Michigan state Representative and state Senate candidate Robert B. Jones passed away Sunday after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 66 years old. He was the Democratic nominee for the 20th District, which encompasses Kalamazoo County as well as Paw Paw and Antwerp Township in Van Buren County.
Jones had served as Mayor of Kalamazoo for 8 years before being elected to the state House in 2006. Having grown up in the Jim Crow South, he is highly regarded in Kalamazoo as a relentless advocate for civil rights.
His two terms as Mayor were summed up by City Commissioner Don Cooney (currently a candidate for US Senate) in the Kalamazoo Gazette.
“He was able to bridge so many gaps,” said Cooney, who served on the commission for eight years with Jones. “Black and white, rich and poor. He brought people together and said, ‘We’re going to move forward.’
“He stayed in the background and worked on the issues,” Cooney added. “He’s smart, smart as hell. He stood up for what was right.”
In 2003, Jones received the NAACP Humanitarian Award. He was also a friend of local business.
As mayor, he supported Western Michigan University’s efforts to develop a business and research park, and more recently as a legislator helped clear the way for its planned expansion.
As a state lawmaker, he pushed bills that created the Pharmaceutical Recovery Renaissance Zone in the Kalamazoo region, aided a planned expansion by MPI Research and gave tax incentives to Accretive Health to bring 1,000 new jobs to the Kalamazoo area.
As a young Kalamazoo resident, it was great to have Jones in the Mayor's office as I was coming into my own and developing my political ideology in high school. His 2006 state House campaign was one of the first local elections I watched closely and he was one of the first politicians I publicly advocated for. His strong support for the expansion of WMU's business and research park was controversial for many WMU students, including myself. But while we disagreed on this issue, I knew that Jones had the best interest of his constituents in mind and I appreciated the open discourse he invited.
His current political opponent, Tonya Shuitmaker agrees:
He was great man with a kind heart, and while we were recent rivals on the campaign trail, I know that he loved Kalamazoo and the people of our community.
There is now confusion about what the Democrats will do about this open seat. Shuitmaker has pulled all of her ads and asked the state Republican committee to do the same. Democrats will have to name a replacement candidate, but I believe absentee ballots have already been distributed.