Map of Michigan's Seventh Congressional District from Wikipedia. Incumbent Mark Schauer is fending off a challenge from former Representative Tim Walberg.
U.S. Representative Mark Schauer will be debating challenger Tim Walberg four times this month.
On October 6th, the Adrian Daily Telegram reported that the times and locations for two of the four upcoming debates between incumbent Mark Schauer and challenger Tim Walberg have been set.
The first debate will take place on Wednesday, October 13th, from 7 P.M to 8 P.M. at the Charlotte Performing Arts Center. WLNS (Channel 6 in Lansing) and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are co-sponsoring the debate. The public is invited to attend. The Performing Arts Center's address is 378 State Street in Charlotte.
WLNS will be broadcasting the debate live, so residents of Washtenaw County whose cable systems carry WLNS Channel 6 will be able to watch the debate. Those who do not have cable but do have broadband can follow the debate on WLNS's website as the station will stream it live.
The second debate will be held the next morning at 8:30 A.M. on October 14th at the Lexington Lansing Hotel on 925 South Creyts Road, Lansing. The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the candidate forum. Anyone wishing to attend the forum should call (517) 487-6340.
More at the link, including information on the other two debates and how Walberg picked a fight with debate sponsor AARP before he accepted their invitation. Smooth move, Ex-Lax, especially in a district with a lot of retirees (I should know, I used to live there) and a year in which Social Security and Medicare are such big issues.
WILX reports on how Social Security and Medicare have become major issues in the race between Mark Schauer and Tim Walberg.
A few days ago, I posted a diary in support of Lance Enderle's campaign in which, along with several other key points, I pointed out his opponent, 5-term incumbent Republican Mike Rogers' extreme position on reproductive rights for women:
4. MIKE ROGERS WANTS RAPE VICTIMS FORCED TO CARRY RAPISTS' OFFSPRING: The whole nation is abuzz about Alan Grayson's opponent, "Taliban Dan" Webster. Well, guess what? Republican Mike Rogers is also so extreme on abortion that he wants women who are the victims of rape to be forced to give birth to their rapist's offspring. I can't imagine the injustice of police detaining & supervising rape victims for 9 months until their rapists' spawn are born. Yet that is the necessary consequence of Mike Rogers' position.
Time again for my weekly feature in which I excerpt my articles from Examiner.com. This week, the digest not only describes what happened on primary night, but also debunks two popular myths about this election year.
Many column inches have been written about the anti-tax sentiment sweeping the country in the form of Tea Party protests and town hall meetings during the past year. However, only a relatively small amount of that well-publicized hostily to taxation was in evidence Tuesday, as ten of the thirteen ballot proposals involving property taxes passed, some by impressive margins with relatively strong turnouts exceeding the county average of 21.28%. Only the renewal of the millage for the general operating budget for Manchester Township, one of the millage renewals for police protection in Northfield Township, and the bond proposal for the Saline Area Schools failed.
Details on the ballot proposals at the link in the headline.
In municipal primary elections held last Tuesday, all the incumbents running to keep their offices won. In Ann Arbor, the mayor and five council members won strong, in some cases overwhelming victories over an insurgent slate. In Ypsilanti, the mayor and the one council member who ran for re-election also won by large margins.
These electoral wins came despite widely publicized anti-incumbent sentiment which claimed only a few victims in the state, most notably Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, who lost her congressional seat in the primary.
Details on the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti municipal elections at the link.
It looks both these memes (anti-incumbent and anti-tax) held little weight in local elections. Take that, Tea Party!
Other races, including Governor and U.S. House of Representatives, on the other side of the jump.
Last August, a health care protest rally staged in front of the offices of MI-07 Representative Mark Schauer brought out Jackson County Commissioner Phil Duckham with a swastika sign. You can read more about that in my Huffington Post article. This Thursday, another such rally is scheduled.
So the question is: Will Phil Duckham stage a repeat performance?
A counter protest due to begin a 3:30 pm is planned and, if you have a chance to go, it might be worth a trip. If you take photos of any particularly "interesting" signs or activities, feel free to email me and I will be sure they get published prominently.
The official statement for the counter protest:
Dear Friend-
We urgently need your help. This Thursday, the Michigan Republican Party is planning to hold a health care protest outside Congressman Schauer's district office at 4:30pm. The GOP invitation says, "We need your help to stop Mark Schauer and the liberals from a radical government takeover of health care!"
During a similar protest last August, pro-health care reform activists outnumbered Tea Party protesters by a 4-to-1 margin, and we need your help to do it again. You can watch a video of Mark speaking at last summer's health care rally here.
If you agree with Mark that we need to fix our broken health care system, hold the big health insurance companies accountable, eliminate the prescription drug donut hole, and cut health care costs for working families, then you can show your support by attending a Rally for Health Care Reform this Thursday. Here are the details:
WHAT: Rally for Health Care Reform
WHERE: U.S Rep. Mark Schauer's District Office
800 W Ganson, Jackson, MI 49202
WHEN: Thursday, March 11, 3:30pm
WHY: To send a message that working Michigan families are ready to fight for health care reform
We're in the homestretch of a 62-year battle to fix our broken health care system. Mark is ready to get the job done, but the Party of No and their deep-pocketed friends are willing to do whatever it takes to defend the status quo for another 62 years. We can't let them get away with it.
Come show your support for health care reform and Mark Schauer this Thursday - and don't forget to tell your friends!
On the City Pulse radio show February 3rd, former Republican Congressman Joe Schwarz, a Republican, said Mark Schauer has been a more effective legislator than Tim Walberg was during his tenure as the Representative of MI-07. The show can be listened to HERE. This section kicks in around 17:35.
Transcript:
Kyle Melinn: You've taken a look at two different people who have represented the 7th Congressional district that you once represented - Tim Walberg and Mark Schauer. Who do you think's done a better job or did a better job representing that district?
Joe Schwarz: Mark Schauer.
Kyle Melinn: Okay, why's that?
Joe Schwarz: I think Mark Schauer has made a legitimate effort at trying to represent the whole district and is far more aware of what the real issues that the voters in the 7th district care about might be than Tim Walberg. I think Schauer in his year has proven himself to be a more effective Congressman for the 7th district that Walberg was in his two years.
Given that Walberg defeated Schwarz in the GOP primary in 2006 due in large part to a huge influx of outside money (i.e., The Club for Growth) and that he actually endorsed Schauer in the 2008 General Election, it's not totally surprising. It is, however, gratifying and encouraging.
Meet Brian Rooney. Brian Rooney is running for the Republican nomination in MI-07 this year. He has only lived in Michigan since 2007 and he recently moved into MI-07 in order to run for this seat. Even his main Republican opponent, Tim Walberg, doesn't have much nice to say about him:
Walberg questioned if Rooney runs whether he can win over voters if he's just moved into their district.
"He is going to have to move in as a carpet bagger," Walberg said. "Unless you are a Kennedy or a Clinton, you don't do well as a carpet bagger."
At the Western Washtenaw Democrats meeting last Friday, Mark Schauer came out strongly in favor of pushing the Democrats' health care bill through the Senate without the standard requirement of 60 votes.
Ahhh. Finally. A Republican admitting that the threshold to pass legislation through the Senate in this country is no longer the Constitutionally-mandated 51 votes. Now it's 60.
For a Republican liar, you gotta give the guy credit for a brief moment of honesty.
Last night, MI-07 Representative Mark Schauer spoke to the 2010 annual membership meeting of the Western Washtenaw Dems. During his conversation, he came out firmly in favor of a reconciliation path to passing health insurance reform legislation and was outspoken about the atrocious decision by the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) to allow nearly unlimited corporate funding of political campaigns.
We need to push a bill, maybe taking the Senate bill and modifying it, and put into it all the components that can be passed under reconciliation. The long and short of that is that it doesn't take 60 votes. It takes 51. That's actually what our democracy is about. Anybody that complains about that, I'm going to give it to 'em and say it's not 60 votes that's a majority, 51 votes is a majority.
Yesterday my Huffington Post piece recieved a LOT of attention and was on the front page and the politics page all day (still on the Politics page.)
Below is a pretty remarkable update regarding Jackson County Commissioner Phil Duckham who thought it appropriate to bring a swastika sign to the rally.
Organizing for America staff have learned that there will be an organized protest in front of Rep. Mark Schauer's Jackson office on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 3:30.
OFA is asking that all progressives in the area that support health care reform turn out to this event to show our support for Rep. Schauer and to let him, the media, the voters and the anti-reform "teabaggers" know that THEY are the minority, not US!
When it comes to protecting the American middle-class and rejuvenating the domestic auto industry, talk is cheap. In Washington these days, it seems like everyone has an opinion about how the auto companies got into this mess.
While I certainly didn't run for Congress to defend the mistakes of the past, what's most important to me is protecting the working families in my district who rely on the auto industry to pay the bills and put food on the table.
For those who don't know, the 7th congressional district is home to the GM Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant, located just off I-69 in Eaton County. This world-class facility is where the GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave, and Saturn Outlook are built.
While the news of GM's bankruptcy filing one week ago today was certainly a tough blow for the state of Michigan, the Delta Township plant will actually be increasing production later this year as the Chevy Traverse is added to the plant's lineup. This is a move I personally advocated for to Fritz Henderson on his first day as CEO of GM.
(As always, Congressman Schauer gets it right. - promoted by JPowers155)
Last fall I was sent to Congress to get results for my constituents. While I appreciate and welcome the speed with which the new administration has moved to address the nation's ongoing economic crisis, I believe swift action is needed to reform the unfair trade laws that have devastated Michigan's economy.
That's why I joined several colleagues late last week in sending a letter to President Obama outlining our priorities for establishing fair trade policies that will help states like Michigan compete for good-paying jobs. You can read the letter we sent to the White House here.
According to the MEDC, our state has lost 400,000 manufacturing jobs over the past eight years. A report released last fall by the non-profit Economic Policy Institute found that Michigan led the nation in the percentage of jobs lost to unfair trade agreements (7.49%) during 2007.
This is unacceptable - and unsustainable.
Last fall I made a pledge that the first bill I would co-sponsor as a member of Congress would address unfair trade, and that's a promise I kept when I signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Trade Enforcement Act of 2009 in January.
Yesterday morning, I received this email from the Michigan GOP (yes, I am on their e-mail list..need to keep up with the other side!) :
Dear ___
Today, you may have received an email from a disgruntled former employee, Justin Zatkoff, that is an example of game-playing that is distracting from our efforts this fall. It has been leaked to the press and being circulated by the same old group of troublemakers who are more interested in intra-party political silliness than helping Republicans win general elections.
The Total Meltdown of the State GOP, under the fold
(Why does it not surprise me to learn that Tim Walberg was pushing "Drill, drill, DRILL!" with discredited talking points? - promoted by Eric B.)
Today Tim Walberg kicked off his "DRILL-DRILL-DRILL!" energy tour in Lenawee County with an event in Adrian.
He managed to tiptoe around one question about drilling for oil in the Great Lakes (even though he's supported it before), but the most recent crazy talk to come out of his mouth was this story about how the Chinese are supposedly drilling for oil 50 miles off the coast of Florida.
Sounds scary, right?
Maybe... if it hadn't already been de-bunked by the guy who used to run the RNC.
By making a contribution through the special Michigan Blogger ActBlue page.
By volunteering for Sen. Schauer's campaign through his website.
What's the goal?
For 25 or more people to contribute to Sen. Schauer's campaign through the secure ActBlue site. (The site takes a while to load, so you might want to check out Mark's YouTube channel while you wait.)
Why now?
Now that he's lost his Club for Growth top tier status, Walberg has had to scramble to raise the money. And who do uber-conservatives call when they need money raised or someone shot? That's right, Vice President (and triggerman) Dick Cheney, who is the headliner at a fundraiser next week for Walberg.
So to sum up, go to the ActBlue site and make a contribution to Sen. Mark Schauer or sign up to volunteer for his campaign online.
Today Sen. Mark Schauer was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal story about the foreclosure crisis facing Michigan:
In Michigan, housing is driving a wedge between Republican Rep. Tim Walberg and his opponent, Democrat Mark Schauer, a state senator. Mr. Walberg voted against legislation that would have toughened oversight of mortgage lenders, while Mr. Schauer is pushing proposals to stiffen oversight of loan officers and ease foreclosure rates among veterans. "It is a huge economic issue in Michigan," Mr. Schauer said.
This is not the first time Schauer's efforts to combat the foreclosure crisis have been highlighted by the national media. Here's what Jay Newton-Small of Time Magazine wrote last November:
After Walberg's narrow victory in 2006 (a race in which he outspent his opponent by $1.2 million to $46,000), the Democrats this time have recruited a top-tier opponent: State Senator Mark Shauer, who has championed the predatory lending issue in the state legislature, co-sponsoring legislation that would tighten oversight on loan officers and support programs to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. Schauer plans on campaigning on the issue and accuses Walberg of turning his back on people in need. "The people in Michigan are struggling, and we're doing what we can to help at the state level," Schauer said. "But Washington and my opponent need to step up."
Yesterday Sen. Schauer had this to say about President Bush's new plan for foreclosures:
"It's about time that Washington realized we have a foreclosure crisis in this country. Unfortunately, the solutions proposed by the Bush Administration and their supporters appear to be more of a short-term band-aid, when at least in Michigan, we need a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. I'll continue to push for real, comprehensive solutions to this crisis because people are suffering and our future is at risk."
Communities across this district have been hit particularly hard by record foreclosures and Schauer is working to help struggling consumers. People from the 7th district are hungry for change and ready for a Congressman who will represent the interests of south central Michigan, not the failed policies of the Bush administration that helped create this foreclosure crisis in the first place.
Here's what you can do to support Sen. Schauer's people-powered campaign:
I'm originally from the Metro Detroit area. Son of an auto worker, part of a union and military family, one would expect the typical moderate Democrat to be representative of me. Instead I became a liberal who identifies with the Democrats through lack of an alternative party. I generally wish to see the Democratic Party in charge, and to help shift policies inside the party to be an actual alternative to Republican rule.
That being said, I strongly support the bid by Mark Schauer for U.S. House district MI-07. I don't know much about the man, but I'm willing to learn. I currently live in Ohio, but I will be moving into the district in November, so I have a vested interest in the local politics there. But most of all, he's running against a Republican I strongly dislike.
I am willing to go so far as to add him to my Act Blue page, Unite Progressives (named for my blog). Alongside his contribution page are others, such as the MI-07 Democratic Candidate Fund, and Gary Peters for MI-09. I'm willing to put my time and money where my mouth is and volunteer for and contribute to Mark Schauer, to see that a Democrat goes to Congress for MI-07. How about you?
Cross-posted at 
Last night, MI-07 Representative Mark Schauer spoke to the 2010 annual membership meeting of the 
When it comes to protecting the American middle-class and rejuvenating the domestic auto industry, talk is cheap. In Washington these days, it seems like everyone has an opinion about how the auto companies got into this mess.
