Right after college Bob Alexander joined the Peace Corps, helped breed chickens in south India and spent his free time reading about American government
E.L. House candidate looks to cut taxes, fund struggling states
By ELIZABETH PIET
The State News
JOHN PAUL · The State News
Bob Alexander is the Democratic candidate for the 8th district of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Right after college Bob Alexander joined the Peace Corps, helped breed chickens in south India and spent his free time reading about American government.
"As a consequence, I really learned more about the United States by being out of the country," he said. " I got very frustrated by all of the positive things this country has and how we have failed to use them. We've just wasted so much of our resources and our good programs."
The East Lansing native is now running as the Democratic candidate for the 8th District U.S. House seat against Republican incumbent Mike Rogers from Brighton, the U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate John Mangopoulos from Okemos and Libertarian Will Tyler White, also from Okemos.
A long-time political activist, Alexander has worked on more than 200 political campaigns, including most recently the campaign of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, for president.
Alexander said, if elected, his top priorities would be to create and retain good-paying jobs for people in Michigan, work toward a national health-care system, and strongly advocate to transfer U.S. troops out of Iraq and replace them with international troops, especially from Muslim countries.
"It's chaotic now, and as long as we're there, it's going to get worse," he said. "We don't have enough troops to forcibly stop the violence."
Alexander said jobs could be created by first repealing the Bush tax cuts for the most wealthy Americans, and putting about $20 billion of the revenue toward community construction projects in states with sluggish economies.
"Everybody agrees we have major needs to rebuild our roads, bridges, and so many public buildings are crumbing - and we have lots of people unemployed or underemployed," he said. "Say, 'Rebuild what you need to rebuild."
If the funds are available to the cities at no interest, the construction can be completed at low cost and jobs will be available, Alexander said.
Additionally, Alexander said he strongly supports ending tax benefits for companies that outsource jobs to other countries and supports an increase in the minimum wage to help low-income workers.
"We did our research," he said. "The minimum wage was raised in 1991 and 1997 and studies have shown no job losses."
But no government intervention in the economy is without costs, said MSU economics Professor Charles Ballard.
"There is actually a lot of controversy about how large the job losses are," he said. "There's a fair body of research that suggests those responses of the employers may be pretty large."
Long-time friend and state Rep. Michael Murphy, D-Lansing, said Alexander is passionate about working for the poor and other social welfare issues.
"I'm impressed with his passion, his energy and his spirit," he said. "It's a very uphill battle, running against an incumbent congressman who has really established himself."
Local pollsters have given Rogers a significant edge in winning the election.
Murphy said Alexander has worked hard to contrast his and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's views with those of Rogers and President Bush.
"Bob is articulating the views that he believes in," he said. "He brings the type of passion as a Democrat that people want to see."
