Marlinga fires his campaign manager [MI-10]

Macomb Daily ^ | 9/17/02 | Chad Selweski

[BlackRazor]

Marlinga fires his campaign manager

By: Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer

September 17, 2002

Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga has fired his campaign manager, blaming him for an overly aggressive effort to go on the attack against Marlinga's congressional opponent, Secretary of State Candice Miller.

Marlinga has replaced Marc Silverman, a New York resident, with Vicki Selva of Macomb Township.

"I respect the guy but he was fired because we had some disagreements on campaign strategy and because his style with the staff was not conducive," said Marlinga, a Sterling Heights Democrat.

Marlinga said the campaign's struggles, with the newest poll showing him trailing Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, by 16 points, was not a factor.

The parting of the ways actually occurred in the days before the Aug. 6 primary election, as Marlinga quietly ousted his campaign leader.

Marlinga and Miller are facing off in a newly drawn 10th District that stretches from Sterling Heights to the tip of the Thumb Area.

Silverman was hired in March with the assistance of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He has now taken a job heading up the Hawaii Democrats' fall campaign.

Selva, a former Rochester Hills resident, said she has lived in Macomb Township for about two months. She worked on U.S. Rep. David Bonior's gubernatorial campaign, Al Gore's 2000 Michigan effort, her own bid for a Rochester Hills City Council seat in 1999 and the Bill Clinton campaigns of 1996 and 1992.

"I'm here to keep things going in the right direction," Selva said. "Marc was from out of town. You have to understand the values and the ideas of the area."

[BlackRazor]

A lot of the experts still have MI-10 listed as a toss-up, but I moved it to Leans GOP about a month ago. From everything I've read, Miller seems popular, the district went for Bush 53-44, and Miller has roughly a $600K fundraising advantage. Now this article references a poll that shows Miller with a 16-point lead. No details, however.

[BlackRazor]

Thought you might be interested in this.

[Torie]

The poll in this race came out about 10 days ago and Miller has a huge lead. She has it posted at her campaign website. :) This seat was never in play. Some seats that folks think are in play aren't because the partisan balance is too lopsided and folks end up voting their normal partisan habits absent something unusual happening no matter what they say in the interim.

[Dan from Michigan]

MArlinga ain't going anywhere. Miller is the most popular GOP'er in the state.

The dems have a shot at MI-11(McCotter vs Kelley), and should spend their money there.

[fieldmarshaldj]

This seat was drawn specifically for Miller, and she ain't losing it, period. I only wish she had run in '00 as she had promised to, and a lot of us were denied the thrill of seeing that little pit yorkie David Bonior having his a$$ handed to him (rather than gutlessly retiring).

[fieldmarshaldj]

I wouldn't be that concerned about McCotter, that should be in the bag. I actually am more worried about Knollenberg's 9th, we could lose that seat on demographics alone before the decade is out (Michael Barone and Charlie Cook, IIRC, were commenting that his district needed strengthening, but I believe the MI redistrictors made it more Dem to help Thad and Candice). Interesting to note that Knollenberg's seat hasn't elected a Democrat since 1890 (in what was then the 6th district), and it's one of the most ancestrally GOP seats in the country.

[BlackRazor]

The dems have a shot at MI-11(McCotter vs Kelley), and should spend their money there.

Agreed. And it sounds like they are. The Detroit Free Press ran an article about that race a couple weeks ago.

[Dan from Michigan]

I'm not worried about Knollenberg's district. That is more GOP now than it was before. It used to have Southfield it in and it went to Gore in 2000 and Clinton in 96. Bush won the new district.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Southfield was precisely what I was thinking about. Whose district did they place it in ?