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Former president working with Eric Holder to focus on redistricting efforts A group backed by former President Barack Obama participated at a D.C. gathering of deep-pocketed progressive donors strategizing to "restore progressive government" and to ensure fair redistricting in upcoming years. The gathering, hosted by the dark money Democracy Alliance network, is part of the network's spring investment conference and national donor summit held in D.C to plot resistance against President Trump and Republicans. The summit consists of numerous panels and discussions with key Democratic groups and players. Kelly Ward, the executive director of the Obama-linked National Democratic Redistricting Committee...

LANSING, MI — Actress Melissa Gilbert, best known for her childhood role as Laura Ingalls Wilder on "Little House in the Prairie," is running for the U.S. House out of Michigan. Gilbert, a Democrat who has lived in Livingston County since 2013, announced Monday that she is running for the 8th Congressional District seat currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop of Rochester. "Here in Michigan, I know people are doing their best to make a good life for themselves and their families. When it comes down to it, I think that's what we all really want," Gilbert said...

PPP's final polls for Governor in Florida, Michigan, and Illinois find incredibly tight contests in all three states. Florida is the closest. Rick Scott and Charlie Crist both have 44%, with Libertarian Adrian Wyllie polling at 6%. PPP usually has a policy of not releasing poll results to the decimal, but when we find a tie on our final poll of the cycle somewhere we make an exception. Crist is at 44.0% to 43.8% for Scott- in terms of raw respondents to the poll that's 526 for Crist and 524 for Scott. Wyllie may be playing a spoiler role for...

The 2014 Michigan gubernatorial election should be a referendum on the major changes to Michigan made by Governor Rick Snyder’s administration. Unfortunately, the debate is saturated instead with false claims of education cuts. Snyder’s opponent, former congressman Mark Schauer, centered his campaign around the allegation that Snyder “cut $1 billion from the schools.” Most school revenue in Michigan is channeled through the state. So the annual budget is closely followed. Overall spending on education is up over Snyder’s term. From the fiscal year 2011 budget — the last budget passed prior to the Snyder administration — to the fiscal 2015...

A new Mark Schauer for governor political advertisement features four teachers from four different school districts who claim that Gov. Rick Snyder has cut funding to their districts. But in fact, on a per-student basis, all four districts actually received more taxpayer money in 2013-14 than they did in 2010-2011, which was the last budget approved by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The ad features seven teachers but only four specifically cite lower funding. For months Schauer, who is the Democratic candidate for the state’s top office, has claimed that Gov. Snyder cut funding to public schools. This claim has been refuted...

It is time to reassess Michigan’s gubernatorial race; and flipping a coin might be the best approach to picking the winner. Polls show Gov. Rick Snyder and Democratic challenger former Congressman Mark Schauer neck and neck with Gov. Snyder’s momentum heading downward. Maybe Gov. Snyder – said by some to be the smartest man in the room – knows precisely what he’s doing. Maybe his advisers have spotted something encouraging in the polling numbers others have missed, but the governor has slipped into a dead heat after being the favorite to win re-election only a few weeks ago. Gov. Snyder’s...

Former Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) was hit with pepper spray while protesting “right to work” legislation outside the Michigan state capitol on Wednesday. “I immediately began to retreat and began to cover my eyes and my mouth,” he told the Battle Creek Enquirer. “It was not good.” Meanwhile, Fox News contributor Steven Crowder was punched repeatedly in an altercation with one protester. Schauer served one term; he beat Rep. Tim Walberg (R) in 2008 only to lose to the former congressman two years later. Tear gas was sprayed at least once, according to the Detroit Free Press. At least two...

LANSING, MI -- Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Mark Schauer this week outlined his plan for K-12 schools, knocked Gov. Rick Snyder's education policies and fired back at Republicans who say he doesn't have a plan for… much of anything, really. Welcome back to Michigan Political Points, my weekly roundup of interesting news, views and YouTubes from the state Capitol and beyond. POLITICS AND PLANS: Schauer, asked about the Republican narrative that he has "no plan" for Michigan's future, called his education proposal "a concrete policy plan" and invited Republicans to read it. "They should have read my proposal to raise the...

<p>DETROIT, MI -- Candidate for governor Mark Schauer plans to announce his running mate in a series of news conferences Thursday.</p> <p>Two Lansing-based news services, Gongwer and MIRS, report that Schauer is expected to name Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown as his candidate for lieutenant governor.</p>

Democrats and many in the media routinely complain about money spent in politics, and they regularly lash out at conservatives and big business. Turns out, unions are the top spenders in politics. Twelve of the top 20 political donors from 1989 to 2014 have been unions, which overwhelmingly support Democratic causes, according to an analysis done by OpenSecrets.org's Center for Responsive Politics. Seven of the top 10 donors overall give almost exclusively to politicians or groups on the left. ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for Democrats and progressive causes and features Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer...

SAGINAW, MI — A group of Saginaw County-area Democrats joined together at Saginaw's Savoy Bar and Grill to endorse Michigan gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer. Michael Hanley, chairman of the Saginaw County Board of Commissioners, said he met Schauer in 1996 on the former congressman's first campaign for state representative. "I can't tell you what a strong leader Mark has been since the very beginning," said Hanley at the event Monday, Feb. 24. "He certainly has a great wealth of experience. One thing he has carried with him throughout that entire experience is a strong support for working people." Schauer pledged...

Mark Schauer, Democratic candidate for governor, is railing against tax breaks for businesses. In a recent ad Schauer alleges that Gov. Rick Snyder cut education spending and used the revenue "to give tax breaks to businesses even if they send jobs overseas." Schauer's spokesperson, Zack Pohl, reiterated the claim in a recent Detroit Free Press article: "Snyder chose not to find new revenue for education because he used that money to pay for his huge $1.8 billion corporate tax break." The media has recently given more scrutiny to this narrative. Yet over the past decade Schauer himself was one of...

Former state Rep. Pam Byrnes, a Democrat from Washtenaw County's Lyndon Township, announced Thursday she's running for Congress to help fix a "broken system" in Washington. Byrnes is seeking the 7th District seat held by Tim Walberg, a Republican from Tipton who unseated Democrat Mark Schauer in 2010 to regain the seat. Walberg held the seat in 2007 and 2008 before losing to Schauer in November 2008. Byrnes will take her shot at unseating Walberg in 2014. "Washington is broken and Tim Walberg is part of the problem. He puts special interests and corporations ahead of middle-class Michigan families," Byrnes...

If ever there was a region where incumbent Republican governors can experience the great GOP gubernatorial apocalypse, it is the upper Midwest. Three of the races involve Republican incumbents who rode the Republican wave of 2010 into office. They are Rick Snyder in Michigan, John Kasich in Ohio and Scott Walker in Wisconsin. That potential loss of three Governor’s offices may be mitigated by a Pat Quinn Democratic loss in Illinois. The problem is that Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin are less red than Illinois is certainly blue.

LANSING, MI -- It's official: Former Congressman Mark Schauer is running for Michigan governor. The Battle Creek Democrat announced his candidacy online Tuesday and filed paperwork with the Michigan Secretary of State establishing a candidate committee, Mark Schauer for Governor, which will allow him to begin raising funds as he seeks the party nomination in 2014. He's the first Democrat to declare for the race and is the clear party favorite to challenge first-term Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who has not yet confirmed his own re-election plans but is widely expected to run. "We need a governor who will protect...

........... We know Schauer, having watched him as a state senator and congressman representing Jackson County for a total of eight years. So, at the risk of speculating too much — Schauer has only put out signals he will run — here are sone thoughts on his potential candidacy. — He is a tough campaigner. Schauer singlehandedly rewrote Jackson County's electoral map in 2002 when he comfortably defeated Jackson County politician Mickey Mortimer for the Senate. Schauer did so even though he lived in a different county and was running in a district that narrowly leaned Republican. By the time...

Michigan's 7th Congressional District would represent a high-profile upset for Republicans, given that the district includes Jackson, the birthplace of the Republican Party, and it had been in Republican hands from 2993 to 2009. Freshman Congressman Mark Schauer, a Democrat, narrowly defeated the GOP's Tim Walberg in 2008 and is facing a rematch this mid-term election. It's an anti-incumbency election in a slightly Republican-leaning district, so Walberg is presenting a strong challenge for Schauer. The race, as it stands, is a toss-up. ------------------ Key Differences between Tim Walberg and Mark Schauer Jobs: Schauer was a supporter of the stimulus bill,...

The latest poll by The Rossman Group and Team Telcom shows former U.S. Representative Tim Walberg slightly ahead of Democratic Congressman Mark Schauer. These numbers reflect voters in the 7th Congressional district. That's as far south as Hillsdale and Coldwater and up through Charlotte and some portions of Lansing. The independent survey polled 300 people. A little more than 42 percent side with Walberg while 38 percent support Schauer. 12 percent are still undecided. Another eight percent or so are pulling for other candidates. Now the interesting part about this race is Schauer is fighting to keep his seat against...

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), the only openly lesbian member of Congress, was at Affirmations June 14 to support U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) in his reelection bid. "We need Mark Schauer back in Washington," said Baldwin. "As members of the LGBT community, we need to make sure our strong allies, like Mark, keep their seats in Congress." "I am proud to be a co-sponsor of ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act), I voted in favor of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act," Schauer said to the group of about 20 community leaders and donors. Schauer said that pundits believe...

OLDWATER (WTVB) - It was a hostile standing room only crowd in Coldwater that greeted and at times jeered Representative Mark Schauer yesterday afternoon as the Seventh District Congressman attempted to find support for the recently passed healthcare reform bill which Schauer voted in favor of. However, most of those in the audience at the Burnside Senior Center would have none of that and peppered Schauer with questions about how the government can afford to pay for the reform measure.