Jay Riemersma to run for Congress

Warning: I'm going to talk a bit of politics and religion here. I'm not going to take sides between parties, or even take sides between factions within one party. Ditto on religion. But they're going to be discussed as they relate to Michigan football. The reason this bothers me is because I think there's several ways this could play in state politics, and one of those ways could have a big effect on Michigan's brand (and thus recruiting). Between his Bills career and this recent announcement, Jay became a high school football coach for a new during a school realignment out there (he went 0-9 FWIW, and seemed on track to eventually be a DeBord assistant). He also had an Evangelical Christian blog, which wasn't updated very often. This in itself isn't that noteworthy -- this is a decent guy of Dutch descent from the west side of the mitten state who played football -- chances of his religion being Evangelical = good. But if I recall correctly, the blog was a little beyond the typical religious fare and delved into very non-mainstream politics (e.g. calling out "liberals" for "brainwashing"). His primary focus was on banning gay marriage, but abortion and evolution were hot topics. This is just from memory of the site which I can no longer link to -- it seems it was taken down -- so sodium chloride recommended. I think I read the whole thing once (wasn't that much to back-track through) then revisited for new material maybe twice. I might have linked once on the mgoblog.blogspot site if anyone wants to go looking. Here's an example of his politics, from a letter much circulated during last year's election:

God’s word is clear: Life begins at conception (Psalm 139) and marriage is a God-ordained institution between one man and one woman (Genesis 2). While no candidate is perfect, it is our responsibility as Christians to choose the candidate that best represents our core values.

Political blog "Roll Call" did a discussion of that seat a little over a month ago:

“As it stands now, this race is a true tossup and three-way race,” the operative said. “Riemersma could campaign as an outsider with Christian conservative values, which [would] sell on that side of the state, and do quite well.”

A friend of mine spent years working for a Republican state senator, and before that he went to Little Brother. And he's brought up Riemersma's politics to me on a number of occasions to piss me off, particularly during the last election. The sense I've gotten from his is that his state party, at least, sees Jay as kind of a joke. Bill Huizenga is already locking up guys from Bill Broomfield's old (Oakland County) posse. He's also the guy it seems the national party is most interested in promoting. The Western Michigan DeVos/Posthumus machine has its guy in Wayne Kuipers. I don't know if any of you remember John Hochstetler -- a one-time opponent of Alma Wheeler Smith. John came into his Michigan Daily endorsement interview (with a really cool Petoskey stone pin in the shape of Michigan) expecting to be eaten by Satan-worshipping, drugged-up hippies (no offense Woomer). He pointed a finger at a little Jewish sophomore girl who asked a question about intelligent design in publicly funded schools and said she was going to go to hell. Hochstetler became, for a time, a local joke. That's not to say Jay Riermesma = John Hochstetler. But I see a lot of similarities between their respective approaches to politics, particularly in that they both have positioned themselves as staunch advocates for some unpopular, religiously infused politics (Hoch with Creationism, Jay with Opposition to Gay Marriage). Anyway, Huizenga's still the leader and the national GOP darling, which signifies that Jay isn't getting the creme de la creme of the Michigan Republican Party. As a Michigan fan, and a fan of Jay during his playing days in Ann Arbor, I wish him luck. But it's my sense that he's seen by the bigger whigs in his party as a joke. His politics play well with some people in his district. But be careful of overrating the power of the Dutch Conservatives in Ottawa County. You've also got Muskegon and Grand Haven and Ludington and Cadillac. It's a sure-fire Republican district, so the winner of this 3-way thing is almost guaranteed the final seat. Whether Jay wins or not isn't at issue here. What's at issue is that he's almost sure to be packaged not just as Christian Right alternative, but as a Christian Right Alternative who played Football at Michigan. This is a big recruiting area of the state. It's also a big area for Meijer Michigan Fans. And most importantly, it's an area known for some dirty primaries. I'd keep an eye on this one and see how it plays out over the year. What I don't want to see is the "Michigan" candidate being billed as the crazy religious guy who wants to beat up your gay son. Jay, as a football guy, seems like a pretty good fella. He was an All-Star student during his time at M. He's one of the guys you could see ending up a Tight Ends coach in Ann Arbor had the Bo/Carr regime not been upended. But politics is an ugly business. It has a tendency to take true passion and screws that into "hates children." And what's more, it has a track record of iconoclasm -- if there's something in your opponent's past, that thing must be bad by association. Where does this lead? High schoolers and their parents care about this kind of stuff, or at least they do when it gets on TV. Jay still has connections to M football. He's still a face of our franchise. And I highly doubt he'll leave the Block M at home as he tries to parlay his name recognition into political capital. But his politics -- whether you agree with them or not -- turn off a lot of people even when said in his own words. Allow those same politics to be twisted in a campaign and then given the incredible mouthpiece that the DeVos crew and the national GOP machine have in that region, and it could get really really ugly. And that's just if he loses. What if he wins? A seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is a huge stage, and not one like the NFL where a person's personal life only really gets people interested if it's got violence or sex in it. Imagine recruiting in California, when the biggest anti-gay advocate in the House is an affiliate of the program? Does anyone else think this could be, at least, kind of damaging?