You may have seen some of the  YouTube drama surrounding MI-09 and candidate Gary Peters. Peters is currently serving as the Griffin Endowed Chair of American Government at Central Michigan University. As a former State Senator, State Lottery Commissioner, and Lt. Commander in the Navy Reserve he brings a unique perspective to the university.

In fact, the story was on the frontpage of AOL.com today.

Another unique perspective found at CMU belongs to young conservative Dennis Lennox. Lennox has been complaining that Peters should not be able to run for Congress at teach at CMU at the same time.

The root of his complaint poses a very significant question: should you be able to hold a job and run for office? We don't mind that incumbents, who earn a salary from the taxpayers, campaign for their re-election. Should a candidate have to be independently wealthy to run for office?

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The moment you've all been waiting for, and 4 days before they are due to the FEC, Peters for Congress is proud to announce our 2007 Q3 Fund raising total!

The Peters Campaign is off to an aggressive start, raising over $217,000 in the first six weeks!

That sum was raised from over 430 individual contributors, a sign of the overwhelming demand for change in Michigan's 9th district.

Gary himself is very excited about the results, and is ready to get to work.

"These numbers show that our campaign will be extremely aggressive and highly competitive," Peters said. "We want to give Oakland County residents the change they want and the representation they deserve in Congress, and based on the amount of support we've garnered in such a short period of time, I'm confident we will have the resources to do just that."

Many of the contributions came from ActBlue, where  Gary raised $41,564.26 in the 3rd quarter. The average ActBlue donation was under $250.

The campaign has also received many early endorsements, including the AFL-CIO, The Michigan Building Trades Council,  Triangle Pride PAC, and nearly every 9th district elected official.

The vigorous fund-raising and numerous endorsements are just the beginning. This will be a long, aggressive campaign that ultimately will bring about positive change for Oakland County. Are you ready to get to work?

• Learn more about the campaign at PetersForCongress.com
  
  
• Support Gary Peters on Facebook!
• Add the PetersForCongress Blog to your RSS reader!
• Subscribe to PetersForCongress on del.icio.us
• Hear from Gary on YouTube
• Contribute at ActBlue!

(Full press release at: Peters for Congress)

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The Cook Political Report has released its latest 2008 Competitive House Race chart showing 17 Democrats in Likely Democratic seats, 13 in Lean Dem seats and 0 in Toss-ups; of these 30 House members, 26 are freshmen in rough districts. It should be noted that this list is wholly unchanged from Cook's first chart of the year released in early August.

Among Republicans, the chart shows 17 in the Likely Republican category, 16 that Lean Republican and 4 Toss-ups including the recently announced retirements of Reps. Jerry Weller in IL-10 and Jim Ramstad in MN-03. Since early August, 2 Republican seats (the Hastert and Ramstad open seats) have been added to the chart, while Deborah Pryce and Jerry Weller have shifted to Toss-up and Tim Walberg in MI-07 shifted from Likely Republican to Lean Republican.

One race that Cook may soon be shifting from Likely Republican to Lean Republican is Joe Knollenberg's MI-09 re-election race. Congressional Quarterly has a nice article today about how this formerly reliably Republican district in the suburbs of Detroit (now R+0) is changing. Knollenberg went from a 19% victory in 2004 to a 5% win in 2006.

The Democrats have been making serious gains in what used to be more solidly Republican suburban turf. Since Knollenberg first won a House seat in 1992, his district has received an influx of residents from neighboring Wayne County, which envelops the overwhelmingly Democratic-voting city of Detroit. In 2004, the district's voters favored the Republican nominee for president, incumbent George W. Bush -- but by just 1 point over Democratic nominee John Kerry.

In addition to that, earlier this year we got our top choice challenger, former state senator and Navy Reserve lieutenant commander, Gary Peters, who has taken on the issue of Iraq head on, making a clear distinction between himself and Knollenberg:

Knollenberg supports the plan recently laid out in congressional testimony by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Petraeus defended Bush's troop "surge" that has been in effect since January, while suggesting that as many as 7,000 U.S. troops could be withdrawn this year and roughly 30,000 by next summer -- a drawdown which would leave about 130,000 troops in Iraq by July 2008, roughly the same number as prior to the surge.

But Democratic critics, including Peters, consider Petraeus' strategy to be ineffective. The Democratic candidate calls Knollenberg's stance on the Iraq War as a liability for the 9th District. "Joe Knollenberg hasn't stood up for his district," Peters told CQPolitics.com. "We are beyond a military solution in Iraq. We need to start drawing our troops down."

Peters said he doesn't favor immediate removal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. He favors doing a drawdown in a "systematic way" that would return military personnel back to the U.S. sooner than Petraeus' recommendation.

MI-09 should be considered yet another top tier pick-up opportunity and look for the field of Republicans in competitive races to rise as the list of GOP retirements continues to grow throughout the fall.

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If the first day of the campaign is any indication, Gary Peters for Congress will make an impact.

• In the Detroit Free Press the DCCC says Knollenberg has "every reason to fear a strong candidacy from Gary Peters"
• Today's Oakland Press quotes Gary as saying this race will be the "number one in the state"
• The Birmingham Eccentric highlights Gary's goal to make health care affordable and available
  
• Crains Detroit quotes Gary saying he will "fight tooth and nail for every Michigan job"
  
• Talking Points Memo Election Central covered the announcement, highlighting Gary's experience as a Lt. Commander and SEABEE combat specialist.
• mLIVE quotes Oakland County Democratic Party Chairman Dave Woodward calling Gary the "frontrunner"
• WLNS reminds readers Knollenberg is coming out of his toughest re-election ever
  
• Richard Owl Mirror's blog compares Gary to Mr. Smith, and says we need to send him to Washington
  
• Michigan Class Notes is excited to see a strong challenger in the 9th
• The Detroit News mentions this race is going to be expensive, and that Knollenberg is hoping for a Democratic primary to waste resources
• So of course it is no wonder Gary raised over $2,000 in just one day at ActBlue
  
• Michigan Liberal,  Daily Kos,  MyDD, and Swing State Project readers all got to see the Peters Announcement
  

We will continue to introduce Gary to the blogosphere. If you would like to get involved in the campaign, please signup for email alerts at PetersForCongress.com. Show the DCCC that we need to pickup House seats in Michigan!

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"A public servant with a record of fiscal discipline, Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) today announced he will run for Congress in 2008, pledging to fight outsourcing, help strengthen the economy and resolve the war in Iraq."It's official! Days after Joe Knollenberg made the announcement for him, Peters enters the race. It's no wonder Knollenberg felt the need to attack. Gary has an extensive track record of fighting for progressive issues as a State Senator.

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