State Rep. Bizzare Response Says Teachers Not Subject to Right to Work

Vice President Joe Biden is often called a “gaffe-machine.”  Here in Michigan we have our own gaffe master in Representative Phil Potvin.  Potvin represents the 102nd district which runs up the 131 corridor from Big Rapids through Reed City, Cadillac, and ends near Manton.

Potvin is the kind of guy, I hear, that would buy a car from a dealership outside his district and then ask a dealership in his district to put their sticker on it.  He made headlines when he called teachers “whiners” and compared them to kids who haven’t taken the trash out.  Yet somehow he didn’t make headlines, or the local paper at all, when his company dumped toxic waste near the city of Cadillac’s well field.

And then there is this.  This bizarre response came from a recent event with constituents where Potvin responded in writing to a question about Michigan’s new right-to-work law.  Potvin writes that teachers “do not fall  into the new right to choose (work) law.”  He says this despite voting for the law that made all Michigan employees, except Michigan State Police, subject to the right-to-work law.  Then he goes on to contradict that statement writing “teachers to don’t have to join the union to work in public schools.” Read Mr. Potvin’s response below and see if you can make any sense of the content or the grammar.