As I have talked about here before, I'm keenly watching the Republican contenders for MI-07. One of the top two candidates likely to win the Republican primary already held the seat for one-term: Tim Walberg.
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.
From 7:00pm to 9:00pm, I'm going to be away from a computer-- and, in fact, away from any televisions, radios, or other devices which report election results. During arguably the most exciting portion of the night, when Virginia may be called for Obama, or when the returns start coming in for the Georgia Senate race, or when our own district begins reporting, I won't be able to be a part of it.
For a political junkie like me, that's like missing the World Series, the Rose Bowl (Go 'Cats!I believe in you!), and the World Cup all at once, which, by the way, are also on Christmas. Tomorrow could be a really amazing day, and I’m disappointed that I’ll be missing a big part of it.
But when I do get to a computer, I’ll be looking for a few things. I don’t claim to have a secret formula or know which tiny town will be the bellwether, and I’m definitely not a Grebner-like expert. But I can tell you what I think a Schauer victory might look like, and where I’ll be looking for it.
Over the weekend we started airing our second ad of the campaign season, and in case you hadn't seen it yet, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to check it out:
Suppose you're an undecided voter. You don't know a lot about Tim Walberg, but you've gotten his glossy flyers in the mail. You've seen Mark Schauer's name somewhere, but really, you don't know much about either of them. What do you do?
For many, you type "Tim Walberg" and "Mark Schauer" into Google. Focusing on Walberg, what do you get? The first five results are all either pro-Walberg or neutral-- Walberg's House website, Walberg's blog, Wikipedia, Walberg for Congress, and a National Journal profile. (The old Walberg Watch address comes in at number nine, while the new Walberg Watch is rapidly rising, now nearing the top of the second page).
Many people will probably stick to those five results, too. Of those results, only the Wikipedia article even comes close to offering different points of view, but only in the context of controversies that have arisen for Walberg. It doesn't keep up with current issues.
So how do we fix that? How do we make sure that Walberg's side of the story isn't the only one being seen? One way, of course, is for Walberg Watch to rise in the Google page ranking, and that's happening slowly on its own. But, oddly enough, Tim Walberg gave us another way of getting opposing viewpoints into the top Google rankings, albeit not directly.
Tim Walberg will finally make himself useful to his constituents today - he will pump your gas at the Riverside C-Store, 240 E. Columbia Avenue in Battle Creek, starting at 1PM. Good to see him putting in an honest day's work. If you are in the area, might want to stop by and ask him a few questions.
For example, let's concede his talking point on new drilling. Just give it to him up front. The real question behind that is - what makes Walberg think that Big Oil will invest in physical operations, when currently they sink 55 percent of their money into the stock market, and only spend in the "mid-single digits" towards finding new deposits?
No one questions that Big Oil is rolling in cash. The cash the biggest oil companies bring in from running their businesses, or operating cash flow, is four times what it was in the early 1990s.
"It becomes a management decision," said Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at Standard & Poor's. "It's not like they're going to the board and saying, 'Well, I can do one or the other or the other.' The balance sheets are flush with cash."
So what's Big Oil to do?
The companies say they are doing what they can to find more fossil fuels around the world, but the easy oil is gone. Exploring these days may mean expensive projects in thousands of feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico or costly ventures pulling petroleum from Canada's vast oil-sands deposits.
Even if we opened up new areas to drilling, there is no guarantee the oil companies would actually drill. They have shareholders that they answer to, not the consumer, and they have made it clear that is their priority. Wonder what Tim would say about that.
You also might want to ask him why he voted against lowering gas prices. A release from the reserves in the past has had an immediate effect on raising supplies, and that in turn has cooled the market. Granted, this is not a long-term solution, but it would help to curb the increasing inflationary pressures on products that are happening due to high energy costs that, coupled with the housing crisis, are curbing consumer spending in all areas and are pushing the nation's economy towards recession.
Walberg on Thursday voted against a bill that would have required the Energy Department to release 70 million of the 706 million barrels of oil stockpiled in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a network of underground caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. The 70 million barrels would have been replaced with a heavier grade oil, keeping the emergency reserve at capacity.
The bill failed, but proponents argued it would have put a bunch of oil on the market and, as a result of natural supply-and-demand logic, necessitated a lowering of gasoline prices across the country. That's how it worked with past releases in 1991, 2000 and 2005.
If there was ever a time for a strategic release, it's probably now. Why won't the Republicans help out regular people and our economy? Because they are more interested in giving Big Oil more breaks before they are ushered out of office. No other reason is plausible; the excuse from Bush about "an emergency" doesn't fly when the reserves will be replaced. Dick Durbin spells it out in no uncertain terms.
Top Senate Democrats also charge that Republicans are more interested in helping oil companies than finding solutions to high gas prices.
"Now they want to give them [the oil companies] a big, fat, sloppy smooch as they leave office by extending millions of acres for drilling across the United States and the outer continental shelf," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate Democratic whip. "It isn't going to happen."
Ask Tim why he wants to help the oil companies rather than the consumers. Ask Tim why they won't drill in the untapped space they have now. Ask Tim why he would vote against a measure that would help ease inflationary pressures on our economy and your wallet.
And just for fun, ask Tim to "check the oil" while he's pumping your gas today. It might be good for a laugh.
Today we're excited to announce that our campaign raised more than $427,000 in the second quarter, which breaks the previous fundraising record we set earlier this year. Combined with the last three quarters when Sen. Schauer outraised incumbent Tim Walberg, we have brought in more than $1.33 million and have more than $928,000 cash on hand.
In this quarter alone, the campaign collected more than 1,100 total contributions, with more than 83 percent of individual contributions from donors in Michigan. With just over 100 days to go before the general election, we have now raised more than our opponent brought in during the entire 2006 election cycle.
Congressman Walberg has done nothing to improve Michigan's job climate since taking office, but we fully expect him to do whatever it takes to keep his seat in Washington. That's why it's so important for us to keep working hard to defend against the impending negative attacks from Walberg's wealthy donors.
Thanks to everyone in the netroots community for your continued support!
Today we launched our official blog, where I will be posting updates from the campaign trail regularly to keep our supporters in the grassroots and netroots communities updated about the status of our campaign for change.
I'm a big believer in the power of grassroots organizing - that's why I've been such a loyal reader and supporter of blogs like Michigan Liberal, Blogging for Michigan and DailyKos. These sites have empowered a whole new generation of voters to get involved in the political process and fight for the kind of change that will move our country in a new direction.
For this race to be successful, I'll need your help online and on the ground to organize supporters and spread our message across the 7th district this year.
That's why I'll need your help this Saturday, July 26, when we will be competing with congressional campaigns across the country for Mobilize for Change: A National Day of Action. The goal is to see which Democratic campaign can recruit the most volunteers to phone bank and canvass that day, and the winner will receive a fundraising letter from a prominent Democrat to a national email list with more than 3 million subscribers!
In August of 2006, a man named Tim Walberg (R-Tipton) defeated incumbent Congressman Joe Schwarz (R-Battle Creek) in the Republican primary. Those that live in Michigan's 7th District may remember the vicious primary campaign, in which Walberg-- funded by the Club for Growth and other radical right-wing groups-- destroyed the name and good work of a dedicated public servant. Schwarz was conservative, but he was honest and hard-working, and was one of the few "good" Republicans left. And Tim Walberg, a former far-right minister, attacked Schwarz without mercy.
A few days after the primary, I started a blog called Walberg Watch. Originally hosted on Blogspot, I wanted to create an online record of Walberg's extreme positions as the 2006 election approached, facing the terribly underfunded Democratic nominee Sharon Renier. Walberg won that election by just four percent, and I found myself with a new blogging mission: following Tim Walberg's adventure through what will hopefully be his only term in the United States House of Representatives.
Over the last two years, a lot has changed, with much of it building toward the re-launch at the new www.WalbergWatch.com. Below the fold, I'd like to walk you through some of the additions to Walberg Watch. I'm excited by what we can accomplish in the next 126 days as we work to bring about better representation. I hope that by the time you're done reading this, you are too.
We had some exciting news to share today, and wanted to make sure folks saw this story from the Jackson Citizen Patriot:
A state agency this morning gave the go-ahead to award tax breaks to companies in Homer and Jackson, a move that will preserve and expand jobs, according to news releases from state Sen. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, and the Michigan Economic Development Authority.
The announcement was made at a Lansing news conference.
Schauer and state officials have been working with both companies -- Brembo North America in Homer and Production Engineering in Jackson -- to secure incentives that will help them invest in Michigan, instead of sites in Mexico or Indiana.
Brembo North America, which manufacturesbrake systems, plans to conduct manufacturing operations in Homer. More than 100 jobs will be retained, with the goal of adding another 176 over the next several years. Michigan won out over options in the Carolinas and Mexico.
You read that right - with help from the MEDC and Sen. Schauer, Michigan beat out competition from Indiana and Mexico.
There's an interesting little tidbit on Saul's "blog" this morning, in case you missed it:
WEST MICHIGAN FOR WALBERG... Doug DeVos, J.C. Huizenga, Mike Jandernoa and Steve Van Andel are hosting a luncheon fundraiser TODAY... June 16th at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids from noon to 1:30 p.m. For more information and to RSVP contact Sandra Baxter at (616) 803-0496 or email her at SandraBaxterE@aol.com.
I don't see Dick's name on the invitation, but you gotta think Amway Guy will be there (or at least send a check).
Many of you read Walberg Watch, my blog, which is great. I hope you appreciate the posts I've written and others have written, and I can promise a lot more in the coming months as we all work to replace Congressman Walberg with a much better representative.
Still, I want to do more than just write blog posts. I want to provide resources for you to use when working to convince others that Walberg has to go. In fact, I want to provide resources to convince you that Walberg has to go if you're an undecided voter. I want to make sure that on election day, you get out there and vote. I want to make sure that when Tim Walberg and his friends start to smear his Democratic opponent with lies and half-truths, there's an immediate response. And I want you to be able to help contribute content toward this goal, because any good political effort is the result of many people standing up, not just a few.
5. Mark Schauer, Democrat, Michigan's 7th ($751,000)
Schauer is a state senator from Battle Creek, the largest city in a mildly Republican-leaning district in southern Michigan where Republican Tim Walberg is seeking a second term. Like Burner, Schauer has raised and banked more money than the incumbent. Walberg had $604,000 left in his campaign account as April began.
The endorsements keep rolling in. From the mailbox-
The League of Conservation Voters, the independent voice for the environment, today announced the endorsement of Mark Schauer in the election for Michigan's Seventh District.
"State Sen. Mark Schauer believes in a science-based, not lobbyist-swayed, approach to global warming," LCV representative and Michigan native Kerry Duggan said. "He knows that clean energy technologies and higher efficiency standards will be an economic boon to the state, which has excellent potential for wind-power development."
"Here in Michigan there is a growing recognition about the potential ripple effect of the benefits of pursuing innovative energy ideas," Schauer explained. "We know that increasing renewable energy generation will generate good jobs, provide another source of income for our farmers, help keep energy affordable, and fight global warming."
"Schauer has shown impressive leadership protecting Michigan's natural resources," Duggan added. "As Senate Minority Leader, he sponsored Bill 724 to protect the Great Lakes, which sustain Michigan's livelihood and contain over twenty percent of the world's fresh water. In Congress, Sen. Schauer will oppose drilling in the Lakes, large water withdrawals, and bottled water companies siphoning our water without regulation."
Schauer's dedication to sound environmental policies is evident in his high Michigan League of Conservation scores; in his past two terms he has earned 100%.
In stark contrast, first-term incumbent Rep. Walberg (R) opposed every major clean energy reform in Congress last year, earning a 5% score for 2007. Rep. Walberg voted against repealing tax breaks to Big Oil, protecting Michigan's coastlines from unnecessary drilling, and conserving the state's water and air quality. Walberg's 5% score in 2007 was a sharp drop from that of his predecessor, Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz, who earned a 58% in 2006.
Just in time for Earth Day, congratulations Senator Schauer!
Democrat Mark Schauer increased his fundraising lead against Republican Rep. Tim Walberg during the past three months, despite an event in the south-central Michigan district headlined by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Walberg, of Tipton, reported Tuesday that he raised more than $265,000 for his re-election campaign in the 7th Congressional District. Walberg, a freshman congressman, ended the period with more than $600,000 in his campaign account.
Schauer, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, reported raising $326,000 in the quarter and entered April with about $750,000 in his campaign bank account. It was the third straight quarter in which Schauer, of Battle Creek, has outpaced Walberg in fundraising.
Cheney's visit raised over $100,000. Take that out of Walberg's total for the quarter and then do the math - it all adds up to big trouble for Timmeh.
As I have talked about here before, I'm keenly watching the Republican contenders for MI-07. One of the top two candidates likely to win the Republican primary already held the seat for one-term: Tim Walberg.
Cross-posted at 
Today we're excited to announce that our campaign raised more than $427,000 in the second quarter, which breaks the previous fundraising record we set earlier this year. Combined with the last three quarters when Sen. Schauer outraised incumbent Tim Walberg, we have brought in more than $1.33 million and have more than $928,000 cash on hand.
Today we launched our 
