On Monday, June 30, 2008, Doreen Takalo of Skandia formally announced her intention to enter the race for State House Representative. At a gathering in Marquette held at the Coffee Cup, Doreen told her friends and enthusiastic supporters that she was accepting the challenge to unseat first term incumbent Steve Lindberg to represent Michigan’s 109th District. The 109th includes all of Alger, Luce, Schoolcraft and most of Marquette County.
Mrs. Takalo, a Republican, acknowledges that she faces an up hill battle in the November election but feels she is well prepared for the task. Among her many qualifications, she sites 24 years of experience as a township official. In addition to a long history in township government, she currently serves on a number of other boards and committees. She is the chairperson on the board for Teaching Family Homes and she is a member of the Lake Superior Community Partnership.
Other past civic activities include:
Township Planning Committee
Township Water Authority
Member and officer of the Marquette County Township Association
Executive Board member of Marquette County Transportation Authority
Executive Board member and Chair of Marquette County Commission on Aging
Experience as an Elder Advocate
Member and past president of Parent/Teacher Association
Executive officer and many times past chair of the Marquette County Republicans
Member of State Board of Social Work
Doreen is a self-employed small business owner and entrepreneur providing contract services as a court recorder. She was born in Bismarck, North Dakota and moved to Michigan as a young child. Her entire grade school and high school education was at Bishop Baraga Schools in Marquette. She also attended Northern Michigan University.
She has been married 41 years to her husband, Dennis Takalo. Dennis retired from CCI after 30 years of service and currently operates his own sawmill. Together they raised two sons. Tim and his wife Linda reside in Gwinn and their son Derrick lives in Skandia. Doreen and Dennis are also the very proud grandparents of Jordan and Jessica Takalo of Gwinn.
A spokesperson for the candidate said that while they do not expect gender to be a big issue in the campaign, Doreen does feel that women are under represented in state government. Currently out of 110 Michigan House seats only 20 are filled by women.
Doreen is motivated to run for office to insure that citizens of the Central Upper Peninsula get answers when they contact their State Representative and get the help they need in navigating their way through the labyrinth of government regulations. “Nothing is more frustrating than calling someone who should be able to help resolve a problem and never having that call returned or ever having your concerns acknowledged.”
Doreen looks forward to working in a bipartisan way to insist that the work of government gets done in a more productive way; on time, on budget, and on track as Lansing deals with the issues facing Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. “Legislators on both sides of the aisle have to accept responsibility for their actions. It’s not enough just to say, after the fact, that you never would have voted for a bill if you had known what was in it…. Leaders have to lead.”