Mike Shirkey, a Republican whose campaign slogan was “It’s time for Michigan to win,” was a winner himself Tuesday.
Shirkey got 63 percent of the votes for state representative of Michigan’s 65th District and defeated Democrat Janet Rochefort.
Shirkey, owner of Orbitform Group and the former head of Allegiance Health’s governing board, made his first run for state office successful. Orbitform Group designs and builds forming, fastening, joining, and assembly equipment for a wide range of industries and applications. It also provides prototype engineering services for assembly of parts and specialized forming, joining and fastening.
He ran on a platform of Constitutionally limited government, free markets and personal responsibility. In his acceptance speech, Shirkey praised both the Founding Fathers and the Tea Party.
“It’s time for us to get government back in our hands, and the way to do that is get government off our backs,” Shirkey said.
Shirkey will fill the remainder of late state Rep. Mike Simpson’s term that expires Jan. 1 and the two-year term that expires Jan. 1, 2013.
Shirkey said his goal was to get 60 percent of the vote. He said he knew Rochefort would campaign hard and the key to his victory was that he “front-loaded” his efforts.
The economy was the main issue in the race. Shirkey said he would make structural changes to stop Michigan from losing jobs, people and national stature.
For further information on Orbitform Group, visit www.orbitform.com
