Candidate of the Day: Jack Hoogendyk
Jack Hoogendyk a Republican from Michigan is the first Candidate that I will review on PB. First, since I am going to start looking at candidates in preparation for the election please understand that I like critiquing my own side most because it is usually more of a challenge.
I should also lay down some ground rules:
1. I am only going to work off of the candidates website- If I do outside research, it won’t be much, and I am not going to fact check anyone. I will leave that for his oppenants. The point is to look at the message that the candidate wants deliver about themselves and if that is an effective message.
2. A good review doesn’t constitute an endorsement and a bad review doesn’t rule out an endorsement.
3. I will talk this through as I do it………………….. punditry on the fly.
4. I will also make this as open as possible, providing links to the candidate website and providing a link to the RSS that I constructed.
Jack Hoogendyk (R-MI)
First impressions are important and Jack currently fails to make a good one on his website. His picture on the home page (standard candidate fare) is horrible. He looks emaciated, feminine, and introverted all of which are words that I would not want
affiliated with my campaign.
However, the second impression from the home is amazing! He has one of the best websites among all of the candidates running for US Senate. He has a photo feed and a blog. I would venture to guess that many Senators might still be in the dark regarding blogs.
Jack is a member of the State Legislature in Michigan, and my guess is that is where he will stay, but it not for a lack of determination of guts. He is going up against a democratic powerhouse in Sen. Carl Levin….who partisan as he might be, is well respected and a tenured member of the ol’ boy network in the US Senate.
Moving on through the Hoogendyk website it doesn’t really improve things, but honestly he lost me with first picture. Looks aren’t important but eye contact, or at least audience engagement is. I am sure that Mr. Hoogendyk is engaged in listening to a question from a concerned constituent in the picture, but since it isn’t obvious who cares.
On the issues page, Jack does something great, he supplies his policy talking points. They are simple comprehensive and to the point. Here are a couple of his views on issues:
Taxes
• I support making current tax cuts permanent. Taxes are too high.
• Corporate tax rates need to be lowered to provide more incentive for corporations at home and abroad to invest in the United States.
• I support the permanent elimination of the death tax.National Debt and Deficit Spending
• Since taking office in 1978 Carl Levin has only contributed to the National Debt increasing from $800 billion to almost $10 trillion. This must stop. We need to pay down the National Debt until it reaches zero.
• I am opposed to deficit spending. The federal budget should be balanced every year. Carl Levin was the deciding NO vote in the Senate when the balanced budget amendment came up for a vote.
The problem though is that the text is so small on his site that it is almost illegible (yes I am getting older, but not that old). Also, after visiting his front page the issues page is just bland. It is easy to use the same template from page to page, so this is a confusing problem. Why mention something so pesky or unimportant. He spent money to have the front page and didn’t spend as much on the rest. Either it is a lack of attention to detail, lack of caring, or over confidence and again none of those qualities are something that I would like in a candidate.
Then the rest of the site is a farce! Just email links. What is this….. I want more information. I know there are press releases on the front page, but why not add this to a press page and drop the media email into the footer?
In short, Jack Hoogendyk sounds like a good guy. From his photo feed he looks like a quality family man, and an engaging politician. From his talking points, he sounds like at the very least he has the basics down pat. He is even daring enough to profess some true federalist stances such as support for full state control of education via the abolition of the Department of Education. However, Jack needs a new website, and last but not least he needs to run on his last name and not his first. “Hoogendyk” will set him apart from the crowd. If the candidate reads this he can email me here. He is great, and I would be glad to help him spread the quality message across Michigan.
