Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Meet Your 2008 Candidates

Filing day today, everybody step up to the window. For some reason, the Monty Python sketch "Bring out your dead!" kept popping into my mind while reading these stories; just my weird sense of humor asserting itself once again. I also think it would be fun to get a Hoogendyk t-shirt and wear it to liberal events, so there you go.



The House faces major turnover. There will be a bunch of new faces filling the seats next year.




Forty-four of the chamber's 110 seats will be open because the incumbent lawmakers aren't allowed to run again. One more seat will be open because an incumbent eligible for re-election isn't running. Dozens of newcomers registered to run for the open seats before Tuesday afternoon's filing deadline, setting the stage for crowded August primaries in some districts.


And for Congress-




All 15 Michigan members of the U.S. House sought re-election by Tuesday's filing deadline. As expected, two incumbents — one-term Republican Tim Walberg of Tipton and eight-term Republican Joe Knollenberg of Oakland County's Bloomfield Township — can expect tough, costly contests from Democrats Mark Schauer of Battle Creek and Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township.


John Conyers is the only candidate who doesn't face major party opposition, but he does have one brave primary challenger. Follow the link above to see.



Want all the names? Check the handy-dandy Secretary of State list for the show nearest you. The Detroit News has a good round-up story including the full list of the term limited reps. It's hard to lose people like Meisner and Tobocman - but will be very happy to wave bye-bye to the likes of DeRoche, Steil Jr (although his wife is running for his seat), and Sheen.