Campaign Evaluation: Tom McMillin (U.S. House, MI-8)

[Bryan]

This thread is intended to be a collection point of the strong pros and cons of any potential liberty candidate / campaign that is being discussed / promoted on the forum. You are welcome to post both positive and not-so-positive attributes about the candidate as they related to their position on supporting liberty as well as issues relating to their campaign. The most important information may be aggregated in this top post for easy reference.

Note: Thread was changed from State race to U.S. House race.


Candidate Name: Tom McMillin
Office Sought: U.S. House, 8th Congressional District
Website: http://www.tom4michigan.com/
Social Media:
https://twitter.com/TomMcMillin
https://www.facebook.com/TomMcMillinMI
https://www.facebook.com/tom4michigan


Note - issue information provided by EBounding


Candidate Profile: On the Issues
Civil Liberties: Outstanding. Takes the lead in sponsoring a number of different bi-partisan bills to reign in the police state.
Economic Issues: Has voted against corporate welfare unlike other competitors.
Foreign Policy: He's non-interventionist. He shared a recent facebook story from the Ron Paul Institute and said he's moved closer to Ron Paul's way of thinking on national defense.
Social Issues: Pro-life, pro-traditional marriage. Wants to decriminalize marijuana and end the federal drug war.


Race Profile: Competition & Demographics
State: Michigan
District: 8th Congressional District
Incumbent: None
Primary Candidates:
Primary Date: August 5th 2014



Demographics: While the district has become less Republican, it still leans Republican by well over 50%. It contains some of the wealthiest cities in the state.


Miscellaneous Pros/Cons
Key strong points:

Possible weak points:


Top Endorsements
Congressman Amash: https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/459791000483807233

[EBounding]

DuckDuckGo has some great search results for "Tom McMillin Ron Paul" (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tom+mcmillin+ron+paul). This campaign evaluation was the first result.

Here's a good story from last year:

Top GOP conservative, Rep. Tom McMillin, questions 'war on drugs'
(http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20130611/top-gop-conservative-rep-tom-mcmillin-questions-war-on-drugs)


It's safe to say Rep. Tom McMillin's political positions are evolving.

The Rochester Hills Republican questioned Monday whether the war on drugs is winnable. And he says he might not be against decriminalizing marijuana.

Pretty strong stuff for a former mayor, county commissioner and state lawmaker who has politically defined himself as a religious, social and fiscal conservative.

He says he's still all those but may be politically drifting towards the libertarians. He already gets high marks from the tea party groups, which rates him at 92 percent in line with their philosophies.

McMillin also describes himself as a "Rand Paul sympathizer," who represents a "new group of Republicans with a new attraction to a bigger tent." Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is a tea party member, libertarian, constitutional conservative and son of former presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

"I'm becoming more libertarian in some of my views," McMillin acknowledges.
...

[tsai3904]

Update this thread for his Congressional campaign?

[Brian4Liberty]

He has the Amash seal of approval:

459791000483807233

[Brian4Liberty]

So he is now running for US Congress?

https://www.facebook.com/events/1408929569381777/?ref=22

[EBounding]

Update this thread for his Congressional campaign?

I think a new one should be made.

[jct74]

Looks like Bryan has updated the thread for the congressional campaign.


If anyone wants to check out Tom's issues page, click the "Standing Up" in the top right hand corner of his site, or direct link here:

http://www.tom4michigan.com/standing_up



also here is the facebook page for the congressional campaign, make sure you "like" and I will add it to OP

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-McMillin-for-Congress/291701130985354

[jct74]

Foreign policy, from another thread:



Since he's been in local and state government he hasn't made a whole lot of public comments about foreign policy, so he needs to put up his positions now that he's running for Congress. But I know for sure that he is no where near neocon foreign policy.

For what it's worth, he said this recently semi-publicly to his facebook friends before Rogers announced he was retiring:

http://i.imgur.com/HU8T2go.png

[jct74]

here's an article that describes how he got into politics and came to be more civil libertarian-minded after becoming close friends with Justin Amash.


Rep. Tom McMillin finds balance as a Tea Party conservative and ACLU sympathizer

David Ashenfelter | Bridge Magazine
on February 19, 2014 at 10:48 AM

It was December 2009 and Tom McMillin, one of the most conservative members of the Michigan House of Representatives, was feeling uneasy about fellow luncheon guests at a restaurant in downtown Lansing.

“I looked around the room and asked myself, ‘What am I doing here?’” the Rochester Hills Republican recalled, scanning the crowd of Democratic legislators, liberal activists and others there to be briefed about fixing Michigan’s broken system for providing court-appointed lawyers to impoverished criminal defendants.

“Until that day, I don’t think I had ever been in a meeting with that many liberals or the ACLU,” McMillin said.

The luncheon marked a turning point in the political evolution of McMillin, whose vocal opposition to abortion and gay and lesbian rights has caused him to be reviled by many on the left.

Since then, McMillin, 48, not only led the charge to provide indigent criminal defendants with better lawyers, he has teamed with House and Senate Democrats, the ACLU and other unlikely allies on legislation to safeguard the legal and privacy rights of Michigan residents and make government more open and accountable to the public.'

“If you had told me during my Christian Coalition years that I’d be working with the ACLU, I would have called you crazy,” McMillin said. “But when you’re working on something you feel strongly about, you can work with groups that you normally wouldn’t agree with.”

...

read more:
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/tom_mcmillin_tea_party_conserv.html

[jct74]

Tom McMillin on his bill to nullify NDAA - Infowars Nightly News 12/17/12



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PghU_dcU7zw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PghU_dcU7zw

[jct74]

I just went through all of Tom's tweets going back to his first tweet on May 17th of last year, to learn a little more about him and get inside his head a little bit. All I can say is this guy is definitely one of us and would fit right in posting on the Ron Paul Forums. I will post some of his tweets and retweets in this thread that I found particularly interesting. I'd say a good third of his tweets are about Common Core which he really seems to dislike, another third are about the NSA which he also feels VERY strongly about. He retweets a lot of interesting people/organizations that are certainly familiar to everyone on RPF, such as Glenn Greenwald, Radley Balko, Conor Friedersdorf, Rand Paul, Justin Amash, Daily Paul, Ron Paul Institute, Tenth Amendment Center, EFF, ACLU, ZeroHedge.

Here is his twitter account for everyone to subscribe to and you can check out of his tweets for yourself:

https://twitter.com/TomMcMillin

[jct74]

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[jct74]

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[jct74]

There were some questions earlier about his foreign policy views, I posted the screenshot from his facebook page above. Also from some of his tweets you can see that he does not have a favorable view of neocons and seems to support a pretty non-interventionist policy... although there were not a lot of tweets on the subject, since he is only a state rep anyways.

[Warlord]

I hope he wins

[EBounding]

I'm sure some people wondering how winnable the race is. Checkout all the tweets above and consider the following too:

1) He has a long voting record. Unlike some other candidates in the past, it's going to be very obvious how he will vote in Congress. You can look up his voting record at Michiganvotes.org: http://michiganvotes.org/Search.aspx#House
2) He's still in office as a State Rep. This is important since he can propose legislation, hold town halls with constituents, and vote during the campaign; his opponent cannot.
3) This is an open seat with no incumbent.
4) His opponent is from the same area. This is important since neither of them have a geographical advantage.
5) The district is a Republican leaning swing district, so the battle is right now in the primary. Livingston county will probably decide the race.

I'm probably biased, but I would rank Amash's and McMillin's race as the # 1 priorities right now. The establishment was already gunning for him during his state senate race and they're going to push 100 times harder here. If McMillin wins and Amash wins by a large margin, it will be like poking a stick in Mike Rogers eye.

[NewRightLibertarian]

I'm sure some people wondering how winnable the race is. Checkout all the tweets above and consider the following too:

1) He has a long voting record. Unlike some other candidates in the past, it's going to be very obvious how he will vote in Congress. You can look up his voting record at Michiganvotes.org: http://michiganvotes.org/Search.aspx#House
2) He's still in office as a State Rep. This is important since he can propose legislation, hold town halls with constituents, and vote during the campaign; his opponent cannot.
3) This is an open seat with no incumbent.
4) His opponent is from the same area. This is important since neither of them have a geographical advantage.
5) The district is a Republican leaning swing district, so the battle is right now in the primary. Livingston county will probably decide the race.

I'm probably biased, but I would rank Amash's and McMillin's race should be the # 1 priorities right now. The establishment was already gunning for him during his state senate race and they're going to push 100 times harder here. If McMillin wins and Amash wins by a large margin, it will be like poking a stick in Mike Rogers eye.

I concur. McMillin would be another Amash in the house. He's probably the best liberty candidate running for national office and has a long record to prove it.

Check this video out to see how in tune he is on the issues, and how he can extend the olive branch to the ACLU left on common ground issues:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dp6wzAjvio

[Mr.NoSmile]

Though Bishop already has Rogers backing him in his corner. I imagine having the sitting representative would be a plus for voters who would have voted for Rogers, had he chosen to stay, right?

[NewRightLibertarian]

Though Bishop already has Rogers backing him in his corner. I imagine having the sitting representative would be a plus for voters who would have voted for Rogers, had he chosen to stay, right?

Bishop's an empty suit. If he's pressured enough, McMillin can win the seat IMO

[Mr.NoSmile]

Bishop's an empty suit. If he's pressured enough, McMillin can win the seat IMO

No, I get that. My qualm isn't with Bishop himself, it's with the backing, since establishment backing does equate to big money than liberty backing more often than we would like.

[NewRightLibertarian]

No, I get that. My qualm isn't with Bishop himself, it's with the backing, since establishment backing does equate to big money than liberty backing more often than we would like.

The establishment will fully back whoever runs against McMillin. He's hated for both his liberty and christian conservative views so he'll be especially under the gun.

[angelatc]

The establishment will fully back whoever runs against McMillin. He's hated for both his liberty and christian conservative views so he'll be especially under the gun.

The Livingston County GOP EC is not run by neocons. Dan will probably stay out of the primary, but Jennifer is tweeting and FBing McMillin stuff like crazy, as is Marcia. He needs money, but we can win this.

[Anti-Neocon]

5 stars, seems like a great guy to get into the House based on his views that he has shared via Twitter, and Amash's support counts for something too!

[EBounding]

He expanded his issues (http://www.tom4michigan.com/issues) page. Here are his comments on Foreign Policy and National Defense:



Foreign Policy

We must not give our tax money to countries as bribes to prop up foreign politicians. Individual up or down votes should be taken for any handout to any country. We must not fight wars that are not authorized by Congress and that are not in America's direct interest.




National Defense

One of the only real constitutional functions of the federal government is to provide for the national defense. We should do this well.

[Brian4Liberty]

5 stars, seems like a great guy to get into the House based on his views that he has shared via Twitter, and Amash's support counts for something too!

Same. Based on that, I'd give him five stars.

[Brian4Liberty]

Moneybomb this Friday for McMillin.

[jurgs01]

Moneybomb this Friday for McMillin.

https://www.facebook.com/candidates4libertydotcom/posts/255880257930817

Share Tom's post far and wide.