Letter to the editor: May 18, 2023

Walberg disenfranchises Monroe

Our U.S. representative, Tim Walberg, is disenfranchising Monroe geographically and in other harmful ways.

On March 31, Walberg opened a second district office in Niles. The fastest route there from Monroe takes 182 miles and $9.36 in tolls through two other states. The fastest route to Walberg’s office in Jackson takes 76 miles. For perspective on how alienated Monroe has become under Walberg, there are 11 representatives in Michigan, Ohio and Canada with 15 district offices closer than our own representative’s closest district office. In one trip you can visit both of Debbie Dingell’s offices or all three of Rashida Tlaib’s offices or both of Bob Latta’s offices in Ohio or three Canadian members of Parliament’s offices in less time than a one-way trip to Walberg’s closest office.

Our previous U.S. representative, John Dingell, maintained a district office in the city of Monroe. In December 2021, John Iacoangeli described during his last meeting on City Council that his most proud legacy was working with John Dingell to create the national park in Monroe, “It took 20 years and a variety of nonprofits, state partners and a determined congressman by the name of John Dingell to advance this vision.”

Walberg’s occasional visits to Monroe do not advance any sort of “vision” of our hometown as a welcoming destination for the rest of the world. On April 5, Walberg held an invitation-only town hall in the city of Monroe. Afterward, the information was posted under the “Past Events” dropdown tab of his webpage – there is no such, “Upcoming Events” tab. Instead, likely supporters received mailers and robocall invitations sent by exclusive Republican campaign vendors Jamestown Associates and Advantage Inc. Since 2007, House statement of disbursements show Walberg’s office spent $1,248,266.45 of taxpayer money to those campaign vendors. The Monroe News captured the scene from April 5, how Walberg spoke in front of displays with baseless Orwellian nonsense slogans, “Inflation is Taxation,” then took questions from his hand-picked attendees on topics ranging the extreme right-wing culture war gamut: deregulating fossil fuels, sympathy for insurrectionists who assaulted police on Jan. 6 and hateful lies about transgender people. For more than 10 years, Walberg has practiced his vision of alienating and dividing Monroe, doling favors to any partisan cronies who share his oppressive prejudices while disenfranchising everybody else in Monroe.

Steven Meyer

Monroe

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Letter to the editor: May 18, 2023