The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce PAC endorsed candidates and ballot initiatives for the upcoming August Primary in Kent County that you haven’t heard about

I have been tracking the local daily news media that is based in Grand Rapids (MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM13, and WXMI 17) since January 1st on a variety of issues, including reporting on local (GR and Kent County) elections. 

The other three types of stories that I have been monitoring are the Grand Rapids Public Schools, Public Safety in Grand Rapids and Climate Change/Climate Justice. Since January 1st, there have been a combined (from all four news sources) 25 stories that are specific to local elections/candidates/campaign financing. Comparatively, Climate Change stories have numbered 29, the Grand Rapids Public Schools have been reported on 60 times, and the GRPD/Public Safety in Grand Rapids has garnered a total of 270 stories. From the data you can easily see what the priorities are with these four news agencies. 

Besides what the local news is reporting, I look at what they are not reporting. For example, in February, GRIID reported that the DeVos family had contributed $264,000 to just four candidates running for positions in Kent County – Kent County Clerk – Lisa Posthumus Lyons, Kent County Treasurer – Peter MacGregor, Kent County Prosecutor – Chris Becker, and Kent County Sheriff – Michelle LaJoye-Young.

Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce PAC endorsed candidates

You also have probably not heard about the fact that one of the most power organizations in Grand Rapids – the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce – and whom they have endorsed for the August Primary in Grand Rapids and Kent County. 

According to a recent GR Chamber of Commerce post on their website, they list all of the candidates and ballot issues for the August Primary. The post provides some criteria for how they decide on which candidates to endorse:

Endorsement considerations include policy alignment with Chamber priorities, voting record for incumbents, questionnaires, interviews and public statements of candidates. All endorsement decisions require a two-thirds majority vote of the PAC Board. 

As someone who has been monitoring the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce for several decades it seems to me that Chamber priorities are:

• Influencing Public Policy to benefit their members, which are part of the Capitalist Class – policies such taxing working class people proportionately more than those in the Capitalist Class
• Getting local governments to use large sums of public money for development projects that will make some of their members even richer – Downtown Amphitheater, Soccer Stadium, proposed Aquarium, etc.
• Make sure that the monetary interests of GR Chamber members in downtown are protected from the unhoused, which resulted in getting the City of Grand Rapids to adopted two ordinances in July of 2023 that essentially criminalized the unhoused.

Here is a list of the candidates their Political Action Committee has endorsed for the August Primary:

• Mayor of Grand Rapids – David LaGrand (LaGrand is a business as usual candidate)
• Grand Rapids City Commission: First Ward – Dean Pacific (See who Pacific is endorsed by)
• Grand Rapids City Commission: Third Ward – John Krajewski (Krajewski is a former cop and the only white candidate in a race where all of the other candidates are BIPOC. The 3rd Ward has the largest African American population in GR)
• Kent County Commission 2nd District – Elizabeth Morse (Republican)
• Kent County Commission 10th District – Robin Halsted (Republican)
• Kent County Commission 18th District – Steve Faber (Democrat)
• Kent County Commission 19th District – Kris Pachla (Democrat)

All four of these candidates are candidates that will not threaten the interests of GR Chamber of Commerce members, especially on economic and development issues.

Lastly, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce is endorsing the Kent County lodging (hotel/motel) tax, primarily because the increase from 5% to 8% will be used to subsidize downtown development projects that will disproportionately benefit GR Chamber members. This is more or less what the GR Chamber website said on the hotel tax: 

The proposed increase from 5% to 8% will generate the predictable revenue to support the public financing components of catalytic public-private projects. We have successfully done this before for projects such as DeVos Place Convention Center. 

This goes right along with a recent social media post that I have been seeing, which reads: 

Imagine being taxed to build a stadium, to have a billionaire charge you admission, all so you can cheer on millionaires playing a game, meant to divert your attention from being exploited by a ruling class who does things like, tax you to build a stadium.

This is what the GR Chamber of Commerce refers to as Public/Private partnerships. The public pays and the private sector profits.