Michigan’s 9th Congressional District Republican challenger Andrew (Rocky) Raczkowski fended off questions about his criticisms of what he called “Obamacare” and threw barbs at his opponent, Congressman Gary Peters (D-MI 9th).
The October 18 stop at Seaholm left students divided.
“I just thought that he was aggressive, immature and rude,” junior Kristen Thut said.
Raczkowski spent most of his visit fielding questions from government and Flex students, discussing everything from healthcare to the recent ad campaigns by Peters.
The advertisements in question accused Raczkowski of wanting to raise taxes by 23 percent, something senior Megan Smith asked Raczkowski to clarify.
“I told [Peters] to his face he’s a boldfaced liar,” Raczkowski said. “I don’t want to raise taxes by 23 percent. I don’t want to raise taxes at all. I want to lower taxes.”
Raczkowski, who was invited to come by the AP Government department, made a point of being casual. He chose not to use a microphone and joked with the students, which Smith said made his visit more interesting.
“Rocky made it very personable, very exciting, very engaging,” Smith said. Raczkowski stressed the importance of bringing jobs back to Michigan, a topic especially important to students.
“When you leave college, you’re going to look for a job, right?” Raczkowski said. “Today your chances of graduating college and getting a job is 1 out 6...that’s not good enough.”
A graduate of Farmington Hills Harrison, Raczkowski said that he’ll go to lengths to bring jobs back to his home state.
“Nobody wants to come here to bring business back to Michigan,” Raczkowski said. “As someone that grew up here, as someone who loves this part of our state, I will do everything possible to be a cheerleader to bring business back.”
At one point, junior Sam Katskee questioned Raczkowski’s stance on healthcare.
“He called on me, so I stood up and I told him what was on his website and I told him … the facts that I thought [were contradictory],” Katskee said. “I had a bad feeling that he was going to stop me because I was going to say too much.”
Instead of stopping him, though, Raczkowski invited Katskee to join him at the front of the auditorium for a healthcare debate.
“He really defended what was on his website and I thought he did a great job of it,” Katskee said. “I really still don’t agree at all with his healthcare policies, I think they’re all wrong, but I think he did a good job of clearing [everything] up.”
A number of students asked Raczkowski how he planned to help Michigan school districts. According to Raczkowski, more should be done to ensure that funds are given to the schools themselves instead of the administration.
“I’m a strong advocate for eliminating the federal Department of Education and sending all of that money back to the states for schools and for classrooms,” Raczkowski said.
Raczkowski also detailed how his 24 years in the military have had a significant impact on him.
“I came back home because I saw what we were doing overseas and I wasn’t too proud or too happy,” Raczkowski said. “War is evil. War is bad. People die.”
The main problem with warfare, Raczkowski said, is the military’s current rules of engagement.
“The rules of engagement are flawed right now because our soldiers’ hands are handcuffed,” Raczkowski said. “And I will stand before you and say this: as a congressperson, I believe you need to fight the war to win, or, my position is, lift the rules of engagement, or bring the soldiers home tomorrow and end the war completely.
Seaholm Flex teacher Robin Moten praised the visits, adding that she was particularly impressed with the students’ participation.
“I think that Seaholm got a real opportunity, a really great opportunity, to hear these two candidates,” Moten said. “I thought the Seaholm students, the questions they asked, were really, really good, really impressive. I’m glad that they did that. It’s not a rare occurrence, but it’s not done very much. People don’t respect high school students to that extent.”
Still, Moten added, the candidates didn’t do much to explain what they plan on doing.
“As far as really understanding what he’s going to do to help transform Michigan and take Michigan in a new direction, I didn’t get that from either Peters nor Raczkowski,” Moten said.
In an interview after the visit, Raczkowski said that he is going to schools in order to increase students’ political knowledge.
“It’s extremely important,” Raczkowski said. “Because you are the future; we are the future.”
