Nancy Skinner

Nancy Skinner was a Democratic candidate in the 2008 congressional elections for the 9th Congressional District (map) of Michigan. She was seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-Mich.).

Our Planetary Crisis
Al Gore calls climate change "a planetary crisis." He's right. I urge everyone to watch his video presentation, "An Inconvenient Truth," and decide for themselves.

I also believe this is the greatest moral dilemma we face as humans. Confronted with evidence that we will permanently alter God's green earth, will we choose to do what's right in our time or not? Will we make the right choice so our children and our children's children won't face endless struggle with severe weather events, untold costs and human suffering?

I believe we will.

The bad news is that time is running out. Scientists now say we have a 10-year window to turn it around. Just recently, scientists reported alarming melting of Greenland's ice sheets - far worse than their earlier predictions.

The good news is that if we know how to solve this, and if we boldly embrace innovation and new technology, it will prove to be the biggest boon in our economic history. In Michigan, our auto industry could lead that economic resurgence by making a rapid transition to a whole new generation of vehicles such as plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

President Bush has asked for another $190 billion for the war in Iraq, bringing this disastrous war's costs to nearly $1 trillion. Even Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has said the war in Iraq was about oil. If our national security depends on reducing our oil dependence, then $20 billion should be allocated to help our domestic automakers make the transition to advanced technology and free us from the need to fight wars for oil.

Michigan can lead the way to energy security and reduce carbon emissions that threaten our climate. And it will mean jobs for our hometown industry when we need them most!

Ostrich-like approaches will not save us. We need leaders with the courage to act.

The War in Iraq
This photo of a soldier holding an orphaned baby was on the front page of the New York Times in the days after our invasion of Iraq. It's worth far more than 1,000 words.

The devastation wrought by this tragic war is immeasurable. In the loss of our young men and women in the military, innocent Iraqi civilians, and nearly $1 trillion in resources that could have gone toward making our country safer, stronger and less dependent on the oil resources in the Persian Gulf. Yet President Bush has asked and will receive another $190 billion for this war - that's $792 million a day, or $500,000 every minute.

We now know that Bush's case for the invasion of Iraq was built on falsehoods. Too many who knew better before the war began were afraid to speak up and ask the tough questions that our founding fathers had hoped a congress would demand of the executive.

Now, once again, too many Democrats seem unable to do what's right, for fear of being perceived as being "against the troops." That hundreds or thousands more will die in the interim is inconceivable.

The Iraq experiment in nation building has failed. An incompetent Iraqi government cannot bring an end to the civil war among the religious sects. They will not agree on oil-sharing arrangements, and women have suffered a tremendous setback in many regions. Now the US is arming all sides--the national government and Sunni militias. Corruption is rampant - billions have been squandered and the Iraqi government has reportedly taken no action to root out corruption.

Iran has been the big winner in our war with Iraq. Bin Laden remains at large and Afghanistan has been reoccupied by terrorists and the world's lead producer of heroin, which funds, in part, Al Qaeda.

Our troops have done their job. It's time we do ours. We must begin immediately to bring them home safely and rebuild our devastated military.

Democrats must lead with courage to do what we know we must.

The Economy
It's not news to us that Michigan is hurting, but it seems to be news to the rest of the country.

The loss of manufacturing jobs and the decline of the auto industry in the face of competition have hit us hard. I do believe we must start by changing the conversation and believing in a brighter future. Wall Street analysts will tell you that market psychology is a key determinant of performance, yet in Michigan, it seems that pessimism is the currency we exchange on a daily basis.

And, of course, we need big, bold ideas to help turn this economy around.

1. American Automotive Compact.

Reducing our oil dependence is paramount to our national security, yet the federal government has not devoted any significant resources to helping American automakers finance the retooling of production facilities for the next generation of technology, such as plug-in and fuel cell vehicles, nor the infrastructure at filling stations to accommodate them. It will require a multi-billion-dollar effort to do that. As your congresswoman, I will make the case for an American Automotive Compact: That there is no national security strategy that makes sense if we aren't drastically reducing our dependence on a volatile resource controlled mostly by hostile nations. If $20 billion of the trillion dollars that we spent in Iraq were devoted to new automotive technology, the world would be a far different place and Michigan's economy would not be what it is today.

2. A New Trade Policy Based on New Reality.

Free Trade in theory is a good thing. But the reality is much different than envisioned by economist David Ricardo, in his case for trade that so much of the modern system is built on. There is a way, however, to fix the WTO and GAATT policies so all nations are held accountable, and to change the current "race to the bottom" system into one that is a "race to the top." This new system rewards countries that pay living wages, reducing the "great sucking sound" of jobs from America and helping people in the developing world lead lives of dignity.

3. Entrepreneurial Revolution.

In addition to enlightened trade policy, we have to create jobs here faster than we ship them to China. I believe we need to be much more aggressive in helping invest and promote industries that will be key to solving our nation's and humanity's coming challenges.

Alternative energy, water desalination, nanotechnology, life sciences, modern mass transportation, etc.

The market has tremendous ability to find the innovations that will help us in these turbulent times ahead, but, as in Germany and Japan, the government can play an enlightened role in priming the pump and helping new and existing businesses develop expertise and market share.

Michigan is 49th out of 50 in all federal procurements. I will focus like a laser beam to help Michigan be the "Answer State" and to use our vast wealth of scientific and engineering talent to grow our economy.

Bio
Nancy is a native of Royal Oak, Michigan, where she grew up as the youngest of six children. She attended the University of Michigan Business School and graduated with a BBA with an emphasis in finance and accounting.

While working as a litigation consultant at Peterson & Company in downtown Detroit, Nancy was assigned to projects in Chicago, where she discovered Second City, the nation's premier improv comedy theatre. Nancy felt Detroit needed landmarks such as Second City and persuaded Detroit businessman Mike Ilitch to pursue it as part of the theatre district renovation. Nancy went to work for the Ilitches, helping to renovate the Fox Theatre and relocate the Little Caesar International (LCI) corporate headquarters to the Fox Office Building. Nancy also worked in the area of urban redevelopment, serving on the Grand Circus Park Redevelopment Board and helping plan for the theatre district's future. The area has since enjoyed a grand renaissance, with Comerica Park, Ford Field, hotels, restaurants and residential development.

After relocating to Chicago, Nancy decided to use her business skills to promote environmentally sustainable development. Following the great Midwestern floods of 1993, Nancy, acting as a concerned private citizen, persuaded the White House to assemble a team consisting of people from 10 federal agencies and the nation's leading environmental architects and engineers to rebuild two entire towns (Valmeyer, IL and Pattonsburg, MO) away from the floodplain using the principles of sustainable development. Two years and two model communities later, the effort was honored with an award from President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, presented by Vice President Al Gore.

Nancy helped launch the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the first voluntary emissions trading program to address global climate change using free market principles. The exchange has gained commitments from some of the nation's largest corporations. Knowing that a good economy and a clean environment go hand in hand, Nancy advanced numerous projects to leapfrog technologies like fuel cells and alternative energy in the US and abroad.

She also realized that getting the progressive message onto the airwaves was imperative and began co-hosting a weekend radio show called the Ski & Skinner program on WLS in Chicago from the summer of 1998 until the summer of 2003. As a very rare progressive host on talk radio, Nancy was able to break through the 24/7 barrage of right-wing talk with a highly rated program. Nancy went national in 2000 as co-host of a nationally syndicated morning show heard on over 400 affiliates throughout America.

Since 1999, Nancy has been appearing regularly as a commentator on the cable news stations CNN, MSNBC and the Fox News Channel. Programs include The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, Neil Cavuto on Business, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Geraldo, Buchanan & Press and the Wolf Blitzer Report. Nancy has also guest-hosted numerous times for Alan Colmes and Bill Press on Buchanan & Press.

It was two listeners to Nancy Skinner's program, Anita and Shelly Drobny, who said "we need more Nancy Skinners on the radio." They went on to found Air America Radio, featuring Al Franken and other progressive radio hosts. At the time, Nancy had made another commitment to take the progressive message to the next level: a run for an open US Senate seat in Illinois. Nancy "lost the primary race well," as they say, to presidential hopeful, Senator Barak Obama. She then happily returned home to host the morning drive program, Nancy Skinner AM, on 1310 AM, Detroit's Progressive Talk.

Nancy listened to and talked with metro Detroiters for three hours each morning about the important issues locally and nationally before deciding to run against incumbent Congressman Joe Knollenberg in November 2006. Even being outspent 7 to 1, Nancy almost forced a huge upset, narrowly losing that race, 47% to 51%.

Following her near-win in 2006, Nancy served as chief of staff for Michigan's First Gentleman, Dan Mulhern. She left that post to start another run for Congress and also started her own environmental consulting firm, Skinner Communications.

2008 elections
Skinner was seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-Mich.) in the 2008 congressional elections.

Committees
Skinner will be assigned committees if and when she is elected to Congress.

Contact

 * "Skinner for Congress" Official Nancy Skinner for Congress Website.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * 2008 U.S. congressional elections
 * 2008 U.S. congressional election dates
 * Portal:Michigan and the U.S. Congress

External resources

 * 2008 Race Tracker page on Michigan’s 9th Congressional District
 * "Skinner for Congress" Official Nancy Skinner for Congress Website.