McCotter to face Kowall in 2012 primary for U.S. House seat

An article by Kirk Pinho    No Comments

Thaddeus McCotter has announced the dissolution of his long-shot campaign for the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nomination, and instead has shifted his attention back to getting re-elected to a congressional seat that represents a substantial number of west Oakland County communities, including Waterford, White Lake, Highland, Milford, Commerce, Wolverine Lake, Walled Lake, and Wixom.

McCotter, first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, has thrown his support behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who currently is in a contentious campaign with Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the GOP nomination for the highest office in the land.

“We must unite behind the candidate best capable of defeating Barack Obama on Nov. 6, 2012 — Mitt Romney is that candidate,” McCotter said in an e-mail to campaign supporters announcing an end to his presidential campaign.

Although the five-term GOP congressman announced his campaign for the presidency on July 2, in the nearly three months that have passed since then he hadn’t taken the stage to go head-to-head with his fellow Republican contenders in a nationally-televised debate. One of McCotter’s staffers stated that the organizations sponsoring each of the recent GOP candidate debates set their own criteria for candidates invited to participate. Apparently McCotter didn’t meet the various criteria, and he was left out of the debates.

Instead, McCotter had been making many recent appearances on national news and opinion television and radio programs to keep his candidacy known and get his message out to Republican voters.

McCotter’s poll numbers nationally — when his name is actually included in the polls as a candidate for the presidency — typically failed to crack 1 percent, national political media outlets report.

His decision to seek re-election to the 11th Congressional District seat will put him in a contested race to capture the GOP nomination for that two-year post, as well.

State Sen. Mike Kowall (R-Commerce, Highland, Milford, Walled Lake, Wixom, Wolverine Lake, White Lake, Orchard Lake, West Bloomfield) announced his intentions to seek the 11th District seat, as well, during a speech at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference held last weekend on Mackinac Island.

“The actions of the (Barack Obama) Administration and the Democratic Senate show what America knows: We are being neither led nor governed,” McCotter said. “Our struggle continues. The American people deserve leadership in Washington that understands America’s exceptionalism is not our burden but our birthright; and that America’s ultimate strength and salvation remains the unfathomable grace of God and virtuous genius of her free people.”

Kowall, who first made his intentions of a Congressional run known this summer, will remain in the race, even though he’ll be facing a sitting member of the U.S. House from his own party.

“I’m in it,” he said. “It’s going to be a typical primary, I would imagine. May is the filing deadline, and it’s a long time between now and May, so you never know what changes (are coming).”

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives serve two-year terms and earn about $174,000 annually.