Apr 05, 2007

Detroit Free Press - Knollenberg gets early jump on ‘08 campaign

Apr 5, 2007

Detroit Free Press - Knollenberg gets early jump on '08 campaign

WASHINGTON -- He'd rather talk about defending the auto industry than a campaign that's a year away, but the fact is U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg already is fighting to keep his seat in Congress.

The past few months have seen the eight-term Bloomfield Township Republican hire a new chief of staff, fire off flyers to thousands of households and erect a billboard touting himself as a defender of Detroit values.

He's quick to say the moves are about policy, not politics. But he recognizes that Democrats have called his seat -- considered GOP safe after it was redrawn following the 2000 census -- one of the most vulnerable in next year's elections. Among the cities Knollenberg represents are Royal Oak, Birmingham, Rochester Hills, Pontiac and Farmington Hills.

"The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) put a target right on my back," Knollenberg told the Free Press. "I know what the outcome would be if I didn't do it."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who runs the DCCC, said a strong candidate in the 2008 election could unseat Knollenberg.

"We're very bullish on this race," Van Hollen said.

Fueling the perceived vulnerability for Knollenberg are results from last November's election. Knollenberg won 52% of the vote, but spent about $3 million to do so, according to reports from the Federal Election Commission. His opponent, Nancy Skinner, got 46% of the vote while spending just $400,000.

In a year that saw significant Democratic gains in both the House and Senate, Republican officials in Michigan say the mere fact that Knollenberg won shows his strength.

Democrats, meanwhile, say Knollenberg has been a rubber stamp for President George W. Bush's initiatives -- specifically the Iraq war -- and that it is too late for him, 20 months before the election, to remake his image.

The flyers, talk of bipartisanship and attacks on prominent Republicans such as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, they say, will have little effect.

"I think it's going to be very difficult for him to do an about-face," said Van Hollen.

Knollenberg said that he's simply trying to communicate with voters at a critical time. Still, it's clear he has stepped up his efforts.

On Friday, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Coles, was in the district for a private fund-raiser for Knollenberg with a per-couple cost of $1,000. The event, at a Bloomfield Hills home, raised about $80,000.

Campaign makeover

Knollenberg's new effort to get out his message follows his hiring of Trent Wisecup, an Oakland County native who started as an intern with Knollenberg and went into political consulting, working with former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham of Michigan, as well as Schwarzenegger.

In the wake of Wisecup's hiring, Knollenberg's office revamped its Web site -- it cost about $14,000 -- and began sending out flyers to more than 78,000 people in the district. Wisecup declined to say which areas of the 9th District are getting the mailings.

At a cost of $26,000 each, the flyers came not as campaign messages but as "official business" from the congressman, paid for at taxpayer expense and approved by the House commission that handles such mailings.

The first declared, "It's a new day in Washington," trumpeting Knollenberg's votes to ban junkets and gifts from lobbyists.

The Free Press previously had reported that Knollenberg took 10 trips paid for by lobbyists from 2000 to 2006, including to Hawaii and Budapest.

"The fact is, we did have a problem," Knollenberg said.

Blaming Schwarzenegger

The second mailing linked the threat to the auto industry posed by increased mileage standards to falling home values in metro Detroit and pushed for new research on alternative fuels, noting he voted for a bipartisan bill to repeal billions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies. Automakers say the fuel efficiency increases would cost them too much to implement.

Knollenberg knocked Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm for not doing more to help the auto companies, but has been equally vocal against Bush proposing the fuel standards.

He has singled out Schwarzenegger, in particular, as a villain for what Knollenberg's campaign calls "job-killing mandates."

Drivers along southbound I-75 in Detroit see a billboard with a huge frowning photo of the California governor and the message, "Arnold to Michigan: Drop Dead!"

It directs people to the Web site www.big3defense.com, paid for by Knollenberg's campaign committee, where Schwarzenegger, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Sen. Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, are lumped together as the gang coming after Detroit-made cars -- with Bush playing a supporting role.

"Arnold is a perfect symbol for how Detroit is getting unfairly bullied in this debate over energy independence and global warming," the Web site reads.

Running scared?

Some critics, such as Van Hollen, see the efforts as campaign tactics, designed to make Knollenberg appear independent and strong. Knollenberg said they are just ways to communicate with constituents at a critical time.

"I would be doing this if I won by 20 points," said Knollenberg.

At least one political observer, Bill Ballenger, who publishes the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics, said Knollenberg is "running scared."

"It sounds like Rip Van Winkle just woke up," he said.

But Ballenger would still put his money on Knollenberg, noting that incumbency is hard to overcome and Knollenberg was the quintessential organizer for the Oakland County Republicans before he won his seat in 1992.

Besides Skinner, who has been hired as chief of staff to Michigan's first gentleman, Dan Mulhern, another possible opponent for Knollenberg is Michigan Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters, a former state senator.

Knollenberg said his efforts to speak directly to the folks in his district are just getting under way.

"We'll be doing a whole lot of things," he said. "If you don't, you're a fool."

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