There has been a great deal of discussion in Michigan’s mammoth 1st Congressional District about whether Republican candidate Jack “You’re gonna hafta roll the dice with me” Bergman is a long-time resident of the district or if he is, in fact, a resident of Louisiana. Here’s what I wrote when I visited this race last month: In 2013, he was […]

Watching Republican Jack Bergman running for Congress in Michigan’s mammoth 1st Congressional District is fascinating. He’s a charming, affable guy but when you scratch the surface of his façade, he’s not informed about many issues and he’s nothing more than a typical tea party Republican on all of the others. The campaign of the Democrat running for the seat, Lon […]

This post has been hilariously updated below. Recent polling in Michigan’s 1st Congressional District shows Democrat Lon Johnson with a narrow 2-point lead in the “Leans Republican” district. This has Republicans freaking out and now they have resorted to airing a completely false ad contending that Johnson doesn’t live in Kalkaska as he claims and, in fact, lives in a […]

Lon Johnson, the former Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, has made shutting down Enbridge Oil’s notorious Line 5 oil pipeline the center of his primary bid for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District seat. The controversial pipeline runs under the Straits of Mackinac and the horror of it rupturing is nearly too horrible to contemplate. Imagine that it fails in the […]

Three Michigan Congressional races have been added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) “Red-to-Blue” program, a highly competitive program that targets races where the DCCC believes the Democratic candidate can oust the incumbent Republican. The DCCC describes the Red-to-Blue program as a program that “highlights top Democratic campaigns across the country, and offers them financial, communications, grassroots, and strategic […]

In a move I think it’s safe to say nobody saw coming, Republican Congressman Dan Benishek has dropped out of the 2016 race for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. This comes after he hypocritically said he would NOT drop out so that he could focus on veterans’ issues, something he has paid scant attention to since he became a member of […]

Tonight at 5:00 p.m., Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson will announce his candidacy for Congress in Michigan’s 1st Congressional District, challenging Republican incumbent Dan Benishek. He will be making the announcement at the Marquette County Democrats’ annual Summer Sizzle Picnic in Ishpeming. Word on the street is that House Democrat Brandon Dillon will be replacing Johnson as Chair of […]

There are an inordinate number of rumors swirling around the state at the moment, all of them unconfirmed. I don’t typically dabble in reporting about rumors but it seems silly to ignore things like this that are being widely talked about in various circles. The first rumor is probably the biggest potential bombshell if it turns out to be true. […]

Update:  The program I mention toward the end of this story was called “The Win Machine” and it was delayed for use but eventually went up and was successfully used by 2500 people, a significant number.  Also, and this did deserve a mention earlier today, but the miabsetee.com app/site was VERY successful and helped both many Democrats and Republicans register […]

“We have to do a better job of showing the voters in Michigan how we’re going to create a state where they can stay and succeed.” I first interviewed Lon Johnson almost exactly two years ago when he first ran for Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. He ran a spirited campaign for Chair gaining support from the entire Democratic […]

Following the 2012 presidential election, for the first time in many years, there was a real race for the leadership of the Michigan Democratic Party. Mark Brewer had been at the helm for 18 years and, though challenged by others over that period of time, no one had done so successfully. However, in 2013, Lon Johnson, a former Congressional candidate, […]