STATE REPRESENTATIVE: MATT GILLARD (D-ALPENA)

Matt Gillard's been a busy boy this year.  The third-term Representative (he was first elected in 2002) hasn't had this much going on since he left his fancy law practice five years ago.  The sad thing is, any benefit normal folks might have reaped from having one less liberal lawyer practicing in Michigan he went and erased this term by pursuing some of the most radical, far-left policy objectives ever seen in the Great Lakes State.

Which may come as a surprise to the largely socially conservative voters of Michigan's rural 106th District, not that it should.  After all, most men will tell you their bad intentions if you listen close enough.  Gillard practically screamed DANGER, RADICAL LEFTY, DANGER.  His endorsement list includes the abortion mills at NOW and Planned Parenthood, the gay-special-rights outfit the Triangle Pride PAC and of special concern to his rural district, The Sierra Club.

Sort of a who's who of extreme liberal special interest groups.  But the old-union Democrat base district that overwhelmingly supported Terri Lynn Land and Mike Cox and, outside of Alpena County gave only a narrow defeat to Dick DeVos in last year's governor's race returned their favorite son (an Alpena native) to Lansing.  And now, sadly, we're all paying for it.

Looking at the year Gillard's had, though, we're lucky to only be paying $1.4 billion more.  It could be much worse.

The Democrat got started early, taking a little junket with Speaker Andy Dillon and Tim Melton this past March out to California wine country on a wine tasting trip paid for entirely by Apple.  Not "apples," Apple, the computer company... makers of... drumroll please... the iPod!

Not coincidentally (unless you're wearing your blue-colored Dem sunglasses) Gillard returned to Michigan with a plan.  Or a vision.  Or a goal.  Or, well, he never was quite sure, but according to the Associated Press it went something like this:

Rep. Matt Gillard, a Democrat from Alpena and chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing K-12 school budgets, said some money should be spent on iPods because they can help students learn.

"We want this in the hands of every student in the state of Michigan," Gillard said.  (As he held an iPod to show reporters.)

The pricetag on Gillard's little suggestion, $36 million.  $36 million that the state didn't have and $36 million that would have gone directly to, you guessed it, Apple.  

Of course, Gillard wasn't too popular inside his own caucus after they realized what a public relations snafu they'd made collectively, with everyone from Tim Melton to Andy Dillon to Rick Johnson to Terry Brown to you name it tossing him squarely under the bus, questioning his integrity or his competency or both.

But c'mon, what's the point of being a state Rep if you can't take care of your friends like the great guys at Apple?  Or like your old partners at the law firm back home!  Gotta toss them a bone too, and Gillard did, in the form of the Trial Lawyer Enhancement Act and a tidy little bill making it retroactive so that ambulance chasers could run Michigan's life science companies right out of the state.

Toss in a February vote to raise taxes as a part of a proposed FY 2006 budget fix (a Democrat effort that the Senate Republicans managed to kill) and Gillard was having a busy first couple of months.

 The next few took a turn down a less public but just as discouraging path.  After becoming a persona non grata with the caucus wherever a camera might be present the Governor called on Mr. Gillard and gave him a new task, that of leg breaker, enforcer and chief goon.  The good Representative set off with his marching orders and began threatening individual Republicans, telling them that the Democrat majority would close the schools in their districts, putting kids on the street, if they didn't go along with a massive tax hike.

Of course, that backfired when folks like Brian Palmer and others told Gillard where to go, what do with his threats and outed him to the Lansing Press Corp.  Suddenly he was back in the spotlight, trying desperately to defend the liberal line and failing at every turn.

That was that as far as the bosses in the caucus and the Governor's office were concerned.  They pulled in the reigns and Gillard went silent for months.  Unfortunately he was just saving the best for last.

In the dead of night at the end of September Matt Gillard emerged from his cloister and in one fell swoop managed to do more damage to Michigan's economy than he'd done in his first four years in office, voting YES on a nearly $800 million income tax hike.  Voting YES on a $613 + million sales tax hike.  Voting NO on common sense MESSA reform that put $400 million into the classroom every year at ZERO added expense to the taxpayers.

Just goes to prove, you get what the liberal special interests pay for.  The only question at this point is whether or not the voters of the 106th District have buyers' remorse.