Why I Support Steve Meckley Over Andrew Fink for State Rep
On COVID and Criminal Justice Reform, Fink’s Instincts Are Not Good.
I do not support giving Andrew Fink, current state representative for Hillsdale and Branch Counties, another term in office. His last two years in power have been a disappointment. On the critical issues of COVID and crime, Fink has demonstrated an unacceptable lack of judgment.
He isn’t alone. The GOP as a whole often appears adrift. Confronted by an increasingly radical and insane Left, the response of too many conservative leaders has been weakness and confusion. Their instincts simply don’t work. Unfortunately, Fink has fallen prey to the same vices. This local race for state rep is a microcosm for the issues plaguing Republicans at both the state and national level.
This isn’t a personal condemnation of Andrew. He’s a nice guy with a pretty wife and five cute kids. I had a pleasant conversation with him once about our shared experience in the Marine Corps. All very fine and good but not relevant to the question of the hour: does Andrew deserve another term in office as State Representative?
My answer is no.
COVID Lockdowns
On the issue of COVID lockdowns, Fink sponsored a bill, HB4267, that preserves Gretchen Whitmer’s power to unilaterally impose public health emergency orders for up to 28 days before the legislature is required to intervene.
This is inexcusable. Fink and his fellow cosponsors argued that this bill “limits” Whitmer’s power to impose draconian emergency measures to “just” four weeks. I have a better idea—how about we have a government of LAWS and not EDICTS. It is as if Fink and his fellow Republicans learned nothing from the vicious lockdowns in 2020.
With the stroke of a pen, Whitmer took away our right to assemble, worship, and work. Imposing a time-limit on how long my rights can be seized isn’t a solution to tyranny.
That Fink thinks this bill is an acceptable compromise is a sign of his bad instincts. The biomedical security state is one of the greatest threats to liberty in our time. We cannot work together with people who want to turn the planet into a giant concentration camp in the name of medical martial law.
This isn’t a dead issue either. Lockdowns, in some form or another, could very well make a comeback. Beijing just put Wuhan back under lockdown because of four asymptomatic cases. That can never happen here in Michigan again.
Criminal Justice Reform
On the issue of crime, Fink again has demonstrated poor judgement. He is the principal sponsor of HB5436, a bill that would effectively eliminate cash bail (a financial bond meant to ensure that someone shows up to court) for most crimes in the state of Michigan. I am incredulous that Andrew thought this piece of legislation was a good idea in a time of soaring crime rates and social breakdown.
The legislation contains a number of concerning provisions like the following that states, “If the court does not find an articulable and substantiated risk of [the defendant’s] nonappearance or absconding, or an articulable risk of causing personal harm to another reasonably identifiable person, the community at large, or himself or herself, the defendant must be released on a personal recognizance bond with standard conditions.”
The provisions in the bill are designed to push courts not to require collateral as insurance for the accused to show up to court. This effective elimination of cash bail for a large swath of crimes is a bad idea because it eliminates incentives for criminals to face justice, especially for crimes like shoplifting, petty theft, and drug dealing. In the hands of crazed liberal activists, criminals accused of much more serious violent crimes or who are awaiting charges can be released on nothing more than a promise to show back up at a later date.
California has banned cash bail and the consequences were predictably insane. I wrote about a scenario that played out in my hometown of Tulare, CA, where two men were arrested with $750,000 worth of Fentanyl but were then released only a few hours later without any kind of financial incentive to ensure they showed back to court. The reason was that they didn’t meet the “articulable” likelihood of nonappearance that would necessitate stronger bail conditions, even though they had enough drugs on them to overdose the entire population of my hometown. And wouldn’t you know, these two drug traffickers who were supposedly “low flight risks” immediately skipped town after their release. Color me shocked.
Fink’s bill, by everything I can tell, would make that exact same situation not only possible but likely here in Michigan. This bill would empower radical left magistrates and prosecutors to go even easier on criminals. It would make enforcement of the law for lower level offenses in conservative areas much more difficult.
California is a warning regarding what happens when cities and states get rid of cash bail and start implementing criminal justice reform: you end up with, at minimum, a massive spike in quality of life crimes like shoplifting, loitering, and disturbing the peace. Because it takes so much effort to enforce basic laws, police simply give up. Middle class communities in turn suffer.
If anyone needed additional convincing that this bill is a bad idea, just look at Fink’s cosponsors. His allies on this trainwreck of a bill are far left crazies that look right at home among AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Joe Biden. I’ve included a screenshot of the list below:
Abraham Aiyash is particularly noteworthy. A representative from Detroit and the number two listed sponsor for the legislation, he called Trump a fascist in 2020 and then used racially stereotypical language to describe Trump as a white Southern “massa” who made Republicans “shuck and jive” (dance like Black slaves) to his wishes. This is who Andrew Fink thought it was smart to work with.
The most charitable reading I can give this whole debacle is that Fink is an idealist who isn’t paying attention to the news. He also doesn’t understand the friend-enemy distinction. News flash: people like Abraham Aiyash hate your voters, so why are you working with him on a soft-on-crime bill, Andrew? This guy isn’t an ally or a friend. He is a far-left activist who would crush you in a heartbeat if given the chance.
Fink’s official campaign webpage makes zero mention of his criminal justice reform bill and neither do his mailers. Finks says he supports law enforcement… at the very moment he’s working to let criminals out of jail with no guarantee that they’ll show back up.
Fink’s website does mention his support for a bill that would allow Gretchen Whitmer and her lackeys to retain the power to lockdown the state on a whim. But only for 28 days! There’s no way that legislation will be abused! 15 days to flatten the curve, amirite?
Fink has demonstrated bad instincts in other ways. For instance, he supported legislation condemning Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. And yet he’s never supported legislation condemning China’s chemical warfare against the people of Michigan facilitated by opioids manufactured in China and then shipped to our towns and communities through America’s porous southern border.
To my mind, Andrew Fink should spend more time worrying about his constituents dying of overdoses than geopolitical kerfuffles in eastern Europe.
Inaction
But it isn’t just what Fink has done that bothers me—it’s what he hasn’t. Gretchen Whitmer almost certainly killed huge numbers of seniors with her COVID nursing home policies in 2020. Initial research indicates that HALF of the COVID deaths that year were seniors in nursing homes. Whitmer’s policy was to allow nursing homes to accept COVID positive patients and to create regional nursing home hubs for infected elderly people. That was almost certainly a grievous mistake that potentially cost thousands of lives.
But what price did she pay? Whitmer was massively unpopular in 2020, and tens of thousands of people descended on Lansing to protest her tyrannical lockdowns. But Republicans never sought, as a party, to remove her from office!
And what of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson illegally mailing out ballot applications prior to the general election in 2020? Where was the legislature to hold her accountable for that gross misbehavior?
And what about Attorney General Dana Nessel saying she wants to put a drag queen in every school? Is the GOP going to try and remove her from office for suggesting that the sexual grooming of children is not only to be permitted but to be encouraged?
Andrew Fink, like most Republicans, might be willing to furrow his brow at the insanity raging around us, but he doesn’t act as decisively as he should. Whitmer, Benson, and Nessel should all have been impeached. Fink should have been leading the charge.
Instead, he decided to support legislation that would preserve Whitmer’s emergency powers and then was sad that she wouldn’t accept even a minor limitation on her power. Fink was more than willing to support lockdowns and emergency rule, just as long as the legislature gets occasional input. This is a completely backwards understanding of how political power is supposed to work in a republic.
I don’t care if impeaching Whitmer makes people sad or if it is difficult. What she did in 2020 was disgusting and illegal. She got elderly Michiganders killed with her reckless COVID policy and she stripped all of us of our liberty. Fink should have fought her tooth and nail these last two years. Instead, he has contented himself to nibble around the edges of conservative issues and occasionally support outright liberal ones.
Steve Meckley
That’s why I am endorsing Fink’s opponent for the 35th District’s State Rep race. Meckley is a local business owner and farmer. I’ve spoken with him several times in public and private. On issues like the illegitimate 2020 election, vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and critical race theory, Meckley is spirited and firm.
Meckley was radicalized by the 2020 COVID response disaster and the election shenanigans. He’s not an aspiring politician who simply wants to be in power. He wants to help his community and defend the rights of ordinary people. I appreciate that.
Getting rid of an incumbent is rare in American politics but it shouldn’t be. Andrew Fink doesn’t have a right to his office, nor does anyone else. Sending someone new to Lansing won’t be a personal slight against Andrew but rather a sign that the people of southern Michigan want to go in a different direction politically.
That is, quite simply, what needs to happen. We need fighters in Lansing. We need people willing to upend the establishment and who are comfortable making our political class uncomfortable. Fink has shown himself not up to that task. It is time to elect someone new. That is why I am voting Steve Meckley on August 2nd for State Representative.