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Detroit Free PressDemocrats strapping up to boot targeted McCotter out of seat
But success could swing on finding right candidate
BY TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • MAY 31, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Emboldened by success in 2008 in two Michigan districts previously held by Republicans, Democratic strategists are taking aim at U.S. Rep Thaddeus McCotter next year, considering him as vulnerable as just about any GOP member of Congress.
Here's why: McCotter spent more than $1 million to win a fourth term representing the district that covers northwestern Wayne County and stretches into southwestern Oakland but got just 51% of the vote. His Democratic opponent, lawyer Joe Larkin, got 45% of the vote spending less than $30,000.
Add to that the fact that McCotter's Livonia-based district favored then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama by 9 points in the fall, and it becomes clear why it's a prime target for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, as the next election cycle comes into view.
"The Republicans are going backwards, they're getting worse," said Bill Ballenger, who runs the Lansing newsletter Inside Michigan Politics. And McCotter, he said, "is in exactly the same position as Walberg and Knollenberg were."
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http://www.freep.com/article/20090531/NEWS15/905310474