Political Career
Nerat was elected to the Menominee County Road Commission in 1998. In 2000, she was appointed to the Commissioners’ Committee for the County Road Association of Michigan. In 2002, she was appointed chair of the Commissioners’ Committee. Judy was elected to the County Road Association Self Insurance Fund in 2003, as one of nine directors. She was re-elected to the Road Commission in 2004.
In 2006 she announced her intention to run as a Democrat against incumbent Republican State Representative Tom Casperson in the 108th District in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Nerat easily won the Democratic Primary, but went on to lose to Casperson in the general election.
However, in 2008, Tom Casperson was unable to run for re-election due to term limits, choosing instead to run against Congressman Bart Stupak. Nerat again declared her intention to run, this time for an open seat. She narrowly defeated Janis Burgess in the Democratic Primary, winning by only 76 votes. In the November General Election, Nerat faced Republican Mike Falcon of Gladstone. Nerat won the seat with 56% of the vote. She campaigned the last three weeks leading up to the election with a fractured hip before undergoing hip replacement surgery in late October.
Nerat is quoted in the 3 February 2009 Daily Press in regards to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's announcement that the state will cease subsidizing the Upper Peninsula State Fair as saying, "I don't know where this rumor started. However, up to this point, the state has not provided any state funding to support the fair."
Read more about this topic: Judy Nerat
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country—and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.”
—Charles Krauthammer (b. 1950)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)