Detroit Free Press columnist 'flat wrong to dismiss my chances' in 11th District race
Detroit Free Press columnist 'flat wrong to dismiss my chances' in 11th District race
District 'trending progressive,' incumbent McCotter 'vulnerable,' insists Democratic challenger
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Dearborn Heights, MI – Moderate voters in Michigan do have a choice in 2006 for the House of Representatives, despite what Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson might think.
Dickerson's August 11 column referred to the nine Democrats challenging Michigan's GOP House incumbents as "about as likely to
appear in a revival of 'Cats' or start in the National Football League as they are to represent Michigan in the 110th Congress."
The column blithely ignores demographics, makes light of the real anger voters in southeast Michigan have towards Republican incumbents, and mistakenly declared the races "essentially over" for voters in the political middle – an inaccurate blanket assertion, claims one of the challengers.
"Brian Dickerson is flat wrong to dismiss my chances in this race," said Tony Trupiano, the Democratic candidate challenging incumbent Thaddeus McCotter in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. "A closer look at the District and the campaign I'm running would change his mind."
"McCotter is a career politician whose voting record and positions are far to the right of his District," Trupiano said. "His votes – whether to avoid taking a stand in support of our troops,
weaken the Voting Right Act, or to define 12 million people as aggravated felons simply for being in America – show that he has little in common with the majority of his constituents."
As a state senator in 2001, McCotter led the GOP's effort to redraw Michigan's Congressional districts following the 2000 census, Trupiano noted. The new 11th District, including parts of Oakland County and suburban Wayne County, was designed solely to benefit McCotter when he ran for Congress in 2002.
"Since the 2000 census, the District he helped create has changed," Trupiano said. "There are more working class families, more Democrats, more voters unhappy with McCotter's inability to fight for them instead of the far right's agenda – the 11th District is trending progressive, and Thaddeus is now completely out-of-touch."
