I attended a meeting of the Macomb [County] Dems today, which was also attended by MDP Chair Brandon Dillon, former MDP chair Mark Brewer, and Rich Robinson, former executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN). It could have been a meeting devoted to the depressing litany of anti-democratic actions taken by our state legislature and governor; or to the serious, ongoing, and unaddressed issues facing Flint; or to the need for more money to fight in the courts and on the ground. And it was all that...and more.
I attended specifically in response to the Daily Kos Crowdsourcing the 50-State Strategy initiative (see Chris Reeves’ excellent diary here: Crowdsourcing the 50-State Strategy, and evcoren’s equally-excellent diary here: 4 of 9 Republican-held seats in Michigan uncontested), with the hopes of finding out more about the situation in MI-10. There were a number of loud-and-proud Democratic candidates at the meeting, but it wasn’t until the very end that I heard the news I’d been hoping for. We have a candidate for MI-10! Frank Accavitti Jr announced to the group (and later gave me permission to write about his announcement) that on Monday he will be pulling the papers at the local clerk’s office and filing with the FEC. Frank is not just Some Guy; he has a solid legislative history in Michigan. His legislative bio is here: Legislative bio, and some of his past votes are here: voting record. He looks to be a strong candidate to fight the fight that will be needed in a R+6 district.
In other good news, I had the chance to talk with MDP Chair Brandon Dillon about the other three uncontested seats, and he is confident that at least two will have D candidates. He’s cautiously optimistic that all of the seats will be contested and assured me that they are reaching out to county and local Dem clubs to ensure that a candidate is found for the one seat which is least certain. I walked away from my chat with Brandon feeling a lot better about the role of the MDP and our chances for contesting all of the Republican seats in Michigan