Fred Upton Cancels The One Debate He Had Agreed To With Paul Clements-- And It Wasn't Even About A Fan

Fred Upton only agreed, reluctantly, to one debate— and only after Paul Clements started gaining tremendous traction in the southwest Michigan 6th congressional district. Upton, an heir to the Whirlpool fortune that once— but no longer— was the biggest employer in the area, doesn’t like being questioned or reminded of his record. Shipping all those Whirlpool jobs— i.e., Republican-backed “outsourcing”— doesn’t go over well with his constituents.

Western Michigan along the 94 in towns from Three Oaks, New Buffalo, Sawyer up through Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, and over to the 196 through Lake Michigan Beach, South Haven and Saugatuck is one of the most environmentally sophisticated areas of the country and they are not supporters of Upton’s GOP agenda of despoiling the natural beauty of one of America’s most beautiful areas for the benefit of a few wealthy corporate exploiters.

Yesterday, though, Upton suddenly canceled the one debate. He claims it interfered with the Ebola hearings in his committee, which ended at 3pm and had been scheduled almost 2 weeks ago. Yes, the hearings ended in plenty of time for Upton to hustle his ass back to Lake Michigan College— if he wanted to— for the 8:15 PM debate. Mark Miller, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party's 6th District Committee: “Last month, he ducked a debate request in Kalamazoo, and now he's cancelled the debate he agreed to over a month ago in Berrien County. The hearing he cites as a conflict started at noon, and he's known about it for two weeks. The debate was scheduled to being at 8:15 PM. I'm not a travel agent, but a quick search online shows multiple flights available that could have allowed Congressman Upton to keep his commitments to the people of southwest Michigan. I am sure that Congressman Upton has more than enough money for a flight after taking millions from the special interests, including over one million dollars from the health insurance industry. Members of Congress should be able to do more than one thing at once.”

Upton is starting to unravel in the face of the first campaign to ever give him a real challenge. He had been counting on his fellow Establishment shill, DCCC chairman Steve Israel, to protect him again— and Israel has put tremendous effort into preventing Democratic donors and PACs from helping Paul Clements. But the slimy Israel was unable to stop Lawrence Lessig’s non-partisan, good government, crowd-sourced operation, the MayDay PAC, from jumping into the race to finally let MI-06 voters know the truth about what Upton has been doing in DC and how he’s changed since they first elected him in 1986.

Upton has now focused his campaign on inchherent attacks against Lessig, calling him— falsely— “a Harvard billionaire,” whatever that’s supposed to convey. This race is turning into the single most important House race in the country— one that pits The People against the Beltway Establishment (Upton’s GOP crooks and Israel’s Democratic crooks).

Republican heavyweight Mark McKinnon, the former George W. Bush adviser, who co-founded MayDay PAC with Lessig: “Fred Upton obviously couldn't sit still while we told the truth about his record of putting the big-money special interests ahead of the people so he put up this misleading ad. At least he's wasting a bunch of that special interest money he has raised over the years. Chairman Upton is welcome to air all the ads he wants, and we intend to keep telling the voters of Southwest Michigan that we can't afford Fred Upton anymore." 

Yesterday, Fred Upton’s campaign released a new ad making provably false claims that Fred Upton has protected seniors’ access to Medicare and worked to secure coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

The truth is that Fred Upton is not on the side of regular people:

•        Upton has taken nearly $10 million in special interest money from PAC’s.
•        Upton voted against legislation that would have allowed lower drug prices and later voted in favor of the Ryan Budget, which was described by ABC News as the ‘end of Medicare as we know it’.
•       Upton has also been steadfast in support for changing federal health insurance law to eliminate insurance coverage for some of the most vulnerable patients.

…MYTH: “Fred Upton has always been on our side.”

FACT: Upton has received nearly $10 Million from special interests.

According to records maintained by CQ Political MoneyLine, Upton had received $9,996,939 from PACs during his career.

MYTH: Upton is “Working to protect seniors’ access to life-saving medications.”

FACT: In 2007 Upton Voted against Medicare Prescription Drug Negotiation Act. According to Govtrack.us, the bill “require[s] the Secretary of HHS to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers the prices that may be charged to prescription drug plan sponsors and Medicare Advantage organizations [Roll Number 23, 1/12/07; Govtrack.us]

FACT: According to the New York Times, this proposal “would allow medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans.” [New York Times, 4/18/07]

MYTH: Upton is “Fighting for and winning a Medicare prescription drug plan that saved seniors money on prescription drugs.”

FACT: In 2011, Upton Voted for the Ryan Budget, which would have turned Medicare into a voucher Program. [House Vote 277, 4/15/11]

FACT: According to ABC News, “Critics Have Called Ryan’s 2011 Proposal, the ‘End of Medicare as We Know It,’ and That’s True...Individuals Would Have to Pay More under His Plan.” [ABC News, 8/11/12]

FACT: In 2011, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that the typical 65-year-old’s out-of Pocket Expenses would more than double— from $6,150 to $12,500—in first year vouchers would apply. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 4/7/11]

MYTH: Upton is “fighting to ensure those with pre-existing conditions can stay covered. That’s the real Fred Upton, fighting for us.”

FACT: According to Upton’s Website, he “Supports Full Repeal of Obamacare…” [Upton.House.gov, 5/16/13]

FACT: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation “Obamacare Bars Insurers from Denying Coverage to People with Pre-Existing Conditions…Or Conditions that Began before Coverage Began.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 10/1/13]

Right now Clements looks like he’s going to win handily in the Kalamazoo area. His campaign needs help with field operations in the western part of the district, where the Michigan Democratic Party isn’t doing anything. If you can volunteer, here the place. If you can contribute, this is the page.