I have to admit, this one blindsided me. Right in my own back yard, there's a race with national implications. It's right up there with Ned Lamont (who just won CT-Sen, for those of you who might not have heard of that race yet) and Cynthia McKinney (who just, and almost as famously, lost in GA-04).
I didn't see it coming. I grew up in this district, most of my family lives there, and yet I didn't notice that this would become one of three incumbent primary losses tonight. I didn't notice that the Republicans were about to nominate a badly distasteful uber-rightist to replace a reliable Red vote in the U.S. House.
Worse yet, we may have blown this opportunity already. And MY BOOTS weren't on the ground when they should have been. I'll suggest a lesson or two to be learned below the fold.
First, a quick and dirty background on the Republican side. Joe Schwarz represents the largely rural 7th district of Michigan. MI-07 stretches across the south central part of the state, from Battle Creek to just west of Ann Arbor. It diligently avoids any of urban Lansing, and carefully skirts famously liberal Ann Arbor. The 7th includes several small cities, plus enough of Battle Creek to keep it from mingling those pesky Blue votes with Kalamazoo. A cynical observer might even suggest that it appears to be drawn to benefit one particular party.
Joe Schwarz (
campaign site;
cache) is a reliable but otherwise somewhat unremarkable Republican vote in the U.S. House. His
Wikipedia entry describes him as a "solid moderate, which is fairly unusual for the 2004 freshman class of Republicans in the House." Maybe not the sort of fellow who'd seem ripe for a primary pick-off, but this is 2006.
Enter Tim Walberg, the Club for Growth alternative. A minister and former manager of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago (again, h/t
Wikipedia), Walberg entered the primary as a praying/shooting/bombing/warring/tax-cutting man's alternative to the relatively sane Mr. Schwarz. Tim's
campaign site lays out a few of the more palatable points:
- I understand that lower taxes increases economic growth and create jobs. Joe Schwarz has supported higher income taxes, business taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, and even suggested rescinding President Bush's tax cuts.
- I am strongly pro-life and endorsed by Right to Life of Michigan. Joe Schwarz supports abortion on demand and received $10,000 from Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion provider.
- I believe our federal government is too large and spends too much. Joe Schwarz voted against reducing non-security spending by 2% and a 1% across-the-board cut, but Joe Schwarz voted for taxpayers buying people Viagra.
- I received a lifetime A+ rating from the NRA for supporting second amendment rights. Joe Schwarz called Michigan's right-to-carry law "nuts" and has said the 2nd Amendment does not protect private ownership of firearms.
- I support drilling for oil in Alaska to reduce our dependence on Middle East Oil Imports. Joe Schwarz voted against drilling for oil in Alaska.
Read between a few other lines to find some real hard-right, neoreligicon, make-Pastor-Dan-blush wingnuttery.
He won, of course. Walberg is ahead in this race by 8 points with 87% of precincts reporting. By my math, he may actually have won earlier than Lamont. Yeah, I'd heard some murmuring about this race before tonight, but I had my time and attention focused elsewhere - specifically here and here.
But that in and of itself is a non-story. Republican on republican; dog bites dog. Nothing to see here. Move along, folks. But as the Republicans found on
their side of the Senate ballot, you can't take advantage of the other guy's misery unless you've had the foresight to field a strong, viable candidate of your own.
I hate to admit it here, but the Democratic field was... limited. While I haven't seen any official results yet, I know that four candidates were running for the D-side nomination. (Note that I'm not linking to any of their campaign sites until I find out who one our nomination. I'm a party guy that way. Not to imply that I look down on the junior senator from Connecticut. Oh no.)
Chuck Ream is a former teacher whose most passionate interest seems to be legalizing drugs. He cites Jesus as a reference for this crusade, and it might play well in Ann Arbor if the 7th district included it. Which it doesn't.
Daryl Campbell is a cop, ex-military, and sounds sincere, but I've never seen him mount a particularly serious campaign effort. And his CV seem to favor the far eastern edges of the 7th. While admirable, I worry that Daryl may not have the edge on issues that resonate with this rural district.
Fred Strack and
Sharon Marie Renier both seem to have reasonably progressive issues lists, but Strack's campaign effort sputtered visibly, and Renier was almost unheard of. I'd still lean toward Renier though; she has a legal background, and lives in a recognizably rural area, which should offer an edge. NONE of these candidates has held a significant elected office before.
Which brings us to the more reflective point of this diary. With the chance of a political stumble on the other side of the ticket, WHERE WERE WE? Where was the effort to put significant funding behind a strong candidate? Where were the loud public endorsements from respected local Democrats? Where was the campaign support for any of these four newcomers?
More importantly, WHERE WAS I? I had the time; I had the money. But while a serious pickup opportunity was developing to my west, I was busily occupied with some of the sexier races going on to my east. Don't get me wrong; I still support Tony Trupiano in MI-11 with all my might. But I had written off this very real "in play" district that was right under my nose. I didn't donate, volunteer, help, or support any of the primary candidates in any measurable way. (Ok, I should Fred Strack's hand as a local farmer's market once and offered him some words of encouragement. But I think we all agree that falls a bit short of the "tangible support" mark.)
Which brings me to the lesson I'm taking away from all of this.
THE 50-STATE STRATEGY IS A 435-DISTRICT STRATEGY. November is almost here. Get out there. Go to EVERY district where we have a candidate. (Sorry Joe - I mean NOMINEE. You're excluded.) Knock on doors. Work the phones. Ask the volunteer coordinator what they need. TELL the volunteer coordinator what you know how to do; they might not have thought about asking for it yet! Offer to feed the staff and volunteers for a day. Take November 6 and 7 off work now. Find out what your district needs most on those days and commit NOW to doing it.
In short, learn with me the lesson of MI-07. Make the R's work harder for every vote in every district. The seat we pick up might just be in your own district...