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.

Comment from a New Jersey blog on convicted GOP felon, Allen Raymond,  author of "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative."

"As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: 'After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn't really any great ordeal.' "

We had some exciting news to share today, and wanted to make sure folks saw this story from the Jackson Citizen Patriot...

Here's why Club for Growth favorite Tim Walberg needs Dick Cheney raising money for him today:

Last August, when Mark Schauer decided to run against Walberg, MI-07 instantly became a top-tier pickup opportunity for Democrats. Until Schauer announced, the Cook Political Report had the race listed likely Republican (PDF). With Schauer in, it moved to lean Republican (PDF).

Now, a Detroit News poll is showing why Republicans should be sweating over Schauer's candidacy: When voters are asked to choose between the candidates by name alone, Walberg retains a lead, 51%-40%. But when the question includes a brief candidate bio, the race is a dead heat, Walberg 48 - Schauer 49. That's far from the only number he should worry about:

The overwhelming top concern picked by voters -- 41 percent -- was "improving the nation's economy and providing jobs."

The poll found that 53 percent of voters didn't know Schauer. Among those who do, 19 percent view him favorably and 12 percent don't.

On Walberg, a fiscal and social conservative who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, 42 percent of voters have a favorable view, while 30 percent don't.

But voters were split when asked to "rate the job being done" by Walberg: 39 percent rated his performance as positive and 38 percent gave him negative marks.

Walberg's got Cheney. Schauer's got us. Michigan bloggers are stepping up to help counter Walberg's Cheney money, with a goal of 100 contributions to their ActBlue page, and they're nearly there. Let's make this one more lesson to Republicans that having Bush or Cheney do fundraisers in their districts is more pain than it's worth.

Race tracker wiki: MI-07

Are there nine more people who can spare about $9 apiece out there who wish to tell Dick Cheney what they think of him?

When those of us who run Michigan Liberal and Blogging for Michigan planned this week's fund raiser in anticipation of Dick Cheney's fund raising visit to Michigan's 7th Congressional District, we set a very modest goal -- 25 donors.  Now, with the support of the national netroots, we're at 91 donors and $2,915.  We'd like to round that off in both categories, with 100 donors and $3,000 for Mark Schauer, the state senator who can not only beat the embattled Walberg come November, but stands the best chance to hold onto the red-tinted seat into the future.

Donate here.

(From the diaries. Let's greet Dick Cheney's visit to this Michigan district with a few dollars to his opponent, great Democrat Mark Schauer -- kos)

Dick Cheney is coming to Michigan's 7th District Friday to help raise money for Tim Walberg, who isn't just one of the nation's weakest Congresscritters but also high on the list of Republicans to topple come November. He's done so poorly at raising money and has done so poorly in consolidating support behind him, that there's been loose talk in Republican circles of running someone against him in the August primary.

So, what are they getting in Dick Cheney?  A fund raising shot in the arm by someone with a 22 percent approval rating, which is a remarkable feat considering that we no longer hear Cheney's name in the news.

We at Michigan Liberal and Blogging for Michigan think there's no better way for people to show their support for Dick Cheney than by giving money to the guy who is running against the candidate Cheney is stumping for.

Mark Schauer is Michigan's Senate Minority Leader, and the race for the traditionally Republican-held 7th District is regularly touted as one of the most watched races in the nation. He's outraised Walberg in terms of money, is running an energetic campaign ... all while his opponent continues to do things like vote against Head Start and refusing to vote in favor of recognizing Ramadan. It's a race Democrats can easily win this year, and Schauer has solid progressive credentials. By showing how much you love Dick Cheney, you'd be helping extend the Democratic majority into what is currently considered a Republican district ... and Schauer is strong and popular enough that he could potentially hold onto it during the next campaign cycle.

Our goal is a modest 25 supporters, and we're halfway to it at 13.

Two years ago, Tim Walberg was able to knock off moderate and popular Joe Schwarz in Michigan's 7th Congressional District Republican primary thanks in large part to a massive infusion of money from the Club for Growth.  Walberg went on to beat a massively underfunded turkey farmer named Sharon Renier in the general election, and has since developed a reputation for extremist politics in representing a fairly moderate southern Michigan district.

Last year, Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer threw his hat into the ring, and the race because a top-tier potential as a Democratic pick-up.  This week, the prospects of that look even brighter.

Worth mentioning here at Kos- we have ourselves what the press is calling a "heated" campaign in Michigan's 7th district. Wave bye-bye to Bush Republican Tim Walberg, and say hello to a real fighter for the people, Michigan Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer.

This guy rocks. He spent all last year calling out the do-nothing Republican majority in our Michigan Senate - there is no doubt in my mind that he would be a great addition to the United States Congress.

Originally posted at Blogging For Michigan, this comes from the Schauer campaign-

Michigan's seventh House district became a top-tier pickup opportunity for Democrats today when State Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer announced he'll be challenging first-term wingnut Congressman Tim Walberg.  

Local blog Walberg Watch had a guest post from Schauer today:

As you’ve noted in thorough detail on this site, Walberg continually obeys the extreme Republican agenda in DC, instead of the practical views of the constituents who depend on him. He has voted against a minimum wage increase, but for privatizing social security. He opposed expanding health care to more than 4 million uninsured kids, and he refused to support recommendations from the 9/11 commission that would help keep us safe. He didn't have a problem putting out a press release claiming credit for critical local funding, but couldn't bring himself to actually vote for the bill.

Given Schauer's strong record of running in the district - the AP points out that most of his state senate district is in MI-07 - and Walberg's rubberstamp Republican record (he's a Club for Growth favorite), this should be an extremely good opportunity for a Democratic pickup.  In fact, before Schauer entered the race, a DCCC poll apparently showed him beating Walberg by 3 points.

Additionally, Michigan's ninth district gained a strong candidate a couple weeks ago when Gary Peters entered the race.  Peters (who attended YearlyKos) is a former state senator and resigned from his post as lottery commissioner in order to run for this seat.

This seat is ripe for a pickup as well:

Michigan's 9th Congressional District will be one of the top targeted races for 2008. The DCCC has already aired ads exposing Knollenberg's awful record on veterans. Knollenberg is under fire from citizen action groups, and has been constantly bashed in letters to the editor throughout the district. Knollenberg is beatable. He narrowly won the '06 election with 51% of the vote, and has 15% less money now than he did this time that cycle.

It appears the 9th District has undergone a sudden blue trend. However the Democratic base in the district has been growing steadily for the last eight years. Despite the growing Democratic base, Joe Knollenberg continues to cruise to electoral success versus weak challengers.

In 2002 David Fink performed 2.21% below the Democratic base, with 39.89% of the vote, despite raising 1.2 million and contributing 1.2 million of his own.  In 2004 Steve Reifman performed 6.80% below the Democratic base, with 39.54% of the vote. In 2006 Nancy Skinner performed 4.28% below the Democratic base, with 46.21% of the vote. The Democratic base in 2006 was 50.49% (in '02 it was 42.19%, in '04 46.34%).

By contrast, Peters has a strong record in the district:

In the 2002 Attorney General race, Gary Peters performed at or above the Democratic base in 72% of 9th district precincts (234 out of 325). This certainly puts the candidate's performance in perspective. While losing by 4,677 votes in Bloomfield Township, Peters actually performed above base in all 36 precincts of the township. In his former home city of Rochester Hills, he outperformed base by 4.66%, in 30 of 32 precincts.  Despite losing the AG race Peters out performed the Democratic base in 72% of the 9th District. Consider that this is a statewide election, and each candidate did not necessarily concentrate on persuading 9th District voters. Peters was above base in 19 of 22 jurisdictions, and just slightly under base in the other 3 (within 2.2%).

Michigan has a strong local blogosphere and now they'll have a couple of really exciting races to cover.  

Race tracker wiki: MI-07 MI-09

Two weeks ago, Michigan Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) expressed an interest in joining the field of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination against far-right incumbent Congressman Tim Walberg (R-Tipton). After two weeks of rumors and discussions of his possible candidacy comes this news out of Michigan's 7th District, from the AP:

  LANSING, Mich. (AP) - State Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer said Thursday he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg in the 2008 election after declining earlier overtures to enter the race.

I heard the news early this afternoon. Around 2 PM I received a phone call, and 45 minutes later, Senator Schauer visited Walberg Watch, the blog I started to cover the race. He wanted to discuss his decision with me, my fellow bloggers, and the readers of the blog.

Mark Schauer, minority leader for Michigan's Senate, announced today that he will challenge Tim Walberg in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

"The people of Michigan's 7th district deserve a Congressman who will put their best interests ahead of his own, or that of special interests," Schauer said in a press release. "Unfortunately, the incumbent has been more concerned with the extreme agenda of George W. Bush and Washington Republicans, but that type of party politics doesn't reflect the values of our district, and it needs to change."

As we Kossacks know, the cost of the Iraq war has gone through the roof - in terms of dollars, American and Iraqi lives lost, and wounded servicemembers, among many other statistics. Furthermore, with the money that has gone to fight this catastrophic war,  millions of children could have been insured, or thousands of schools could have been built.

The National Priorities Project has released a two-page PDF document detailing the cost of the war to the state of Michigan as a whole as well as to each Congressional District.

State Senator Mark Schauer, a Battle Creek Democrat, was mentioned quite a bit last fall and early this year as a potential candidate for Congress in the 7th District. He's been a fantastic party leader in the legislature, supporting the netroots and working to solve the Michigan budget crisis. His name was even tossed around by supporters of Joe Schwarz in 2006 as a reason not to vote for Tim Walberg, suggesting that Walberg in 2006 would inevitably lead to a Schauer victory in 2008.

Schauer and his staff quashed most speculation this spring, promising to stay on as leader of the Democratic caucus in the Senate until the end of his term in 2010. Most observers-- including journalist Jack Lessenberry-- thought he would have been a formidable candidate, but Schauer seemed determined to sit this election out.

But all of that might be changing.

Regardless of your political leanings, the idea of recalling a sitting Congressman is an interesting one.

And the fact that it is being done towards a republican member of the House and is due to his support of the Iraq War makes it even more so.

From the AP:

National GOP leaders such as Karl Rove recognize that Michigan Congressmen Joe Knollenberg and Tim Walberg are vulnerable.

It's been mentioned in a couple of places that the 7th Congressional District in Michigan is going to be up for grabs as it has a first-term incumbent who managed to barely get elected over a poorly funded frequent candidate.  Now, in a move that has me a bit excited, there is a fairly well known political figure who has recently declared his candidacy.  More below the break...

I sure wish that someone would publish statistics on how many Iraq War-era veterans identify with the Democratic Party, compared with those who identify with the Republican Party. It seemed in the November elections that we had far more veterans among Democratic candidates than among Republicans. I think that might portray a trend that is going to continue to grow and that represents payback to this administration's waging a needless war based on lies.

I live in one of those gerrymandered districts that is rural and conservative, and sort of wrapped around the very progressive City of Ann Arbor. We're starting to hear from those veterans.

Here we go again. The GOP is recycling old talking points. Remember Britt Hume saying Iraq was safer than the state of California or Ann Coulter comparing sectarian violence in Baghdad to the gang war between bloods and crips in LA. Or how about the folks over at Wizbang saying that murder rate is higher in Philadephia than in Iraq. Well now we have Congressman Tim Walberg saying that Iraq is as "under control" as Detroit or Chicago. At least freaking get some new material for crying out loud.