A Path To Victory

Victory in the Eleventh this year is unlikely. With plenty other more enticing races around the country, the national party organization will likely ignore this race. Even the Michigan Democratic Party will be busy, with MI-7 and MI-9 being much better pick-up opportunities.

McCotter has a big name and a bigger checkbook. Our nominee will be unknown and underfunded. It will take, as I've stated earlier, a truly people powered campaign to take down Thad. We'll need a movement, not a candidate to win this race.

We need to educate the voters on Thad's record. We need to hammer Thad on the War, on S-CHIP, on the environment. Thad does not represent our interests in Washington, and we must make that clear to his constituents. Again, it will take more than Joe Larkin or Ed Kriewall to do this.

So in the spirit of a people-powered movement starting in Plymouth, I'd like to announce the formation of a Mad At Thad ActBlue page. ActBlue is a vital tool for progressives across the nation to build winning campaigns. We here in the Eleventh will be utilizing it as well.

Now, I'm a minor. I'm legally not allowed to contribute. So I'm counting on you. My goal is to have eleven donors over the next month. Just enough to show that the foundation for a grassroots campaign exists here in the Eleventh. Please consider making a contribution, and help us move one step closer to ousting Thad.

Spencer Withdraws; Endorses Larkin

I have good news and bad news.

First, the bad news. Tom Spencer withdrew from the race, this time for good. He never had enough funding to be a serious candidate.

The good news is that this primary is not over. The reason that Spencer withdrew was the entry of Livonia attorney Joseph Larkin. Spencer released the following statement explaining his decision:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

The upcoming election is one of the most important elections to come along in a long time. It will determine the future of this country as a republic based on the rule of law and not on the rule of men. For several years now this District has not had a representative that represented the people and as I visited with people in the District, I found that to be one of the most important issues people were disgruntled with.

It is time for us to take back the seat that Mr. McCotter has held and abused and give it back to the people. This election isn’t about me or other single person; it is about the future of our District, State, and Federal Government. In other words, it is about our people and their future. I feel it is important that we get behind someone that truly has the ability to beat Mr. McCotter in the upcoming election and that is why I am throwing my whole-hearted support behind Joe Larkin. He is a progressive Democrat with connections to the party for many years. But even more important, he wants to represent the people of the District and do what is best for our country.

I am asking for those who have supported me in the past and who signed my petitions to give their support to Joe. It will be a hard fight to overcome the entrenched candidate, but I feel Joe is the one to do it. I plan to continue to work to remove Mr. McCotter from office in anyway that I can.

Please visit Joe's website at www.larkinleadership.com. Thanks again for all your support and kind words of encouragement over the past several months.

Sincerely,

Tom Spencer

Larkin looks like he could be a good candidate. His website, Larkin Leadership, contains a detailed platform. He's against our continued occupation of Iraq, he has some great ideas on how to fix the nation's economy, and places an emphasis on the environment that I think will need to be a major issue this fall if we are to defeat Mr. 15%.

The one issue that seems like it might be trouble in the primary for Larkin is the fact that he is pro-life. But I like how he phrased his position to the Observer:

"It seems the only area he's concerned about pro-life is when you're in the womb and not when you come out of the womb," he said. "For example, he voted against extension of health care benefits for poor children. That is an area where I absolutely would have voted yes."

To recap, we still have an interesting primary and there is still a lot of work to do. I think that a heated primary campaign between Ed Kriewall and Joe Larkin would be good for the party, as neither of them have the name recognition needed right now. My message to the candidates: keep it clean, stick to the issues, and together we can win this November.