MI-06-- Lawrence Lessig Steps Into The Breach Left By An Incompetent DCCC

The most likely House seat in Michigan to go from Red to Blue is the 6th district in the southwest corner of the state, Fred Upton’s district. The PVI is R+1. Obama won the district against McCain 184,186 (53%) to 156,835 (45%) in 2008. Senator Debbie Stabenow won the district. Senator Carl Levin won the district. Today polling shows that Democratic senatorial candidate Gary Peters is beating GOP nut job Terri Lynn Land in MI-06 by double digits. Another poll— this one commissioned by MoveOn from PPP— showed voters in the district eager to get rid of Upton… and by a very wide margin.

But instead of investing in a winnable seat held by the arch-villain chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Steve Israel decided to throw away millions of dollars pursing unwinnable seats:

• MI-01- PVI- R+5
• MI-07- PVI- R+3
• MI-11- PVI- R+4

In recent weeks, Israel screwed over his recruits, Jerry Cannon, Pam Byrnes and Bobby McKenzie, leaving their campaigns high and dry (more hapless victims of The Steve Israel Effect). But the money he withdrew from their media buys is being lavished on Israel’s corrupt crony in California, Pete Aguilar and on a very right-wing Blue Dog in Nebraska, Brad Ashford. People begged him to spend the money on the vibrant, grassroots campaign Paul Clements is running in MI-06. Israel scowled.

But Lawrence Lessig’s non-partisan, good-government, crowd-sourced MayDay PAC stepped in. Last week we saw their first ad for Clements’ campaign, the first ad ever to hold Fred Upton accountable in his own district. This morning, they released a second one (up top), based on messaging that is resonating from voters sick and tired of how Upton has changed to accommodate himself to the GOP’s dominant extremist Tea Party wing.

MayDay PAC is putting over a million dollars into TV ads in MI-06. Clements is covered. Now he’s concentrating all his efforts on building the best field operation of any congressional campaign in the state— and the best Get Out the Vote effort. If you can spare some cash, there is no contribution too small. You can contribute here at the Blue America ActBlue page.

Enough already!