Lately there has been a lot of Debate over the number of Democratic Congressional Districts that Democrats could gerrymander out of the state of Michigan if they had complete control (right now they hold the Governorship and State House. They stand a good chance at taking control of the State Senate while the Governor's race is a tossup). A few people have said that it is possible to succesfully draw a map that would yield 12 Democratic seats and only 2 Republican seats. I've been trying for several weeks to draw a 12-2 map, meanwhile protecting endangered incumbents (specifically Schauer) and I've determined that a 12-2 map would be far overeaching and in a neutral or Republican leaning year might end up 9-5 or worse. I think the best Michigan Democrats could do is create 11 safe or Democrat leaning districts and 3 strongly Republican districts. I've drawn a map that I think does just that, although I still am not entirely confident that we could hold both of my "Thumb" districts in a Republican year. But without further ado, here's my map.
You can tell we're two weeks outside a major election ... my Inboxes are filling up, by the hour, with stuff that's going on. So, let's break it down to highlights...
CD07 -- According to a press release from the Schauer campaign, the Democrat raised $226,000 in the first two weeks of October, compared to $157,000 raised by Tim Walberg. The Schauer campaign reports having $735,000 on hand entering the last two weeks of the campaign, while the Walberg campaign either has $691,000 on hand if you believe a Schauer campaign press release or $412,000 if you believe Deb Price of The Detroit News.
*--Responding to threats by the Walberg campaign over an ad that it is running in the 7th District, Health Care for America Now has responded by pouring more money into the district in adverstising. Walberg threatened to sue HCAN over this ad, and in response the group purchased more air time. Also, the group purchased space in the weekly newspaper The Tecumseh Herald for this full-page ad.
CD09 -- In a new internal poll, commissioned by the DCCC, Grove Insight found that Gary Peters had opened up a double digit lead over Joe Knollenberg. According to a press release, when 400 residents of the 9th District were polled, 46 of them said they plan to vote for Gary Peters. Thirty six percent said they would back Joe Knollenberg. Jack Kevorkian received 2 percent of the vote.
So far all I have is a link to the WXYZ stream of the forum.
Click here to watch the entire forum. What I thought was strange was Knollenberg's criticism that some of Gary's money came from people outside of Michigan that Gary doesn't know.
Come on, Joe. Do you personally know all of your contributors? I'm sure you know all those lobbyists that contribute to your campaign. Joe was kind of grumpy, I thought, and appeared McCain-like in his demeanor.
Huge news out of the 9th District, where the Peters campaign says campaign finance data has them outraising Joe Knollenberg in the third district ... by more than $125,000.
Gary Peters filed his 3rd Quarter report today with $650,572.18 Rep. Joe Knollenberg filed later today with $524,308.03
This is ... beyond huge. Going into the final stretch of this race, all of the momentum is in Peters' favor. He's up in (internal) polls, his race is better rated by Cook, and now he's outraised Knollenberg in money.
I've listened to dozens of interviews Jack Lessenberry has conducted with people from across the political spectrum. Whatever he writes elsewhere, he's always a respectful interviewer, asks questions and just lets the person answer without trying to shout them down or trip them up in order to publicly embarrass them (he's not like Frank Beckmann, who actually used clearly edited clips to make the governor look bad on taxes last year). So, I can discern no explanation for this...
We had hoped to speak with both candidates however, Congressman Knollenberg declined to be interviewed for this program.
Peters gets time to talk about something he talks about and understands well, which is a forward-thinking energy policy.
Update! ... Oh, Knollenberg isn't the only person who turned down an invite by Lessenberry. Last week, Tim Walberg did, too.
Wow. In a major development in the Peters/Knollenberg race, the Michigan Democratic Party took direct aim at Joe Knollenberg with a new web site. www.JoeKnollenbergDelivers.com (Joe Delivers for Special Interests) On the site, they have four videos where Joe definitely failed to deliver for his consituents. Here's one example:
Just several hours before the vice presidential debate, McCain withdraws his campaign troops from Michigan to redeploy them in other battleground states such as Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Clever decision? This campaign tactic could be so much more than what it appears to be at the surface.
Aside from the obvious move to minimize the media attention on his decision by announcing his decision when the media spotlight was clearly focused on the vice presidential debate, there is a lot more suspicious activity behind the scenes.
All Michiganders have felt the Bush legacy in the form of high unemployment, the loss of manufacturing jobs, record gas prices, record home foreclosures, huge corporate bailouts and the deaths of hundreds of young people in an unnecessary invasion, and now you can see it all in one place when the National Bush Legacy Bus Tour Comes to Michigan on Saturday.
The Bush Legacy is a 45-foot, 28-ton clean bio-diesel powered museum on wheels that features several exhibits on how disastrous the Bush/conservative policies have been, and how they have weakened America's security abroad while neglecting and undermining important priorities here at home.
It is also highlighting the people who have helped Bush wrecked havoc on the county, and the bus tour will be in Battle Creek on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the backyard of Bush enabler Tim Wahlberg, where he is locked in a battle with State Sen. Mark Schauer. It will be in front of the Kellogg Arena at Michigan Ave between Macamly and N. Capital. On Monday it will be in Jackson from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 120 N. Jackson St. The museum will also be in Lansing in front of the Capitol from 2-4 p.m.
On Tuesday it will be in Bush enabler Joe Knollenberg's district from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Royal Oak Farmers Market at 11 Mile Road and Troy Street in Royal Oak. Gary Peters is neck and neck against Knollenberg.
The tour kicked off on June 24 across the street from the White House, and the National Bush Legacy Bus tour has since blanketed half the country - from New Hampshire to New Mexico - and will continue making nearly 150 stops in the hometowns of Bush's enablers in Congress and symbolic locations like the President's home away from home in Crawford, Texas.
It will be back in Michigan before the tour concludes on Election Day in Virginia. It will be in Kalamazoo on Oct. 21; Grand Rapids on Oct. 22 and Ann Arbor on Oct. 23.
The last time EPIC-MRA polled people in the 7th, Walberg led 51-40 ... except after a brief biography was read to them. After that happened, Schauer had the slimmest of leads.
EPIC-MIRA's polling shows the race today stands in a statistical dead heat, with Wallberg up by three. This, despite a steady drumbeat of press coverage that has offered him an uncritical forum from which to endorse drilling as the way to bring down the price of gasoline.
The same EPIC-MRA poll had Joe Knollenberg over Gary Peters by seven double digits. Again, when a brief biography was read to potential voters, Peters was in the lead. Some of that is no doubt based on the high negatives Knollenberg has in his own district (47 percent unfavorable), but if the Schauer race is any indication, it's a matter of name recognition. I understand that the Peters campaign started airing ads last night.
For the fourth time, Gary Peters has cracked the weekly top 10 fund raisiers through ActBlue. This week, he hits number eight.
This week is Peters's fourth appearance on the Campaign Newswire. The former Michigan state Senator has been the beneficiary of big name fundraisers on ActBlue, including Michigan Senator Carl Levin, the DCCC, and Blue America. His weekly total reflects the efforts of his campaign and the commitment of his donors, many of whom have pledged to make recurring contributions to his campaign until the November election.
This piece from the Oakland Press editorial board is amazing. Joe Knollenberg and his staff insulted Asian Americans, and they're making excuses for Joe and his staff. Do I think Joe wrote the offending blog entry himself, of course not. But here's the problem, I do think in order for even a staffer to write such an thing and post it on the Internet for even one second reveals a lot about Knollenberg and his campaign. In order to create a title that includes the words "Asian Invaders" referring to a group of Americans tells me that there is pervasive racism within the heart of the candidate and his staff for the person that wrote the title of the blog to even think it would be allowed to go forward. Then for the Oakland Press to defend Knollenberg is an egregious violation of journalistic ethics, especially when I have been taken to task by the Oakland Press for my criticism of Knollenberg and his hypocrisy on his health care voting record. It's time for the Oakland Press to come clean and reveal any relationship they have with Joe Knollenberg, or anyone his staff and why they continue to defend a U.S. Congressman who is clearly out of touch with his constituents.
Political correctness for a politician is always an issue. Just ask George Allen, former Senator from Virgina, who was caught on video making what was discovered to be a racial slur against an opponent's employee at a campaign stop. We all remember what happened to George Allen.
It makes me wonder what would have happened if a Democrat had made a similar comment, whether written or orally.
Joe Knollenberg's racist title on his blog regarding "Asian Invaders" made it into the Oakland Press today. I guess Joe learned the hard way, being a racist makes some people very upset. Help Gary Peters boot this guy from Congress. Click here to contribute to Gary's campaign.
Last week, Gary Peters' campaign cracked the top ten fund-raising efforts through ActBlue. This week, Peters moves up to number four, and Mark Schauer's campaign comes in at number 10.
Peters' campaign raised $15,000 last week through ActBlue, according to an ActBlue e-mail, and Schauer's campaign raised $8,645.
Here is what the e-mail had to say about the Peters campaign.
After debuting in the eighth spot on our Top 10 list last week, Peters has pushed his way into the Top 5 this week. This past weekend, the Peters campaign launched its new "Take Action Now" initiative, in which Gary Peters and supporters will take time off from the campaign trail to volunteer with community service programs across Oakland County. The first volunteer event was the Stogdill Pancake Breakfast in Pontiac, Michigan, and the campaign intends to volunteer with community service programs across Oakland county. This isn't the first time Peters has mobilized volunteers to help his community: in 1997, Peters formed "NetDay Michigan," a grassroots organization that "installed donated wiring and computers in twenty-two schools, libraries, and recreation centers."
And about the Schauer campaign.
Schauer, who built a career in community services, has recently attracted donations through an ActBlue page acknowledging Schauer's reliability as an advocate for children. The Schauer example highlights an important feature of ActBlue: by being explicit about the issue that drives a community to support a given candidate, the candidate can better understand what matters to his supporters.
You can find Peters' ActBlue page here, and Schauer's here.
GUEST OPINION Opposition to Knollenberg well founded Bruce Fealk of Rochester Hills, is a businessman and local political activist.
Last month the Oakland Press editorial board took me to task for my recent guest column about Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfi eld Hills. The board and Knollenberg’s professional letter writers focused entirely on the wrong issue. I wasn’t criticizing Knollenberg’s urging women to do self exams and to get their mammograms.
My point was the hypocrisy of Knollenberg sponsoring a health conference for women when he has such a terrible voting record on health issues. Knollenberg has a 0 rating from the National Breast Cancer Coalition and voted against expanding a successful government program that provides health care coverage for millions of low income children (SCHIP). Knollenberg did vote to extend the program. Even when the majority of his colleagues voted to expand the program to cover an additional 10 million children, Joe voted against it. The issue for millions of Americans is that they don’t have any health-care coverage. Families across Oakland County and this country live in fear that they will have a major health issue that they won’t be able to afford to get treated because they have no insurance. Knollenberg’s “wellness” proposal won’t help those people.
Oakland County residents are hurting because of $4 gas, lack of health coverage and an uncertain economy. The Bush/Knollenberg economy is a dismal failure.
Knollenberg should start talking about issues that really matter to Americans, like a health care program that makes it so that every American can take their children to a doctor. Health care should be a right in America, not a privilege of only wealthy congressmen and women.
Knollenberg should do something about the outrageous profits of America’s oil companies that ontinue to rip Americans off at the pump and the speculators that are driving prices up, regardless of supply.
He should think about what it does to our soldiers being sent into a war zone three, four and five times and what it does to their families.
Knollenberg should vote for funding to screen every soldier for posttraumatic stress disorder so we can try to prevent the unprecedented number of suicides being committed by our soldiers. He should vote to stop funding a war that our president lied us into and is charging hundredsof billions on our Bank of China credit card to support. Our great-great-grandchildren will be working to pay off that debt. Republicans have not been fiscally responsible.
Those are some of the real issues. Why isn’t Knollenberg talking about them? Why won’t Knollenberg come out in public and let his constituents ask him about his record n important issues and his plans to solve the problems facing them? Knollenberg has had almost 16 years to make the lives of his constituents better. My life isn’t one bit better.
Other people have noticed Knollenberg’s voting record on health care issues, too: 2007 American Academy of Family Physicians gave Knollenberg a 0 rating; 2007 Children’s Health Fund gave Knollenberg a 0 rating; 2006 American Public Health Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 rating; 2005-2006 AIDS Action Council rated Knollenberg with a 0 rating; and 2005-2006 American Nurses Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 percent. Those are failing grades in anyone’s book.
Disclaimer: I do not work for MoveOn.org or Knollenberg’s opponent.
According to an ActBlue weekly digest e-mail, Gary Peters cracked the top 10 in fund raising last week. Of all campaigns, his raised the eighth most cash nationwide with $8,587.75. The e-mail noted that some of his donors included the DCCC and Sen. Carl Levin.
This, from the e-mail:
This week is Peters's Campaign Newswire debut, and the former Michigan state senator has been the beneficiary of big name fundraisers on ActBlue, including Michigan Senator Carl Levin, the DCCC, and Blue America. His weekly total reflects the efforts of his campaign and the commitment of his donors, many of whom have pledged to make recurring contributions to his campaign until the November election.
