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Hello everybody, I hope everyone is doing better as over here in the Northeast the weather has calmed down a tad.  Instead of it being boiling, we are just casually stewing now!

But you know what’s still heating up, that is correct; our Taking Back The House series! In light of a surge of Facebook likes (we have had over 100+ since Thursday) and an explosion of new readers, I figured that this would be the best prize for our new audience.

Nonetheless, as we add more and more districts to our series (note, you can expect 5-to-10 more), we are starting to get into some slightly Republican areas.  I have a spreadsheet of races to keep tabs on and oddly enough today’s chapter is a race that I have slightly overlooked as of late.  It took the entrance of a Democratic challenger for me to realize that our odds in this race might be better than our odds in some of our previously covered ones.

Our last chapter involved Michigan Rep. Dan Benishek and you know what, let’s stay in the state and take a look at Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan’s 7th Congressional District!

url-9Rep. Tim Walberg has served Michigan since 2010 (go figure, right?) but unlike some of the other tea-flavored elected officials; he served a single term from 2006 to 2008 until being ousted by Mark Schauer.  So again, Walberg is now a pretty heavily targeted Rep. and we’ll see what we can do to oust him.  Before entering D.C., Walberg served for fifteen years in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Let’s meet Rep. Tim Walberg, shall we?

Legislation & Notable Votes:

Headlines

Electoral History:

2006: Walberg (R): 49.6%, Sharon Marie Renier (D): 46%, Robert Hutchinson (L): 1.5%
2008: Walberg (R): 46.5%, Mark Schauer (D): 48.8%, Lynn Meadows (G): 3%
2010: Walberg (R): 50.2%, Schauer (D): 45.4%, Scott Eugene Aughney (UST): 1.6%
2012: Walberg (R): 53.3%, Kurt R. Haskell (D): 43%, Ken Proctor (L): 2.5%

PVI:
R+3

Potential Prospects:

The Democrats have their candidate in former state Rep. Pam Byrnes.  She served for six years in the State House and was only forced out due to term limits.  She has an a good profile for the district and local bloggers seem enthusiastic over her candidacy including Eclectablog who calls her a “moderate progressive”.

Why We Can Do This:

First off, don’t let Walberg’s margin of victory fool you; he beat a candidate that didn’t do a great job at raising money as Walberg outspent Haskell by around $700,000.

Byrnes seems to be the perfect candidate for this area and in fact, I am really excited about her run as well.  In fact, I would bump this up as the seat with the most potential to be turned blue in the state given Walberg’s Tea Party-esque profile and Byrnes experience in the area.

Links You Oughta Check Out:

DONATE TO PAM BYRNES’S CAMPAIGN