takes a libertarian approach toward gay couples.
“If it doesn’t affect people, they can do whatever they want,” he said. “I’m a Christian … and if they want to do that, let God judge them. I don’t judge people.”

In commenting on the Proposal 1 tax plan, Grot strongly supports the measure because it would wipe out the Personal Property Tax on business equipment, which he states is “the most brutal, nasty tax” imposed on small companies.
Lucido said he and many voters lack enough information to make an informed choice, despite the “warm and fuzzy” pro-Proposal 1 TV ads. He said he will vote “no” because the plan offers no guarantee of new jobs and it doesn’t offer local communities an iron-clad promise that the hundreds of millions of dollars in PPT revenue will be replaced by the complex Proposal 1 system.
The state’s fireworks law is another area that divides the candidates. The new system that allows the use of loud, professional-grade fireworks on certain holidays at certain times should be overhauled to put the rules and regulations in the hands of each local community, Grot said.

But Lucido insisted that addressing the law requires a balancing act between boosting sales for fireworks shops and dealing with the explosions that scare children and pets.
Whoever emerges as the GOP primary winner will enjoy the status of a prohibitive favorite in November when facing the lone Democrat on the 36th District ballot, Robert Murphy, a perennial candidate.