McCotter resigns: Special election scheduled to fill seat

In under two months, U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter has gone from being virtually assured re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives for a sixth 2-year term to being a pariah in his own party.

Now McCotter, a Livonia Republican whose district also represents the west Oakland County communities of Waterford, White Lake, Highland, Milford, Commerce, Wolverine Lake, Walled Lake and Wixom, has resigned from Congress, prompting the scheduling of a September special election to fill the vacancy for the remainder of McCotter’s unexpired term.

The resignation announcement came on Friday, July 6.

“After nearly 26 years in elected office, this past nightmarish month and a half have, for the first time, severed the necessary harmony between the needs of my constituency and of my family,” McCotter said in the release. “As this harmony is required to serve, its absence requires I leave. The recent event’s totality of calumnies, indignities and deceits have weighed most heavily upon my family. Thus, acutely aware one cannot rebuild their hearth of home amongst the ruins of their U.S. House office, for the sake of my loved ones I must ‘strike another match, go start anew’ by embracing the promotion back from public servant to sovereign citizen.”

McCotter, known for his love of rock ‘n’ roll and guitar playing, was quoting the Bob Dylan song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” in his statement.

“I do not leave for an existing job and face diminishing prospects (and am both unwilling and ill-suited to lobby), my priorities are twofold: find gainful employment to help provide for my family; and continue to assist, in any way they see fit, the Michigan Attorney General’s earnest and thorough investigation, which I requested, into the 2012 petition filing.”

McCotter has been riddled with negative media in recent weeks, first starting with his announcement in May that his team had not submitted enough signatures to appear on the Aug. 7 primary election ballot, prompting an investigation by the office of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.

His team had turned in just 244 of the required 1,000 registered voter signatures to appear on the primary ballot. Some of those had been photocopied. McCotter has accepted responsibility for the error and from the beginning of the development requested the investigation that remains ongoing.

“In closing, to the people of Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, I can but say this: Thank you for the privilege of having worked for you,” the statement ended.

The district’s offices in Washington D.C., Livonia and Milford will remain open under the direction of the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the statement said. Staff will continue to be available.

McCotter’s statement said he wouldn’t be granting interviews until the findings of the investigation have been made public.

He had planned on running as a write-in candidate but dropped those plans within a few days, saying that he would serve out the rest of his term and then step out of the public arena for good.

Late last month, he announced that he would gift the balance of his campaign funds to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, effectively quashing any notion that he would again seek elected office. According to the Federal Elections Commission, McCotter had $193,242 in his campaign war chest at the end of March. He also had no campaign debt at that time.

McCotter’s absence from the Aug. 7 primary election ballot left a sour taste in the mouths of Wayne and Oakland county GOP kingpins, who last month tapped former state Sen. Nancy Cassis to run as a write-in candidate against Milford Republican Kerry Bentivolio, a Tea Party favorite who many in the party view as an ineffective candidate with extreme views.

Bentivolio staffers have called those accusations “absurd.”

Gov. Rick Snyder announced Tuesday, July 10 that there would be a Sept. 5 special election held to fill McCotter’s seat in the U.S. House for remainder of his term.

Public Act 116 of 1954 requires that the governor call a special election or direct that a vacancy be filled in the general election, which has to occur at least 30 days after the vacancy is created.

Some top Republicans were disheartened about the possibility of a special election to fill McCotter’s seat.

“I don’t know what goes on from here,” said state Sen. Mike Kowall (R-White Lake, Commerce, Highland, Milford, Walled Lake, Wixom, Wolverine Lake, Orchard Lake, West Bloomfield) prior to Snyder’s announcement. “God forbid we would have to do something like (hold a special election). Can you imagine the cost to the local units of government? That’s just adding insult to injury. I don’t know what the governor is going to do… I’m actually at a total, complete loss as to what’s going to happen next.”

Milford Township Clerk Holly Brandt said she expects a special election just to replace McCotter for the remaining months of the term would cost a little less than $15,000.

She added that the cost to Highland Township would likely be similar.

“He was always a unique or somewhat unusual member of Congress, so I guess his departure would have to be as unusual as his years in office,” said Oakland County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Houston. “I am disappointed that, if he was going to resign because of the (petition signature) fiasco, he could have given the state more notice and more of a heads-up. It’s not good for anybody to go unrepresented in the 11th Congressional District.”

Dr. Syed Taj, a Canton Township Democrat, and Bill Roberts, a self-described “LaRouche Democrat” from Redford Township, are in the battle for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the new 11th Congressional District seat, which carries a two-year term that pays $174,000 annually.