Democratic Member (Barcia of Michigan) to Leave Congress

Associated Press ^ | Thursday, May 02, 2002 | NEDRA PICKLER

[Dog Gone]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Michigan Rep. James Barcia said Thursday that he will leave Congress at the end of his term and run for the state Senate rather than face a friend and fellow Democratic representative in a primary.

The congressional districts represented by Barcia and Rep. Dale Kildee were combined in the reapportionment map drawn by the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature.

``It appears my political opponents seem to have accomplished with redistricting what they couldn't with the ballot,'' said Barcia, a moderate who often voted with Republicans on abortion, tax cuts and other issues during his 10 years in the House.

Michigan's congressional Democrats are challenging the redistricted map in federal court with the argument that the Legislature drew the map to benefit Republican candidates unfairly. The plan pits incumbent Democrats against each other in two other districts -- Rep. John Dingell against Rep. Lynn Rivers and Rep. Sander Levin against Rep. David Bonior. Bonior also will retire at the end of his term and is running for governor.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson set the trial for May 21-23 in Detroit and pushed back the filing deadline for congressional candidates from May 14 to June 11. Candidates running for state offices, including the Senate, still have to file by May 14.

Kildee said Barcia has been ``a perfect gentleman'' as the two discussed their options for the future.

``We've cried together and we've laughed together over this situation,'' Kildee said. ``From the very beginning, we were both perfectly honest about what we were going to do. I had made it clear to him that I would run no matter what the situation was.''

[spintreebob]

If our friends at GOP, Inc. over in DuPage country would look out for the interests of ALL the Republican-leaning suburbs, we wouldn't have this problem.

True. But not complete. Starting with a Republican map in 1990, Republican Senate leader Pate had the smarts to win the Senate every time with Republicans like O'Malley winning Democrat areas as a bonus.

But Republican House leader Daniels lacked the smarts to win with a Republican map. He intervened in local races to destroy the party. The past State and Cook County Chairs also were clueless.

Stupidity is why Republican areas went Democrat; not ideology nor demographics.