The following essay was written by Ben Zylman who lives in Michigan’s 6th Congressional District and is “represented” by Congressman Fred Upton. I use quotes around “represented” intentionally and you’ll come to understand why when you read Ben’s piece. Enjoy. I’m not the kind of person who ever thought I’d write a political opinion piece. For years, I paid little […]

Michigan Families for Economic Prosperity is a coalition of advocacy leaders working to educate and empower Michigan voters about taxes and health care. They have two new ads out that highlight how badly two Michigan Republican members of Congress have betrayed their constituents and our state as a whole. The first, titled “Me”, features actual Michigan voters reading letters they […]

Listeners of The Sit and Spin Room podcast co-hosted by me and LOLGOP know that we are adamant that Democrats running against Republican Congressional incumbents hold their opponents’ feet to the fire for their repeated efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Their actions have threatened access to affordable healthcare for hundreds of thousands, even millions of Americans. ALL […]

The following is a guest post by Paul Clements, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 6th Congressional District seat now held by Big Oil puppet Fred Upton. Clements ran for this seat in 2014. Though he was ultimately unsuccessful, he received a huge boost from the Mayday PAC which spent $1.5 million to support his candidacy. I interviewed him then (HERE). […]

A new poll of 400 registered voters in Michigan’s 6th Congressional District, conducted by Hamilton Campaigns, done for the Paul Clements campaign, shows that Clements is in a statistical dead heat with Fred Upton. The poll shows Clements down by only 4 points, 47-43%, but within the margin of error of 4.9 points. This is an astonishing switch from a […]

Ruh roh, Raggy Things have started to heat up for Republican Congressman Fred Upton on the heels of revelations that he and a top staffer for his House committee made harrassing calls to funders of the MaydayPAC that is supporting his opponent Democrat Paul Clements. The American Democracy Legal Fund is has now formally called for an investigation into possible […]

I’ve been writing about the race in Michigan’s 6th Congressional District quite a bit lately. Two things have this race stirring up interest. The first is that Professor Paul Clements, the Democrat who is challenging Fred Upton for this seat, has been running a race that’s far more competitive than any previous Democrat has run. He’s raised more money and […]

When Fred Upton learned that MaydayPAC was planning to spend $1.5 million to unseat him, he went into freak-out mode. He quickly put out a defensive and poorly-done video on Facebook where he describes MaydayPAC as a “shadowy Massachusetts ‘SuperPAC’” and MaydayPAC founder, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, as a “Harvard billionaire”. Of course, MaydayPAC is far from “shadowy”. They […]

[This post has been updated to indicate that this is MaydayPAC’s second ad in MI-06.] Last week, broke the news that the citizen-funded MaydayPAC is planning to spend $1.5 million to defeat far-right Republican Congressman Fred Upton and to ensure that Paul Clements is the first Democrat to hold the seat in 21 years. Today, they released their second ad: […]

The MaydayPAC SuperPAC is a SuperPAC like no other. It is crowdfunded with a single-minded goal of enacting “fundamental reform in the way elections are funded.” Between May 1 and July 4 of this year they raised over $6 million using a Kickstarter-style fundraising approach. This election cycle, MaydayPAC is testing their belief that they can have an impact on […]

“I’m a participant in life.”

Fred Upton has been in Congress since 1987 representing the parts of southwestern Michigan. During that time, the Whirlpool heir has distinguished himself as a far-right conservative Republican on nearly every issue you could name.

Mike O’Brien, a former Marine and Missouri farmer, is challenging Fred Upton in Michigan’s 6th Congressional District. The gridlock imposed on Congress by Republicans unable and unwilling to compromise to affect change combined with Upton’s anti-environment, anti-women, anti-senior votes over the past several years, O’Brien felt there was both a need for change and a real possibility of victory. According to recent polling done by his campaign, he’s absolutely right.

My interview with Mike O’Brien after the jump.