He doesn’t have to be in the district to run here but I think it will cripple him pretty severely.
A little history pro abortin Dr Joe.
Won the 7th district seat in a 5 man race in 04, lost the primary to Walberg in 06 and announced a write in campaign in the final weeks of the general election which Walberg won. Endorsed Marxist Mark Schauer over Walberg in 08, Walberg lost that race. Endorsed Mark Schauer in 2010 then switched his endorsement to republican challenger Brian Rooney but Walberg retook the nomination and the district seat.
This little vendetta is getting pretty old.
I know that one doesn’t need to live in a congressional district to run there (Article I merely requires that one be an inhabitant of the *state* that one represents in the House of Representatives), but without Battle Creek and Calhoun County in the MI-07 there won’t be any areas in which Schwarz will outperform a standard Democrat, and he won’t be able to beat Walberg.
And, yes, I remember Schwarz’s trajectory very well, winning the GOP primary in the MI-07 with like 30%, voting like the RINO that we all knew he was, and getting his panties in a bunch after Walberg beat him in the 2006 primary. Why the MI legislature hasn’t adopted run-offs in cases in which no one gets 50%+1 (or at least 40%+1, like NC does) in the primary is beyond me. If a white guy beats out Clarke in this year’s primary because the black vote got split, maybe you’ll see Democrats call for run-offs to ensure that a majority of the party’s electorates approves of the nominee in each district.
I always like to point it out—Schwartz was endorsed by Karl Rove and the national GOP establishment every step of the way. That was the specific nail that forever doomed my associating with party politics.