Four of the five GOP gubernatorial candidates, minus Ralph Rebandt (Fi
The blood is still being mopped up after yet another mass shooting by a troubled weirdo in an American city, and none of the Republican contenders for governor are ready to endorse red-flag laws that might stop future murderous weirdos.
The four remaining GOP gubernatorial candidates (Photo: WOOD-TV)
That's one of several takeaways from the latest debate between the four leading candidates for the nomination Wednesday night in Grand Rapids. (Oakland County pastor Ralph Rebandt, barely registering in polls, was left out.) Among the others: That fraud was present in the 2020 election; that tax cuts, some severe, are necessary; that Donald Trump still has their loyalty; and that abortion should be illegal in Michigan.
Kalamazoo chiropractor Garrett Soldano, Oakland County businessman Kevin Rinke, Norton Shores businesswoman Tudor Dixon and Ottawa County real estate agent Ryan Kelley all said that people, not access to guns, are the problem, and government needs to do more to address mental health issues without implementing new "red flag" laws that would take guns away from mentally ill people.
... "We don't want to bring solutions to the table that don't actually fix the problem," said Dixon, who noted that Illinois already has a "red flag" law and that police had already visited the home of the suspected Highland Park shooter and removed knives after threats he made earlier.
None made specific recommendations on how mental health might be better addressed in Michigan, and Rinke has made elimination of the state's 4.25 percent personal income tax, to be accomplished via executive order on his first day in office, the cornerstone of his platform. That would drain $13.2 billion from the 2023 fiscal-year calculations. Soldano has also said he would end the income tax.
But like Kelley, the candidates lacked specifics on what spending they would cut. Soldano said he would subject the state budget to "forensic accounting," but has not specified what cuts he would make, other than making significant cuts to spending on higher education.
The full debate is below:
