Knowing the horror we students have of midterms, it is with some caution that I write a column on midterms. But this is a different kind of midterm. A midterm that doesn’t use Scantrons, No. 2 pencils, or Blue Books. I am speaking, of course, about the midterm elections that will take place next Tuesday, Nov. 4.

You know the format of the paper: the first half is background material, while the second half is raw opinion. I am just going to focus on the Michigan Senate race in this article, mostly because that is the race I know the most about. Here are the facts about the two leading candidates (for the record, I will not be talking about third parties, just the two big ones, Democrat and Republican. How much space do you think I have?):

1. Terri Lynn Land, former two-term Michigan Secretary of State, is the Republican. Her campaign centers on repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something better, fixing our state’s crumbling roads and keeping jobs in Michigan.
2. Gary Peters, U.S. Congressman from the 14^th District, is the Democrat. His campaign centers on promoting green energy instead of oil and coal, increasing education funding and raising taxes for affluent Americans.

Before we move on, and just in case anybody was wondering, however, I do NOT work for either campaign. I got this information from the campaign’s websites: terrilynnland.com and petersformichigan.com.

What struck me as most odd when considering whether to vote for Gary or Terri (haha) was Gary’s weird position on something called petcoke (I’d never heard of it before; it’s a byproduct of oil production). On the one hand, he is arguing, consistent with his campaign about green energy, that petcoke is bad. On the other hand, though, the Detroit News reported that he owns about $20,000 in a company that produces petcoke. That doesn’t make sense. You can’t truthfully argue against something that you profit from. It’s hypocritical.

I like Terri in large part because of her Obamacare position. Everyone agrees: we can’t just repeal it. Terri’s idea is to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better that includes the ability to buy insurance from out-of-state. Good plan, right? We can buy less expensive cars, clothes, food, good grief, even guns, across state lines; why not insurance?

You may agree; you may not. Hopefully, though, this article made you think about that one last midterm this semester, that oh-so-important Nov. 4 election.

As a quick side note, I forgot to mention in the introductory column that this will be (for the moment) a bi-weekly, not a weekly, column.