Rafael Wolf
Rafael Wolf (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 41. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Biography
Rafael Wolf was born in Berlin, Germany.[1] He received a bachelor's degree from Davenport University (then Davenport College) in 2002 and attended Grace Bible College. Wolf's professional experience includes working in IT consulting and adult foster care and being a dish washer, mall cop, UPS truck packer, and cashier. He has been affiliated with Portage Rotary.[2]
Elections
2022
See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 41
Incumbent Julie Rogers defeated Terry Haines and Rafael Wolf in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 41 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Julie Rogers (D) | 77.0 | 23,214 |
 | Terry Haines (R)  | 20.6 | 6,218 | |
 | Rafael Wolf (L) | 2.4 | 725 | |
| Total votes: 30,157 | |||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 41
Incumbent Julie Rogers advanced from the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 41 on August 2, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Julie Rogers | 100.0 | 8,790 |
| Total votes: 8,790 | |||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 41
Terry Haines defeated Ben Stanley in the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 41 on August 2, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Terry Haines | 60.7 | 1,523 |
 | Ben Stanley | 39.3 | 986 | |
| Total votes: 2,509 | |||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 41
Rafael Wolf advanced from the Libertarian convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 41 on July 10, 2022.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Rafael Wolf (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
2020
See also: Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Michigan House of Representatives District 63
Incumbent Matt Hall defeated Luke Howell, Rafael Wolf, John Anthony La Pietra, and Ron Hawkins in the general election for Michigan House of Representatives District 63 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Matt Hall (R) | 60.6 | 31,379 |
 | Luke Howell (D) | 36.0 | 18,613 | |
| Rafael Wolf (L) | 2.1 | 1,093 | |
 | John Anthony La Pietra (G) | 1.3 | 660 | |
 | Ron Hawkins (D) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 6 | |
| Total votes: 51,751 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 63
Luke Howell defeated Ron Hawkins in the Democratic primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 63 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Luke Howell | 50.5 | 3,744 |
| Ron Hawkins | 49.5 | 3,671 | |
| Total votes: 7,415 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jennifer Aniano (D)
- Anthony Bates (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 63
Incumbent Matt Hall advanced from the Republican primary for Michigan House of Representatives District 63 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Matt Hall | 100.0 | 11,912 |
| Total votes: 11,912 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Green convention
Green convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 63
John Anthony La Pietra advanced from the Green convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 63 on June 20, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | John Anthony La Pietra (G) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 63
Rafael Wolf advanced from the Libertarian convention for Michigan House of Representatives District 63 on July 18, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Rafael Wolf (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rafael Wolf did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released June 24, 2020 |
Rafael Wolf completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wolf's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Rafael is a resident of Kalamazoo Township, a business owner, entrepreneur, Rotarian, active in his community and selfless to his own determent in many cases. Rafael is a pragmatic centrist Libertarian bridge builder.
- Two party politics is detremental to Michigans present and future
- Incrastructure is without a doubt crumbling and we need to fix it
- High Speed Rural Internet is what the 63rd needs for rural citizens to be equal with our more densely populated constituants
All things government from taxation to representation interests me but I'm most passionate about problem solving. We know that the State of Michigan has a lot of problems. I would not be running if I didn't think I had some solutions to our problems with creative out of the box thinking. The only question is whether or not the voters have the political will to hop party lines of comfort to give the Libertarian candidate a chance like they've given Republicans and Democrats for the past 75 years.
I look up to intellectual leaders. When I was a kid I looked up to athletes, they were my heroes but as I aged and sports became less important to me; probably because I grew out of the routine of caring about them, I found interest in intellectual things. Like consuming media from all avenues of the thought spectrum, left, right, center, radical, etc. I look up to people like Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens and I read left winger rags like The Nation (I subscribe). Although I don't always agree with them I appreciate their perspective. On the right I can't say I "enjoy" listening to it but I do and I listen to my local right winger station 95.3 WBCK FM talk radio when I want to get their take on pop culture. I often catch a guy name Renk and sometimes a guy fills in for him named Mike Gallagher. I emailed Renk and Mike the other week in fact, Mike replied! I love and look up to the old conservatives like William F Buckley Jr and Thomas Sowell. I also love "classical liberals" like Milton Friedman. It was a different time and discourse was in a different place. It's amazing how they use data. I think I'm as reasonable and follow their examples both on the left and right. It helps me put things into a different perspective rather than getting one sided and agenda driven. As a side, I look up to my mother, her legacy and her hard work and determination never giving up. She too was a life long entrepreneur and business woman with varying degrees of success but always found enjoyment in life. She taught me how to laugh and I inherited my sense of humor from her!
Yes - you need need need to watch a video from Noam Chomsky called "Manufacturing Consent". It's about how citizens are influenced by things like propaganda, media, PR (Public Relations) and we're indoctrinated even from childhood. It's an amazing eye opener. Once you see that your life should never be the same. It's not conspiratorial although some have accused him of such. He shows how it's not. Currently that is the single most important thing to watch and understand. The other thing I'd suggest is to put yourself into someone else's shoes when hearing them out, reading their perspectives, watching their perspectives...I have no idea what it's like to be disenfranchised like many of our citizens but I can sympathize with their plight and identify with it far better if I imagine myself in their shoes.
The ability to do research, vet the information, outsource some of you thoughts to "experts" and vet what the experts are saying, analyze and relentlessly dig to find truth. Once you have the facts, yes...truth, you can then potentially come up with meaningful solutions to solve those problems. Some problems can't be solved, things are messy or not easy. If it were easy they wouldn't be problems. Some problems are created as unintended consequences of good intentions. I mention this in an intro video I did for the voters about the ACA. Perspective is another attribute, always looking at things from multiple angles and sides.
Can't be bought by PACs or special interests
Direct access by my constituents to my phone and email
Pragmatic and common sense solutions to complex problems
Willing to learn
Willing to listen
For the State House your ONLY responsibility I believe according to the Michigan constitution is to pass the annual budget. That's about it! Believe it or not. There are some stipulations about war time acts and such, defending the rights of citizens, of course very important, but the only core responsibility is to pass that budget. Most everything else is busy work.
Change the face of state politics forever putting a third party into the state legislature for the next 100 years minimizing the duopoly grip on majority rule. Citizens in our state are not represented or worse, under represented as elected officials squabble over party vs party wins rather than the interests of our state or the citizens we represent.
I remember when Ronald Reagan would no longer be president. I was a young child...I don't know, maybe 7 or 8? I'm not a Republican but you're indoctrinated at that young age to look up to the President of the United States and at the time I didn't know about term limits! I thought, oh boy...what's life going to be like without seeing that guy on the TV all the time? Well...it moves on, same ole' same ole'. Life goes on!
My first paycheck type job was a dishwasher at a restaurant by my home called The Bavarian Inn. I got an opportunity for that gig when I was 13 or 14 maybe. I rode my bike to work on some weeknights and weekends and it was mainly a summer gig. I ruined an expensive pan with Teflon and the owner who's now passed on, was quite upset. He got angry at me and explained what an expensive pan that was. I thought it was dirty and I scrubbed that pan long and hard to get all that Teflon off of the pan thinking it was crusted over from cooking and perhaps burning food...I failed but I made a huge dent! He later apologized and we laughed. It's a fond memory and taught me that hard work doing the wrong thing without the right information can be detrimental. I think he initially got upset because he was under a lot of pressure in the restaurant business and watching every penny counts. I don't know what that pan cost but he didn't take it out of my pay. He was generous and had every right to do so. I learned form him also to be generous and forgiving in my own business.
I can't say I have a favorite book. I just started listening to digital books as I commute for work. I'm listening to a book titled: "From the ward on poverty to the war on crime: The making of mass incarceration in America" by Elizabeth Hinton. It's kind of technical, covers a lot of history prior to when I was born and basically shows how policing has gone from Andy Griffith to Storm Trooper through multiple administrations both Democrat and Republican. <- Spoiler alert. Because I have a technical structured mind those are the books that interest me. Most Libertarians or Republicans would dog whistle Ayn Rand but I haven't read her. I've also heard from a literary junky friend that Ayn Rand is a terrible writer. Everyone has their preferences. I'd recommend the Elizabeth Hinton book especially to people who don't think they know much about policing which is in the news lately. That's why I picked it up. I heard her in a piece on one of my favorite NPR shows called "On The Media". She was in a segment talking about the history of policing and they plugged her book. What she said was interesting and I wanted to know more. You should too!
A fictional character eh? Probably a happy Smurf although...thinking this through I've read how the Smurf village is an analogue to communism where as a Smurf you're in "...a society in which all property is publicly owned and each Smurf works and is paid according to their abilities and needs". They are ruled by a Karl Marx type in a Red hat (Papa Smurf) so I can see how some might think this. Maybe it's socialism and not communism and although this may be true their care free fun loving lifestyles, minus the trouble, appealed to me as a child and I grew up on the Smurfs! I'd like to be Handy Smurf, the MacGyver of the Smurf Village, an independent do it yourselfer. A problem solver!
I can't remember quite fankly but I'm always singing and changing the lyrics to my own parody. I listen to a lot of 70's, 80's and 90's. I like grunge from the 90's, MTV Unplugged stuff, acoustic classic remakes and The Golden Age of Hip Hop (East Coast vs West Coast). I'd like to give a shout out in particular to a show in my town of Kalamazoo WIDR 89.1. On Saturday nights JB Love (his new name) plays Old School Hip Hop and it's the most amazing few hours of your week if you can catch it. No ads, no news, just song after song after song...no interruptions! On his LinedIn page he says: "Live hip-hop mixing on the 1's n 2's. Saturday nights 7 - 10 pm"...it's no joke. He also works at Shakespears Pub in Kalamazoo but I never go in the evenings. I'm a huge fan. If I win the race perhaps he'd consider playing at a celebration event after the election.
The loss of my mother. I'm the end of the line. She passed about 3 or 4 years ago...it seems like yesterday and I miss her terribly. I still get emotional talking about her or thinking about her. For those who know me I don't get emotional about much but I lose it when I think about my mother. It's a source of much pain for me personally.
Regulation, policy and law originates from the house. It is in my view therefore, the most important chamber. It sets the tone as things move through the process...that is, if you can get your legislation out of committee! That speaks to government working in ways most constituents don't understand. The three most important people with respect to politicians are the State House Majority Leader, the Senate Majority Leader and the Governor. Those three make things happen in the state, the other legislators mostly vote along party lines which is why we need to dilute power from the two major parties with a third party. If we can make all parties in the legislature minority parties without one always be the "majority" then the citizens of Michigan will win. If no party has a majority they will have to get votes on any legislation from another party which should build a consensus through compromise and common sense.
Of course experience is beneficial but only procedural. It's like knowing Roberts Rules...experience simply tells you about process. The "politics" of it all is a broken mess with nobody offering up any real fixes for what's broken other than voting in yet another republican or a different democrat. The answer is power minimization of the two parties by voting in a third party. The third party is the balance of power. The two parties are far too powerful and therefore they get nothing done while always blaming it on the other party.
The states greatest challenge? Far too many great one's, the greatest? Probably funding. Funding pays for things like roads, education, and the infrastructure of the state. By that I mean civil society. I see the lack of funding being a real problem. Global climate change, race tension and policing...all huge challenges to overcome but if you don't have funding to help work through everything, you're in dire straits indeed.
The governor doesn't influence the legislature much at all. She/He can certainly give their opinion but it's up to the legislature to bring She/He the goods. Of course, there's always line item veto! Part of the process is first to minimize power of the duopoly (Democrats and Republicans), even a small number bump say 50 D's and 50 R's + 10 L's, G's or I's would be a massive improvement. This means that the D's or R's would have to get 6 votes form somewhere. This would curb the far right and left swings on legislation that affects civil society in negative or positive ways. What's ruing relationships are ideological dogma and stubbornness. The only way to fix it is to disallow any body to be stubborn by voting in a third party, a mediator if you will that isn't a D or an R...they'd be the Switzerland of Michigan!
Of course. They're people just like you, we all put pants on one leg at a time! It's important to have common sense, reasonable debate and discussion. Much of this can be done but it often turns into a fight between D's and R's because they are so ideologically divided and agenda driven by their special interest groups or big donors. The base has very little to do with it, the base is propagandized to what special interest groups and big donors want (PAC money). Dark money and PAC money is another threat to getting things done for the people. PAC's aren't people.
In a perfect world we'd have 3 republicans, 3 democrats, 3 libertarian, 3 green and 3 independents but we don't live in a perfect world. There are alternative ways of thinking about representation too. I've heard that the lines we draw now are an old way of thinking about things but since we have them we have to live with them. I think that gerrymandering would be irrelevant in a three or four party system especially if we had ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting would help give third parties a real shot at getting elected in ways that the winner take all system we have now just won't do.
No, none. I think most of the committee work is a law makers paperwork shuffle. Much of the discussion and debate is likely a waste of time. If I were in Lansing I'd like to tackle big problems. Most of the "bipartisan" legislation is on small insignificant stuff like putting an ability identifier on a state ID which recently got signed into law. Really? What a great idea, a real NO BRAINER and of course it got signed into law in a bipartisan way. I wonder how many committee meetings it took to say yes to that one. It would take 5 emails to figure that one out. We have real problems in the state from road funding, education and healthcare...and how we're going to pay for it. This is what we need to focus on. I wouldn't get to pick my committee assignments anyway, you take what you get. I would expect the leadership from the other parties to minimize my role and hope for the best. Truly the ONLY thing a legislator has to do is create and pass a budget. All the other stuff, as I mentioned...it's all paperwork shuffling and talk.
If I were elected and there were other Libertarians elected we'd have to figure that out as we caucus. If I were the only Libertarian elected to office I'd have to continue building a sensible Libertarian platform. There's a role for Libertarians in office, the first is to minimize monopoly power of any one party to dominate. The second would be to offer up interesting alternatives to main stream thought, both left and right leaning ways of thinking about problems and how to solve them. Persuading your colleagues through meaningful dialogue that your thinking might be in the right direction. Perhaps you'll be persuaded by their way of thinking...it's always a two way street and with a Libertarian elected to office perhaps it'll be a round about! Maybe a Michigan Left!
None. I think I'm an incorruptible new breed that promises to be highly accessible with an actual phone number people can call, I will call them back and not a staffer, I'll have an email address you can email and when you get an email back...it's me, not a staffer. Perhaps my way of doing business will be one that creates a new mold for the 21st century politician where corporate PAC money and special interests have no part of doing business in politics any more.
I'm always interested in opportunity to create meaningful change. I think I can create meaningful change in our state and if that's as far as I go awesome! I am not running for popularity or celebrity. It's because I think I have some lines of thinking to fix what's broken. You can't do that without the people to vote you and people like you into office. I hope the voters will consider a Libertarian in 2020 and beyond to represent them and their values.
Nothing I'd like to share. We all have personal lives with story's. The story's you hear are usually awful, rarely cheery. It's like calling technical support...you don't ever call up technical support because your system is running perfectly! You always get calls from people who have a problem. There are tens of thousands of problems in my district, I know. You all have something to say eventually about how good or bad something is and if I can help change something for the benefit of our district my ears and inbox are always open.
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See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
