10/23/2006

'Long shot' faces the would-be Senate leader

BY BRIAN MCGILLIVARY

bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

Unger

Allen

TRAVERSE CITY — Sharon Unger isn't trying to kid anyone.

The first-time candidate and Democrat from Torch Lake knows she's an underdog to unseat Republican state Sen. Jason Allen of Traverse City in the 37th Senate District on Nov. 7.

"But I think people are very disgruntled with government right now and they are looking for new people with new ideas to fix problems," the Antrim County resident said. "Sometimes, long shots win."

Allen, 43, is seeking his second and final four-year term in the Senate, where he hopes to succeed Ken Sikkema as Senate Majority Leader. He also served two terms in the state House and is one of the top fundraisers in the state Legislature.

Unger, 55, is a retired state social worker with 10 years of experience working in child protective services.

Political pundits consider him a safe bet for re-election, but Allen said he's not taking the race lightly.

"We're out there working the district hard every day," he said.

Unger said she's speaking to two or three groups a day and Allen usually is there, too, as they crisscross a district that stretches from Traverse City to Sault Ste. Marie and east to Rogers City. Both agree the top issue among voters is a lack of jobs in Michigan.

Unger said she supports efforts to bring more high-tech businesses into Michigan, but said the problem is that there's too much focus in Lansing on attracting businesses to southern Michigan.

"You need to be the squeaky wheel in Lansing, to tell people we exist up here and we too can support high-tech business," Unger said.

Allen said he will continue to work on economic programs to provide financial incentives to attract the next generation of business to locate in Michigan. He also said Michigan needs to keep university-developed technology in the state, as well as graduates in math and science.

"Only 20 percent of the patents developed by our universities are staying in Michigan, and half our graduate students in math and science are foreign-born," he said.

Allen said a key is to create larger pools of investment capital in Michigan for high-tech start-up businesses.

One of the greatest challenges facing the election winner is the replacement of Michigan's single business tax.

Both candidates oppose the current tax but are vague on what should replace it.

Allen said the question requires significant study.

Unger said the SBT needs to be very close to fully replaced through a new, but fairer, business tax.

On state ballot questions, both support allowing dove hunting and are against the proposed constitutional amendment to ban affirmative action programs.

"Affirmative action laws need to be tweaked a little bit, but to eliminate it entirely will throw us back four decades," Unger said.

The candidates differ on Proposal 5, which guarantees annual funding increases equal to the rate of inflation for public schools and universities.

"I'm afraid if Proposal 5 doesn't pass and we have a continuing Republican-controlled Legislature, funding for education will be cut again," Unger said. "We've just instituted higher graduation requirements and to train more people for high-tech and computer jobs is going to require more funding."

Allen said one of his goals, if re-elected, will be to help close the funding gap from the bottom up between schools. But he opposes Proposal 5 because he said there already are too many restrictions on how the state spends taxpayer dollars.

"That's the responsibility of the Legislature," he said.