school districts should be consolidat-
ed into larger districts throughout the
state in order to save money on build-
ings, buses and other costs," she said.
Meyer feels name recognition real-
ly will not be a factor in the race,
and said "it's time for a change,"
chiding previous state representatives
in the district. She said: "One was
an accountant who couldn't get the
job done with figures and the cur-
rent one is a lawyer who apparently
can't get the proper laws passed —
so let's try a teacher."
She believes health care should be
provided to elderly people with no
insurance on a sliding scale, explain-
ing, "They would pay what they can
afford, then the state would cover
the rest of the bill." -
On local issues, Meyer wants to
maintain stringent zoning laws to
help prevent builders from trying to
get around the laws by suing to get
the property rezoned. "We have to
stop overbuilding on small lots —
the so-called 'big-foot' lots," she
said, "and we must go all out to pro-
tect our wetlands."
- She favors term limits, but says
the state House term should be
changed from three two-year terms
to two four-year terms.

Meyer, in her
50s, is a
teacher and
has lived in
West
Bloomfield for
30 years. She
and her hus-
band,
Thomas, who
is retired,
have two
adult chil-
Meyer
dren. She
graduated
from Detroit's Cass' Tech High School
and Wayne State University with a
bachelor of arts degree in education
and an English major. She belongs to
the Lincoln Republican Club and
Sierra Club and served on the Greater
West Bloomfield Museum Board of
Directors. She declined to give her
church affiliation, saying "religion

should brleft out of politics."

Debbie Squires

Squires asserts that she's "naive
enough to think I can make a differ-
ence in politics and experienced
enough to know that I can."
In her bid to win the 39th District
GOP nomination, she says she's
already gone door-to-door to all
12,000 homes in the district — then
started over to visit some of them
again. In her job as an Internet jour-
nalist; she spends about 20 hours a
week on the computer, surfing the
Internet for news of interest to
clients. "I think voters will look past
the name recognition thing and
check my proven record," she said.
"I'm running on my own experience
and qualifications. Being related to
someone already elected to office is
not always the best thing."
Squires is a strong advocate of
education, having served nine years
in various capacities on the Huron
Valley school board, which covers
the communities of Commerce,
Milford, Highland and White Lake
Township. "During that time, I've
been setting budgets and working on
employee-related issues and all
aspects of the school district busi-
ness," she said, "-including interac-
tion with lawmakers in Lansing and
Washington, D.C. In our district,
we've increased student achievement
and raised MEAP scores while cut-
ting costs. We must keep money
from being drained out of the school
aid funds.
"We have to protect Social
Security — not just talk about it,"
Squires declared. The government
keeps taking money from the Social
Security fund, and we need to act to
protect our seniors' retirement
income." She said "there are no
short-term solutions to rising health
care costs; we need long-term poli-
cies to cut prescription costs." .
She classifies the task of creating
jobs as being "job one," saying
Michigan is "far behind the U.S.
recovery process" in new jobs. Its
not a partisan issue; we all have to
work together to create jobs."
Squires said the term-limit rule

"

implemented on the state Legislature
has proven not to be exactly what
the politicians thought, possibly too
restrictive, but "we have to under-
stand that it will inject new blood
into the Legislature and prevent
career politicians." •

Squires, 46,
is a self-
employed
Internet jour-
nalist, heti
been married
to Rick
Squires, a
Ford engineer,
for 26 years,
and has three
children, ages
18 21. She
Squires
has lived in
Commerce for
16 years. She was born in Georgia,
moved to the area at age 3, and grad-
uated from Harrison High School in
Farmington Hills and Lawrence
Institute of Technology in Southfield
with a business degree. She's president
of the Oakland County Schools Boards
Association and vice president of the
Michigan Parents Teachers Students
Association. She belongs to the
Commerce United Methodist Church,
Women Officials Network and the
Huron Valley Optimist Club.

-

Michael Alan Schwartz

Running unopposed in the 39th
District State House Democratic
primary, Schwartz is Jewish and a
former New Yorker, who got an
early taste of the sometimes rough-
and-tumble legal business when he
watched the defendant in a murder
case pick up a table, throw it at the
judge, then try to strangle his attor-
ney. Schwartz formerly worked for
the Southfield law firm of Fieger,
Fieger, Kenney and Johnson and
now has his own Farmington Hills
law firm.
"I've been a lawyer for 35 years,
and I feel I have more real legal
experience than any of the other
people running (two GOP candi-
dates are lawyers,)" said Schwartz,

who also served a four-year term on
the West Bloomfield Board of
Trustees (1992-1996), but wasn't re-
elected. "I know how laws are made
and implemented, what laws are
constitutional and what laws are
needed to be in tune with our com-
munity's needs. I continue to serve
on the West Bloomfield Wetlands
Board. I'm extremely environmental-
ly conscious."
Schwrtz decried the high costs of
state Medicaid, and.. said "we must
reduce the state budget by cutting
prescription costs, mainly by using
bulk purchasing of prescriptions, in
order to provide better health care
for the elderly.
He blasted the Republicans for
making a mess in the state
Legislature," and added, "I hope to
help return this country to the pros-
perity of the years under President
Bill Clinton, when people had jobs
and were well off financially."

"

Schwartz,
56, is a part-
ner in thi
law firm of
Schwartz,
Kelly and
Oltarz-
Schwartz
(Sara Oltarz-
Schwartz is
his wife).
They have
two sons,
Schwartz
been mar-
ried for 30
years, and have lived in West
Bloomfield for 22 years. Born in
Brooklyn, he graduated from Long
Island University with a bachelor of
arts degree in political science and
from the Fordham University Law
School in New York. After working in
the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office,
and being a New York substitute
teacher, he came to Michigan in 1979
to take the job of administrator of the
Michigan Attorney Grievance
Commission. He later worked 10 years
with the Fieger law firm. The family
belongs to Temple Israel. 111

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2004

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