Tom Casperson

ESCANABA — After spending years in Michigan’s House and Senate, state Sen. Tom Casperson has reached his term limit as a senator.

However, he said his involvement with politics will continue in a different capacity.

Casperson has had a connection to the Escanaba area for his entire life.

“I was born and raised in Escanaba,” he said. He graduated from Escanaba High School in 1977.

After graduating, Casperson joined his father’s lumber trucking business. His grandfather and father started Casperson and Son Trucking in 1957; Casperson ended up taking over the business in 1992.

Along with his faith, Casperson said his work in the forest products industry was among the primary reasons he became involved with politics. During his time in this industry, he was on the Michigan Association of Timbermen’s board of directors.

Casperson said his first brush with politics was in response to a 1998 accident in which a woman and her daughter were killed when wood fell off a lumber truck.

Casperson got in touch with elected officials and the Michigan Department of Transportation to work towards changing the configuration of lumber trucks; as a representative, he authored a bill dealing with this topic.

Over the years, Casperson’s involvement with state politics increased — and, eventually, he decided to run in 2002 for the 108th District state House seat. He served six years before reaching his term limit.

After this experience, Casperson decided to run for Michigan’s Senate.

“It was kind of a natural progression,” he said. Casperson was elected as Michigan’s state senator for the 38th District in 2010, and was re-elected in 2014.

According to Casperson, one of his proudest political accomplishments was sponsoring a bill that put parameters on underground mining.

“That allowed for the mining operations to start moving forward,” he said. Casperson sponsored this bill while he was in the House.

He noted the Eagle Mine in Marquette County was able to open as a result of this bill, noting, “430 people have a job now because of it.”

Other political accomplishments Casperson said he is particularly happy with have included his involvement with the establishment of a land management plan in Michigan and taking the lead on the state’s “castle doctrine” (which allows people to use deadly force against intruders in their homes in some situations).

However, Casperson said he wished he had been able to do more work related to governmental regulations during his time in the Senate.

“There was more to do there — streamlining, that kind of stuff,” he said.

Earlier in December, Casperson worked on bills related to this during Michigan’s lame-duck session. One of these bills, which he sponsored, dealt with the state’s wetlands regulations.

“It’s used the most … to stop people from using their property or build anything or develop anything,” he said of Michigan’s current rules on wetlands. Casperson described his bill as a component of a three-bill package dealing with how the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality develops regulations.

Although critics have said it could hurt the state’s remaining wetlands, Casperson said the goal of this legislation is to return to the original intent of a wetlands protection act passed by Michigan’s legislature in 1979. A revised version of the bill was sent to Gov. Rick Snyder after being approved by the House and Senate.

Casperson also supported a controversial effort to slow down the adoption of a citizen-driven minimum wage increase in Michigan. He said that, from his point of view, this was primarily an attempt to clarify and set parameters for the wage increase.

“(The) problem is that some of it was vague and it wasn’t clear,” he said. Gov. Rick Snyder signed laws related to this earlier in December.

Campaign finance reform was another heated issue Casperson was involved with during the lame-duck session.

“The attempt here (was) to put a panel together … to oversee campaign finance that’s made up of both parties,” he said. According to Casperson, campaign finance enforcement is currently handled by the secretary of state, which is an elected (and partisan) position. Legislation related to this passed the Senate, but not the House.

While his time as a Michigan legislator has come to an end, Casperson does not plan to leave politics behind just yet.

“At this point for the short term, I have agreed to come on board with Senator-elect Ed McBroom,” he said. He went on to say he is working on longer-term plans related to politics but has not yet finalized those plans.

Casperson said he appreciated his constituents’ support over the years.

“I just want to thank the people that gave me this chance,” he said.