Michigan
District 3
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R)
Michigan 3rd District
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R)
Grand Rapids is Michigan’s second-largest city, the center of its most prosperous and confident metropolitan area. The city’s roots are in trees: It grew as a center for processing and turning into furniture the hardwood forests of northern Michigan. By the early 20th century, Grand Rapids was the leading furniture manufacturer in the nation. The Depression knocked the bottom out of the residential furniture market, and many manufacturers moved to North Carolina, where labor was cheaper. So Grand Rapids had to reinvent itself, and did. It went into office furniture, and today three of the nation’s largest office furniture manufacturers—Steelcase, Haworth, and Herman Miller—are located here or nearby. It capitalized also on a knack for sales. Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel started Amway, the direct-sales empire, which now has half of its sales abroad, and Frederik and Hendrik Meijer started Meijer’s Thrifty Acres, combining supermarkets with discount stores in a way that even Wal-Mart has not been able to equal. Grand Rapids is also the center of a machine-tool empire; the home of Wolverine World Wide, maker of Hush Puppies shoes; and the headquarters of Bissell and its carpet sweepers. Fifty years ago Grand Rapids and its up-and-coming businesses were outshined by Detroit and the auto industry. Today, while Detroit’s Big Three flirt with bankruptcy, Grand Rapids chugs along, although General Motor’s financial troubles in 2009 led to the closure of a 900-employee stamping factory in the city.
2008 Presidential Vote |
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| McCain | 171,255 | (49%) |
| Obama | 169,183 | (49%) |
| Cook Partisan Voting Index R+ 6 | ||
One ingredient in Grand Rapids’ success is its unique ethnic mix. It was founded by New England Yankees, but much of its character was set by the Dutch immigrants who began arriving in western Michigan in the 1870s, and are still coming today; 14% of people here claim Dutch ancestry (probably no other American city has such a high proportion of “V” pages in the phone book). The Dutch brought with them a piety witnessed in their Reform and Christian Reform churches, and a culture of hard work and precision craftsmanship. Their cultural conservatism and belief in market economics run deep. Dutch tradition and entrepreneurial success have been the ingredients of a civic activism that has given Grand Rapids a host of creative civic institutions—and an Alexander Calder stabile—that are the match of any city in the country. Grand Rapids’ downtown has been thick with construction cranes. In 2007 the city opened the first certified “green” museum in the world, the new Grand Rapids Art Museum, with triple the space of the old, as well as a new hotel and medical buildings. Years ago Grand Rapids commissioned an Alexander Calder sculpture for the plaza outside its city hall, and now it has others by Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, and Maya Lin. Other draws for outsiders are the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum and the outdoor Meijer Gardens.
Politically, Grand Rapids has been the center of Michigan Republicanism for much of the last century. It has also produced national Republican leaders. Arthur Vandenberg, originally a newspaper editor, was a U.S. senator from 1928 to 1951; once an isolationist, he provided key support for the bipartisan internationalist foreign policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Another was Gerald Ford, who rose to House Republican leader in 1965, vice president in 1973, and then president after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. The 3rd Congressional District of Michigan includes Grand Rapids and almost all of Kent County, plus Ionia and Barry counties to the east and south. Although it is one of the two most Republican districts in Michigan, it voted only narrowly for Republican nominee John McCain in 2008. He won the 3rd with 49.4% of the vote to Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s 48.8%.
Michigan District 3
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R)
Elected: Dec. 1993, 8th full term.
Born: Feb. 6, 1934, Pipestone, MN .
Home: Grand Rapids.
Education: Calvin Col., 1952-55; U. of CA, A.B. 1956, Ph.D. 1960, U. of Heidelberg, Germany, 1961-62.
Religion: Christian Reformed.
Family: Married (Johanna); 4 children.
Elected office: Kent Cnty. comm., 1974–82, Chmn., 1978–81; MI House of Reps., 1982–86; MI Senate, 1986–93, Pres. pro tem, 1990–93.
Professional Career: Prof., Calvin Col., 1966–82.
The congressman from the 3rd District is Republican Vernon Ehlers, the winner of a December 1993 special election. Ehlers grew up in small-town Minnesota, the son of a Christian Reform minister. He attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, got a Ph.D. in physics at the University of California at Berkeley, and then returned to Calvin to teach for 17 years. In 1974, concerned about local waste management, he was elected Kent County commissioner. In 1982, he won a seat in the state House, and in 1986, the state Senate. After Republican Rep. Paul Henry died in July 1993, Ehlers ran to succeed him. He won the November primary with 33% of the vote, and a month later easily defeated the Democrat 67%-23%.
| Election Results: | ||||
| 2008 General | ||||
| Vernon Ehlers (R) | 203,799 | (61%) | ($319,953) | |
| Henry Sanchez (D) | 117,961 | (35%) | ($4,209) | |
| Erwin Haas (Lib) | 11,758 | (4%) | ||
| 2008 Primary | ||||
| Vernon Ehlers (R) | Unopposed | |||
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Prior Winning Percentages: 2006 (63%), 2004 (67%), 2002 (70%), 2000 (65%), 1998 (73%), 1996 (69%), 1994 (74%), 1993 (67%) |
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Ehlers brought to House Republicans, then entering their 40th year in the minority, a majority mindset. That brought him to the attention of Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who as speaker named him to his transition team after the historic 1994 election gave control of the chamber to the GOP. He assigned Ehlers, the first research physicist in Congress, to lead efforts to revamp the House’s computer system (there were 11 different e-mail systems). In 1995 Ehlers responded with a system making available vote tallies, public-hearing transcripts, and texts of amendments and bills, plus the Thomas Library of Congress website. He was responsible for convincing the House to migrate from onetime market leader Lotus Notes to the now ubiquitous Microsoft e-mail program.
His religious faith and scientific training have left Ehlers with a middle-of-the-House voting record. Ehlers often insists on research to determine public needs. In 2004 he passed an amendment to the transportation bill pegging future research at 1% of total spending. In 2007 he got the House to add $16 million to improve the training of math and science teachers, though President Bush vetoed the spending bill. When controversy arose over the composition of National Academy of Sciences advisory panels, he said, “A single, guiding principle should be applied—select the most qualified person for the job.” But he added that on presidential appointments, “it is important that the scientists be in tune with the philosophy of the appointing president.” A self-described nerd in high school, Ehlers is fond of telling high school groups: “They shouldn’t look down on nerds because if they are not a nerd, they are going to end up working for one.”
Ehlers chaired the Science subcommittee overseeing the Environmental Protection Agency and oceans programs until Republicans lost the majority in 2007. He sponsored several laws that won widespread backing, including one to study invasive species and another for a $9 million electric barrier in the Illinois River to prevent Asian carp from getting into the Great Lakes. He has continued to press with some success for more spending to solve Great Lakes problems. In 2008, he proposed a compact of eight Great Lakes states to prevent water diversions and the same year got committee approval for $775 million to restore contaminated areas of the lakes.
Ehlers was one of the Republicans who voted to repeal the section of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Bush administration’s antiterrorism law, allowing agents access to library records. He also has been one of the House Republicans to oppose oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to force the Republican leadership to remove the issue from must-pass appropriation bills.
He is the former chairman of the House Administration Committee, which handles the managerial issues of running the House of Representatives as well as issues related to the conduct of elections. He led the debate on the bill to require photo IDs for voting, which passed in 2006. Ehlers has a penchant for compromise. As head of a three-member task force on California Republican Rep. Robert Dornan’s challenge to his 984-vote defeat in 1996, Ehlers said there was evidence of vote fraud but not enough to vacate the seat.
Ehlers refuses to take more than 30% of his campaign money from outside the district and has been re-elected by wide margins.
