About the 1st Congressional District & upcoming elections ...

Michigan’s 1^st Congressional District is the second largest congressional district in land mass east of the Mississippi River. Its boundaries contain much of the northern part of the Lower Peninsula in addition to the entire Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Altogether, the district makes up about 44% of the State of Michigan. It contains the second longest shoreline of any district in the United States, with Alaska being the first.

It contains all of 30 Michigan counties and a portion of the 31st. Making it comprised of almost 3/8th's of the states 83 total counties.

The district was previously represented by Democrat Bart Stupak, from 1993 to 2010. Republican Dan Benishek is the current Representative of the 1^st Congressional District, his term expiring this year. Vying for the privilege of running against Benishek in the November general election are Democrats, Gary McDowell and Derek J. Bailey. The Challenger will be determined in the August 7^th Democratic Primary Election.

 On February 28th there will be a state-wide Presidential primary. Here is a recent communication from Michigan Democratic  Chair, Mark Brewer on the subject of how the Democrats came to be involved in it and how we should govern ourselves accordingly :

“The Republicans are determined to waste $10 million of taxpayer money on an unnecessary presidential primary on February 28th. To make matters worse, they're trying to drag Democrats into it, despite the fact that we have chosen not to participate.

In order to confuse and disenfranchise Democratic voters, Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson placed President Obama's name on the February 28th ballot solely to create partisan mischief. Our attempts to keep the President's name off of the ballot were ignored. Therefore, the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee has decided not to enforce the party rule that prevents Democrats from participating in both the presidential primary and the MDP's presidential caucuses on May 5, 2012.

We won't let Republicans confuse or disenfranchise Democrats. Democrats who vote in the primary will not be banned from participating in our caucuses.
Please read the MDSCC's resolution from this past weekend's meeting and share it with at least 10 of your friends. Please post it to your websites and social network accounts. We need to get the word out to alleviate confusion and make sure no Democrats are disenfranchised."

GDH