State Representative Eric Leutheuser

Friends in Hillsdale and Branch Counties, I’m pleased to endorse Jen Wortz to be our next State Representative. She’s no nonsense, knows what’s important, and will work to fix what’s broken in Lansing. I hope you’ll join Laura and me in voting for her in Tuesday’s primary.

Thank you again for the opportunity to serve the 58th District for the past six years. It flew by!
I was always humbled by this view coming into the House chamber.
Wishing the best to my successor, Andrew Fink and all the members of the 101st Legislature as they represent you, the people, in these challenging yet hopeful times.

"What's so merry about all this, you ask?"

Some thoughts as we close the year ...

You've probably seen an Exchange Club Freedom Shrine in a school or library. It is a collection of notable documents from our country's history. I was always struck by the one with the 101st Airborne eagle insignia on the letterhead, that starts with "Merry Christmas" and continues with the words above. Written by Commander McAuliffe to his troops on Christmas Eve in 1944, the letter answers the question by first acknowledging the brutal losses inflicted by the N***s in recent fighting. But it continues to recount the German Commander’s demand for surrender, and his American counterpart’s now-famous reply: "Nuts." It closes by reminding the soldiers of how they had persevered through courage, bravery, and will. Victory would be the best Christmas present they could give their loved ones.

During Christmas 2020, it is tempting to ask, "what's merry about all this?" We all know someone who knows someone who has been sickened by COVID-19. We have thousands of neighbors who lost their jobs by government order and are still struggling. Countless restaurants and small businesses have been bankrupted. Students are not being taught face-to-face. Mental health issues have risen and our most vulnerable are the most isolated. Those are the losses inflicted by COVID and our state's response. Do we have the will to answer?

Yes. At the top, an unprecedented private-public effort, coordinated with our military's expertise in logistics and procurement, created vaccines in "warp speed". Great strides in understanding and therapeutics have meant hundreds of thousands have recovered from the illness. And the selfless courage of our front-line matches those who did battle decade ago.

Now, we must engage our state in a smarter way. The legislature actively pushed all year to improve our disastrous nursing home policy, fraud-riddled unemployment system, and arbitrary and harmful policies which needlessly shut down businesses that could operate safely. We insured parents and students had a voice and sped federal aid to where it was most needed. All that work will continue. While my time in office is drawing to a close, it is certain that improving our response to COVID and helping those most affected will be the top legislative priority in the New Year.

I am pleased that during my six years as your representative, we were able to see much good work. We made our state competitive again so people wouldn’t keep moving away. We reformed our broken auto insurance system, moved the state from bankruptcy to a rainy-day balance, put our long-term liabilities on a path to solvency, addressed critical shortfalls in mental health services, targeted increases in school funding to rural and underserved districts, and many more things. Throughout all this, it was the hard-working people of our area and our state, and their faith in a better future, that drove the progress and made the difference. That is, as Commander McAuliffe said, "a Christmas present we can all share".

Thank you again for the opportunity to serve you. It has been an honor. I wish you and yours all the best.

-- Eric Leutheuser

Let us “honor Christmas in (our hearts), and try to keep it all the year”! — Dickens

Private/public/non-profit partnership ...

Thanks to college donation, Hillsdale Hospital will store Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine HILLSDALE, MI (WTVB) - Thanks to help from Hillsdale College, Hillsdale Hospital has been informed by the Mich...

Brighter days ahead!

Awesome! Dine-in restaurants in Michigan have been among the hardest hit and it is great to see folks thinking about their neighbors

This morning our listeners donated $6,200 to the Santa’s Servers fund. We dropped off the money at G & G Glass where Kevin Conant and his volunteers are wrapping gifts for 60 kids in our community whose families have been impacted by the shutdown. Thanks to all of you for your generosity and especially to Kevin and his staff at the Pub and Grub.

A late session night revealed the beauty of our Capitol’s Rotunda in a new light.

Share the news: Small businesses can apply for up to $15k in relief for COVID related losses. Applications open Dec. 15.

Pure Michigan Small Business Relief Initiative | Michigan Business The program will utilize federal CARES Act funding to provide $10 million in grants to meet the urgent need of Michigan small businesses disproportionately impacted the COVID-19 virus.

As I’ve talked to many constituents since the November election, two things are clear. People want to have an audit to assure only legal votes were counted, and the legislature needs to have the ability to fully investigate what happened to restore trust in our process.

Rep. Leutheuser supports additional measures to ensure election integrity State Rep. Eric Leutheuser announced his support for a Michigan House Republican effort which will provide people with answers as they voice concerns and questions over the most recent election.

The Oversight Committee must have this subpoena power to fully execute its responsibilities. I look forward to voting for this resolution next week.

Michigan House to vote to expand subpoena power in elections inquiry The House will vote next week on whether to expand the subpoena power of the House Oversight Committee's inquiry into the state's election