Hansen Clarke Introduces Himself to Downriver

Congressman Clarke, meet your Downriver constituents. Downriver residents, meet your new congressman.

U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-13th District) used his first group meeting Downriver to introduce himself to the more than 160 attendees at the monthly Legislative Forum hosted by the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber on Monday at Crystal Gardens in Southgate.

Clarke, who defeated longtime U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in last year’s election, represents Wyandotte, Lincoln Park, Ecorse, River Rouge, the Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods and part of Detroit.

Rather than address many issues, Clarke said he preferred to talk to his Downriver constituents about his background, his values and game plan as a freshman congressman.

“It’s best to share with you who I am, what my values are, how I view the economy and the types of changes I’d like to make in the political system in the Downriver area and Wayne County,” he said. 

His Background

Clarke said he was an only child born and raised on the east side of Detroit. His father, an immigrant from India, worked at the Ford Rouge foundry but died when Clarke was 8 years old.

His mother, Thelma, a native of Georgia who was a school crossing guard, was determined to give Clarke a good education. Clarke said he struggled in the Detroit Public Schools–he admits to being kicked out twice. He said his diploma says “Cass Tech,” but he actually finished high school in night school. Still, he showed promise as an artist and his mother obtained a grant for him to receive private lessons at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

That “second chance” changed his life, he said. He earned a scholarship to Cornell University, where he majored in painting. He followed that with a Juris Doctor degree at the Georgetown Law School.

He served as a state representative from 1991 to 1993 and again from 1999 to 2003. He learned about the U.S. House of Representatives as an aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI). He served as a state senator prior to his election to Congress last year. He is a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Clarke, who turns 54 on Wednesday, is married to Choi Palms-Cohen.

His Values

Getting a second chance lit a fire inside Clarke to serve his neighborhood and get involved in politics. He said he wants to inspire young people to make the best out of their lives.

He encouraged young people in attendance at the forum to get into politics, telling them: “You don’t have to wait. You want to do it right now? You can do it right now. … To be successful in politics, the secret I’ve embraced in almost every contested election is to be real with yourself.”

Being exposed to different backgrounds–being raised in Detroit and going to college in New England–“showed me that all of us, despite our apparent differences, are all the same,” Clarke said. “We all want the same thing–the fundamental American dream.”

“The problem is, in these economic times, people are feeling very, very, very insecure financially,” Clarke said. “They don’t feel the dream is available. And I’m not just talking about single parents like my mom.”

He said he has met Downriver military veterans who are suffering and getting their meals at soup kitchens, as well as former automobile executives in Grosse Pointe who are unemployed and seeing their homes go into foreclosure.

“People are scared; they’re really scared,” Clarke said.

To build the economy Downriver, the quality of life has to improve in Detroit, he said. When people think of Detroit, they’re including the suburbs–including Downriver, Clarke said, so the region must improve as a whole.

His Game Plan

While campaigning last year in Wyandotte and neighboring cities, Clarke said, people continuously asked him “not to forget Downriver” if he went on to be elected. He called that a “horrible, low level of accountability” that may have been based on feelings about his predecessor.

As long as he is a congressman serving the area, Clarke said, residents no longer need to feel neglected, calling it his “constitutional duty.”

Clarke said one of the reasons he ran for Congress was the economic crisis facing the nation, state and area. He said he plans to pressure financial lenders who are foreclosing on homes in the region to improve conditions for those who borrow so people can keep their homes.

He said he is working on obtaining competitive grants from the Department of Labor and the Department of Education so local people can benefit from “training for jobs here that are in high demand.” He said Wayne County Community College District should be among the beneficiaries.

“The unemployment rate is too high here, but we have the jobs,” Clarke said. “We have to hire nurses from Canada and engineers from Asia. We have to better train workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

He has started meeting with other freshmen members of Congress–particularly Republicans–to begin making a difference in Washington, D.C., right away. Such meetings, he said, could help avoid any possible government shutdown in the future.

A big part of his game plan is to let anyone who will listen know he is from Detroit. He wears the “old English D” on clothing with pride, said he will encourage business people to invest in the region, particularly in manufacturing, and vows to be “an advocate for the region.”

Now that he is in Congress, Clarke said he hopes his colleagues “focus less on the political game and focus more on serving the public.” He said spending less on Afghanistan and spending more on Downriver would have a huge impact on the region.

Clarke has received attention as one of the members of Congress who chooses to sleep in his office rather than live in a private residence off site. He got national attention from Jay Leno and national news reports.

Clarke says he uses the attention as a positive. He said he needs to “have knowledge of the facts I’m dealing with,” so he stays in his office and reads massive amounts of committee documents and other information that is necessary to understand to serve his district.

“I have to be prepared,” he said. “I use those extra hours that are available to me. I don’t have to travel across town. I go to sleep right there. … Nothing is better than knowing the facts yourself so you can speak with clarity, specificity and power when you’re talking to Congress, the President or cabinet secretaries who control how many of our tax dollars are spent.”

About the comical or negative undertones behind sleeping at night in his office, Clarke added: “If I was in this job for myself, I’d be pissed off if people were talking about me like that. … But I don’t care what people say. Who cares about that? This is not some prize for me. This is a job–a job for me to go to work for this region.”

The next Legislative Forum is scheduled for March 14 at Crystal Gardens and will feature five Wayne County commissioners, including Joseph Palamara, who represents Wyandotte's 14th District. Also scheduled to attend are commissioners Ilona Varga (5th District), Gary Woronchak (13th District), Raymond Basham (15th District) and Kevin McNamara (11th District).

Registration and a reception begin at 11 a.m. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. The program is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. Tickets are $15. Register at www.swcrc.com or by calling 734-284-6000.