Fred Upton Can't Hide From His Record-- Although He's Trying... As Well As Threatening Campaign Donors

There are a lot of reasons Fred Upton should be replaced as the congressman from southwest Michigan (MI-06). Not the least of them is the calibre of Paul Clements, the progressive Democrat running for the seat. But polling shows is that the two reasons that most resonate among the district’s voters are that Upton has changed since they first sent him to Congress in 1986— and not for the better. He’s twisted himself into knots trying to stay on the good side of the Confederate extremists who have so much say over the House Republicans. So much so, that his voting record is now far too extreme for a moderate district like the sixth.

And worse than his voting record itself, is his record of leadership— or lack of leadership— in the crucial issues that come before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that John Boehner gave him to chair. He’s taken immense sums of money from corporate lobbyists and directly from the very special interests over which he’s supposed to being exercising oversight. He truly has become the fox guarding the hen house.

Before the House Republicans shut down the government, Upton said he thought it would be a mistake and correctly predicted that it would hurt the most vulnerable Americans the worst. His predication came true but he didn’t even have the courage of his convictions to oppose it. He went right along with the Tea Party fanatics like Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Louie Gohmert, Steve Stockman and Paul Broun in voting to shut down the government.

Now that polls show that 56% of MI-06 voters are less likely to vote for Upton because of that vote, he keeps trying to turn the discussion in a different direction— how he voted to reopen the government, never mentioning he had voted to shut it down over his crazy anti-Obamacare mania. Media in the district has been very clear that he made a big mistake. He refuses to acknowledge it and refuses to tell the voters he won’t do it again.

This week Blue America began another Google ads campaign reminding voters in MI-06 that Upton has changed and has already voted to shut down the government— and that he can’t be trusted to not do the same thing again after the midterms. The ad is up top and Blue America doesn’t get charged for the thousands of people who see it, only for the people in the district who watch at least 30 seconds of the spot itself. It’s a very cost-effective way to get the message out and we want to ask you to consider chipping in for the effort. We want to keep it running right up until November 4th. If you’d like to help, our Independent Expenditure Committee is right here… and there are no limitations on the amount you can contribute.

If you watched the now-notorious interview Upton did with the editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette your jaw may have dropped at many of Upton's self-serving lies. But there was one moment Ryan Grim caught yesterday for HuffPo readers that wasn't a lie-- Upton's pique at donors to Lawrence Lessig's crowd-sourced PAC. Some of the crowd were Silicon Valley tycoons and Upton has been treating them and their special interests very well on his important committee and is now threatening retaliation for the contributions to MayDay PAC. Ecuse me... Upton is too nice a guy to threaten anyone-- at least directly. He has a well-known political thug who's doing it for him, GOP slime bucket, former and future crooked lobbyist, Gary Andres. "Andres," wrote Grim, has been "personally... calling the CEOs of major Silicon Valley tech companies, hammering them for coming after Upton and spooking Mayday's donors, who worry their companies will get rougher treatment when and if Upton survives." Maybe they should double down. Blue America is going after Upton too-- and we can accept unlimited amounts here.

Upton himself has reached out to the donors, he told a local editorial board during a livestreamed interview on Friday. "I do know some of the folks that funded the PAC and, as I've talked to them, they are, or they were under the illusion that this was a group that was trying to focus on dysfunction and taking it out, getting people that can work together. And the people that I've talked to, some of them have put six figures into this PAC. They are really ashamed," Upton said in the interview. "They are distraught. They said they were taken for a ride. It's too late. They bought the stuff and it came out of the blue."

They may indeed be distraught. Upton has significant power as the chairman of the committee that regulates Silicon Valley, and the tech CEOs didn't anticipate having him on their bad side when they chipped in to the PAC. Yet any major effort to challenge the status quo was bound to run up against one power center or another.

..."Who do you think orchestrated Shayes-Meehan, the bipartisan bill? It was Fred Upton," Upton told the Kalamazoo Gazette editorial board. "I'm not a lawyer. I'm sorry that the Supreme Court struck quite a bit of it."

An adviser to the Mayday PAC countered that Upton, whatever his past support, has not signed on to any of the campaign finance reform bills, either Democratic or Republican ones, now in Congress. Upton also voted against the DISCLOSE Act, which would have rolled back some of Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision he says he disagreed with. (The Mayday adviser added that while the super PAC's spending against Upton has been reported as $1.5 million, it is in fact closer to $2 million.)

Upton told the editorial board he'd soon be willing to give the names of the CEOs who were ashamed of their contributions. "I don't wanna give you names yet. I'll be glad to," he said.

In his interview, Upton noted his support of immigration as well, adding that the super PAC's aim is inconsistent. "This is a PAC that's allegedly taking big money out of politics, yet they're spending a million and a half dollars against me. That's a little bit contrary to start with," he said.

The irony doesn't stop there. Upton was asked whether the sizable amount of corporate PAC contributions he takes makes him unable to independently oversee those corporations. He cited the Mayday PAC's spending, which is aimed at reducing the overall influence of money in politics, as an example of why he needs to raise so much money.

"I have to be prepared. I've always said, in a campaign, you've gotta be like a Boy Scout," he said. "We've gotta be prepared. We didn't know that this PAC was gonna come back with a million and a half dollars against me, literally in like a two week span, but we had to be ready for it, and you know what? We are."

What kind of campaign finance reform would Upton support?

"We need maybe a code of ethics," he said, in which organizations would pledge not to run negative ads.

Help us keep that ad up top in front of MI-06 voters right through election day. Any amount will help-- right here but Silicon Valley moguls, can I suggest $5,000 increments?


UPDATE: Clements Responds To Upton's Shady Tactics

"Chairman Upton's actions and those of his government employees are unacceptable. It's not enough that Fred Upton raises millions of dollars from the very companies he regulates, he then has the staff director of the Energy and Commerce Committee threaten the leaders of those companies when they support efforts to fix our broken campaign finance system.

"Members of Congress bullying the very companies they regulate to influence the political process is the definition of corruption. Fred Upton's behavior is a prime example of how our system is broken and a case study in corruption.

"It's no surprise that Congressman Upton refuses to debate me in Southwest Michigan, when he is spending his time in Washington making phone calls to Silicon Valley CEOs in order to chide them for donating to a good government group that supports me. Every day on the campaign trail, I hear how Congressman Upton has changed. This is just another example of how he is more concerned for his own future than the future of his constituents. Fred Upton needs to stop shaking down corporate donors and answer to the people of Michigan."