As national attention has become focused on the struggle by Holland residents to pass a non-discrimination ordinance, the anti-gay Family Research Council’s political arm rolled its “Values Voter’s Bus” into west Michigan Monday.

The Grand Rapids Press reports the bus stopped in Holland Monday morning. There the bus was met by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra, U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, and Jay Riemersma, Regional Director of Development for the Family Research Council.

“These conservative leaders will discuss what must be done to promote the vital issues of the sanctity of human life, marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and religious liberty,” according to a news release issued by FRC Action, sponsor of the national bus tour.

The bus will also visit a party for Ottawa County Patriots, a Tea Party group, on Tuesday evening.

This comes as National Public Radio ran a story over the weekend focused on the battle in Holland over a comprehensive human rights ordinance. The council earlier this year rejected the ordinance.

Pete Hoekstra’s political conundrum was crystallized earlier this month when he brought in Iowa Rep. Steve King to stump for him. It was a signal to wary conservatives that he’s one of them. But as The Macomb Daily opined: “It wasn’t an attempt to win over independent voters who aren’t necessarily big fans of incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.” Hoekstra’s $1 million quarter may have put the fundraising demons to bed, but charter school co-founder Clark Durant’s $750,000 total was enough to get the front-runner’s attention.

Who won October: Stabenow

Stabenow outraised Hoekstra in October, $1.2 million to $1 million, and she currently has about $5 million on hand for the campaign. Hoekstra is facing several primary opponents, the strongest of which is likely to be Clark Durant, a charter schools advocate with the backing of several high-profile Michigan Republicans. But the early primary polling shows Hoekstra with a massive lead with more than half the vote and Durant only at three percent. There has been no polling done yet on a possible Hoekstra/Stabenow race.

The Durant campaign pointed out that Hoekstra had more time to raise funds because he declared his candidacy sooner. Durant and Hoekstra are expected to be the two strongest candidates in the primary, which also features several others.

In the first poll taken in the race, Hoekstra came in at 51 percent, with Durant at three percent and everyone else lagging even further behind.

According to numbers released by Gary Glenn’s campaign, he received 31.85 percent of the vote, compared to front runner and former Congressman Pete Hoekstra’s 23.39 percent and charter school advocate Clark Durant’s 18.07 percent. Northern Michigan resident Peter Konetchy scored a 9.35 percent, former juvenile court judge Randy Hekman got 9.94 percent, while 5.08 percent of those voting had no favorite. Scott Boman rounded out the field with 2.33 percent.

Polling has put Hoekstra at the head of the pack, and he has picked up serious endorsements, including that of Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder and Hoekstra battled in the summer of 2010 for the GOP nomination for governor, with Snyder winning the primary. That made Hoekstra a target during the forum, with Glenn hitting the nine-term Congressman hard out of the gate, while Durant tempered his criticisms of Hoekstra, but still slammed him for voting to bail out Wall Street.

Glenn released the following statement about the win:

“When Tea Party and other grassroots activists learn that Pete Hoekstra voted for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout, to raise the debt ceiling to $11 trillion, for earmarks like the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, for the Brady Bill gun control law, and that his campaigns have been funded by Jimmy Hoffa and Pete has long opposed state and national Right to Work laws, they want an alternative,” Glenn said. “My mission and message of bringing more freedom, more fiscal responsibility, and more jobs to Michigan and America is making a powerful connection.”

The candidates are expected to appear at additional tea party forums across the state in coming months.

Participating in the forum were Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan; Clark Durant, a charter school advocate; former Congressman Pete Hoekstra; former family judge Randy Hekman; Scott Bowman and Peter Konetchy. Two other candidates, Chuck Marino and Rick Wilson, were in attendance, but did not participate in the event as speakers. Marino at one point attempted to challenge Hoekstra, and was promptly ejected from the event altogether.

While the event mostly congenial, both Gary Glenn and Clark Durant took swings at the frontrunner, Hoekstra. But in general all the candidates shared the same ideas on how to fix the economy — “cut, cap, balance,” as Hoekstra said — to the need for a strong national defense. In addition, there was much talk about the debt problem. They also all said the U.S. was going off track and needed to be restored to its Constitutional principles.

There was also a great deal of support for drilling for oil in the U.S., as well as fracking to obtain natural gas.

“Drill now,” said Durant. “We can export our oil and defund our enemies.”

“Drill, baby, drill,” was the refrain from Glenn.

In the context of returning to Constitutional principles, several of the candidates mentioned eliminating federal government departments that were not mandated by the Constitution. Among them were the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy and Education.

“None are constitutional, and can be done by the people,” said Peter Konetchy. He also supports the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In a follow up interview with Konetchy, he acknowledged that some things the EPA does are good.

“There are a lot of things that the EPA does that are good — I’m not going to say they’re not good — but it’s not a federal function. There is nothing in the Constitution that grants the federal government that authority,” said Konetchy. “And it can easily be handled by the states. It can easily be handled by the free markets, you know we have the court system.”

Glenn also supports the elimination of the EPA, in spite of its work in Calhoun county where an estimated one million gallons of tar sands oil spewed into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River in July of 2010.

“Well obviously the EPA didn’t help them get it done,” said Glenn of the Calhoun clean up in Calhoun. “I think our 50 state environmental agencies can do the job.”

During the forum, Durant praised the free market principles behind the controversial Keystone XL project to transport Canadian tar sands oil to the U.S., but later said his words were not a specific endorsement of the project.

“No, but what I like about Keystone is that it started a discussion where you’ve had private investors willing to put their own money at risk,” he said. “The key thing is to make sure that it’s safe. It’s going through a lot of territory. So we need to make sure it’s safe and properly done. But it’s not picking winners and losers. Its people willing to take a risk that America needs more energy to bring down the cost of gasoline. So I think we need to seriously look at it as an alternative to bring down the cost of gasoline for all Americans.”

“I support building a pipeline from Canada down to our refineries,” said Hoekstra of the Keystone XL project. “We’re not going to shut down the tar sands. The Canadians are either going to build a pipeline and provide the United States with oil or they’re going to build a pipeline, probably to Prince Rupert, and put the oil on the world market and ship the oil to China or wherever.”

For Konetchy, Keystone was a no brainer for his support.

“Oh yes, very very much so,” he said. “We need oil. We can’t function without oil. Nothing is 100 percent safe.”

Glenn said he did not have enough information to take a clear stance one way or another.

“Somebody would have to tell me why not,” said Glenn. “If the only objection is that we make mistakes, then I would support it. We have made mistakes throughout the progress of mankind.”

Speaking to reporters at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, Durant referred to the Holland Republican as a “partner” of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the two-term Democratic incumbent they hope to face in 2012…

“I think they have more similarities than people are aware of,” Durant said.

Hoekstra lost the right to call himself a conservative when he voted in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and voted several times to raise the national debt ceiling, Durant told an impromptu press conference on the porch the Grand Hotel.

A poll last week found that Hoekstra had 51 percent support for his candidacy among Republicans, with Durant a distant second at three percent.

“P.S. Michele Bachmann has endorsed my campaign for U.S. Senate in Michigan against Debbie Stabenow. We need your help to take this seat back and restore fiscal sanity in Washington! Harry Reid is pulling out all the stops and holding a fundraiser for Senator Stabenow next week in Las Vegas. Please help us fight back against the special interests who are allowed to contribute as much as $10,000 each to her campaign. Will you donate today?”

In the letter, Hoekstra also quotes Bachmann praising the former congressman.

“Pete’s a great friend with a real vision for helping Michigan to lead the fight against the Obama / Stabenow agenda. Replacing Barack Obama with a Constitutional Conservative is vital, but we also need an overhaul in the U.S. Senate. Pete Hoekstra is a real conservative. He joined me in starting the House Tea Party Caucus, and we need him as Michigan’s next Senator. This is your opportunity to send a strong message to Washington by electing a Senator who will work to restore the freedom that will put Michigan back to work with a pro-growth economy.” Michele Bachmann

Stabenow’s campaign wasted no time in capitalizing on Bachmann’s endorsement of Hoekstra. Annette Rodgers, finance director for Stabenow for Senate campaign sent a fundraising appeal Friday morning, which read in part:

Michele Bachmann wants to be the President, and she wants people like Pete Hoekstra at her side in the Senate. Today, she endorsed him in his campaign to defeat Debbie Stabenow.

In case you missed it, here’s Michele Bachmann’s “jobs package”:

“if we took away the minimum wage — if conceivably it was gone — we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”

At whatever level!

If you think that sounds like a good plan for Michigan’s economy… well, now you know who Michele Bachmann thinks you should vote for.

But if you think that sounds like a disaster for Michigan families, you should think about helping Debbie’s campaign.

Hoekstra is facing Randy Hekman, Gary Glenn, Peter Konetchy and Clark Durant in the primary election.

Hoekstra, a Holland resident who served 18 years in the U.S. House before his unsuccessful run for governor last year, was chosen by 51 percent of likely GOP primary voters, according to the Sept. 14-19 poll of 600 likely voters.
“Pete Hoekstra has more votes that each of his six potential competitors combined,” said MRG President Tom Shields.

Detroit charter school founder Clark Durant was Hoekstra’s closest competitor with 3 percent. Former Kent County Probate Judge Randy Hekman was chosen by 2 percent along with Midland resident Gary Glenn and Detroiter Scotty Boman. Thirty-nine percent of the likely GOP voters were undecided.

This is not surprising. Hoekstra’s name recognition, after being elected to many terms as a congressman and running for governor last year, is far higher than any of the other candidates.

The three Republican politicians heaped praise on Hoekstra.

“Pete Hoekstra and I stood side by side as we reformed welfare, fought government spending, balanced the budget, and implemented pro-growth tax policies,” said Kasich. “I am proud to support him and know that he will make an excellent United States Senator.”

And from Toomey:

“Pete Hoekstra and I served together in Congress and he was one of my best pro-growth allies,” said Toomey. “We need him in the United States Senate so that we can fight together to cut government spending and reduce the debt.”

Hoekstra is drawing a lot of endorsements from Michigan’s GOP mainstream, but Clark Durant has also drawn large endorsements, including former Sen. Spencer Abraham, as well as former Michigan GOP chairs Betsy DeVos and Saul Anuzis. Former Governor John Engler has encouraged Durant to drop out of the race to make way for Hoekstra, who had originally declined to run.