As anyone who's been reading my diaries over the past few weeks knows, I've been pushing very hard to help Lance Enderle win the Democratic primary in Michigan's 8th District.
Now, MI-08 is outside of the metro Detroit area , but it does include parts of northern Oakland County as well, and it is, you know, a race for the United States Congress. They have no problem running detailed articles about the race to replace Bart Stupak in MI-01, and that's way at the opposite end of the state. With the primary coming up this coming Tuesday, you'd think that there would be some sort of mention of the race in the major Michigan newspapers, wouldn't you? The Detroit Free Press? The Detroit News?
Well, let's take a look. First up, the Detroit Free Press:
Lessee...they make endorsements in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th districts. The 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th districts get no mention whatsoever. Not an endorsement, not even a mention of which candidates are running.
Now, I have no clue what the situation is in the other 4 districts that get passed over, but here in the 8th we have a rather unique situation, in that the only Democrat listed on the ballot is, effectively A PHANTOM.
That's right--Kande Ngalamulume very publicly dropped out of the race a week AFTER the filing deadline, and then left Michigan--but refuses (so far) to register his residency in another state. The result of this is that unless Lance Enderle is successful in his write-in campaign, there won't be ANY actual living, breathing, flesh & blood Democratic candidate on the ballot in MI-08 in November.
While write-in campaigns are generally considered a joke a the Congressional level, this one is rather different. Lance has a small staff and a smaller budget, but he's been pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, shaking hands and talking to people one-on-one and at district Democratic club meetings. He's been doing radio interviews, handing out flyers and basically working his ass off to try and make sure that someone is there in November to stand up to Mike "Let's Drill in the Great Lakes!" Rogers, the GOP incumbent who's been embarrassing the district for the past 9 years.
How about the Detroit News?
OK, this is a little better--they at least mention the 8th district. Unfortunately, in some ways this is even worse, since it's highly misleading:
8th District: Seat: Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, is finishing his fifth term.
Behind the ballot: In November, he'll face Democrat Kande Ngalamulume, a business analyst whose family emigrated from Zaire when he was a child, and Rogers is expected to win another term.
That's it. They don't mention ANYTHING about Ngalamulume dropping out of the race and skipping town, nor is there even a footnote about Enderle or the messy situation that this leaves the district in.
Then, of course, there's the News' list of endorsements, where they once again fail to mention the 8th at all.
This is not a normal situation, this is no normal write-in campaign, and the Free Press and News should be ashamed of themselves for not at least mentioning the race.
Lance Enderle for Congress
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Full disclosure: While I'm working at a substantial discount, I am still being paid. Mostly, however, I'm just upset at the mess caused by Kande's withdrawl and am trying to help salvage the situation.