Schwarz endorses Democrat in House race (ex-RINO congressman)

WOOD TV ^ | 9-30-08

[Darren McCarty]

WASHINGTON -- Former Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz, who railed against an anti-tax group's role in his unsuccessful 2006 primary, endorsed Democrat Mark Schauer on Tuesday because the organization targeted the congressional challenger.

Schwarz told The Associated Press in an interview that he decided to endorse Schauer over Republican Rep. Tim Walberg in the south-central Michigan congressional district because the anti-tax Club for Growth began running ads critical of Schauer's positions on taxes.

...

Schauer, the state Senate's Democratic leader, supported tax increases in 2007 to balance the state budget and backed Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed 2 percent sales tax on services. When the plan failed, Schauer voted to raise the state income tax and a business tax to balance the budget.

Schauer said in an interview earlier this year that he supported the tax increases to avoid cuts to funding for schools, higher education, health care, local police departments and economic development. "We would have hurt Michigan's economic prospects and I was not willing to do that," he said.

Schwarz said his supporters and former constituents had repeatedly asked him who he planned to support. He had hoped to stay neutral in the race but said he would now let his supporters know that he backs Schauer.

"The Club for Growth is in and I can't as a matter of principal stay out of it any longer," he said.

[Darren McCarty]

I voted for a democrat once for a federal office in my voting lifetime. That was in 2004 for Sharon Renier over Joe Schwarz because because he is a jackass who was pro-abortion and a supporter of higher taxes. I voted for Brad Smith in the 2004 primary and Tim Walberg in the 2006 primary and general election, where Schwarz ran as a write in during the general election.

The only thing that pissed me off is that the RNC and all the Republicans backed this jagoff in 2006 over a good man in Tim Walberg. They should have talked to Michigan Republicans who rejected Schwarz by a 3-1 margin during the 2002 gubenatorial primary.

Tim Walberg for Congress.

[nobamanada]

Seems to me that Schwarz is just after revenge. What a tool.

[FlingWingFlyer]

A disgruntled RINO. How nice.

[PGalt]

Schwarz is a schwanz. Go Tim Walberg! Thanks for posting.

[Paleo Conservative]

(ex-RINO congressman)

He's not an "ex-RINO".

[Jazz1968]

Ol Joe is still bitter about Walberg winning in 06.
Want to see a poster child of a RHINO, Schwarz is it.

Tim is a good man and will be getting my vote!

[Darren McCarty]

I live right outside Ann Arbor. I rarely use the term RINO. It's overused. Republicans are a big tent. Most Republicans in Ann Arbor are usually more business oriented and liberal on social issues like abortion, with the exception of the Ave Maria Catholics. Over closer to Detroit, the Republicans there tend to be more protectionist, pro-gun, and pro-gun and distrustful of business.

All of them could be tagged RINO by another wing of the party. I don't use the term RINO for them. I save it for Schwarz, Chafee, Leach, Hagel, and the outright traitors.

[Darren McCarty]

He’s not even a RINO anymore. He switched to “independent.”

[JSteff]

So I wonder if anyone thought about all those foreign banks trying to unload on the US tax payers all the bad paper they bought in the US???

So are we going to get stuck with billions in bad paper the foreign banks bought in the US? We have enough problems of our own.

Will this be a run on the US bailout fund? Are we going to make their banks more liquid now too? If so I say let the foreign countries handle their banks problems. We should not bail out the greedy who came over here to get in on what they though were easy deals.

How can the government prevent it if the decided not to?

[judsonlegacy]

I think he meant “RINO ex-congressman.”

I don’t even see news value here. Walberg is in no danger in his district.

[paudio]

All of them could be tagged RINO by another wing of the party.

Unfortunately, you are right. I'm a social and economic conservative, but I can see that some people are into one but not necessarily into the other. If they want to be part of Republican party, which historically they do, we need to accept them. The great thing about Reagan is that he could keep both in the party.

[Rhino54]

Michigan is full of RINO’s the laws they enact go past socialist. Many are outright unconstitutional. Of course it doesn’t help when the Federal Government run by the GOP bribes the states to pass them.

[cripplecreek]

Schwarz appears to be dedicating his life to getting Walberg out. Schwarz is the worst kind of slime. I’ll be proudly voting Walberg again.

[NormsRevenge]

Joe is a former member of the RMSP, Republican Main Street Partnership, where ‘moderate’ is cool... just one of a number that got sent packing in 2006.. many many more still need to go in the House and the Senate (eventually)

Here’s a link to current listing of elected members of a Rino org.

http://www.republicanmainstreet.org/index.php/ElectedMembers

[Darren McCarty]

Oh, I know what Joe’s about. I helped send him packing in 2006.