Monday, August 07, 2006

Michigan 7   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

In 2004, Joe Schwarz was able to win the Republican primary for Congress because conservatives were divided among five other candidates. Tomorrow, he's facing just one conservative: former state rep. Tim Walberg. The winner is likely to win the general election, too. It's a safe Republican seat, which Bush carried 54 percent in 2004.

The social issues have gotten a good deal of attention in the race: Walberg is a pro-life social conservative, Schwarz a pro-choice social liberal. (Schwarz has called Michigan's right-to-carry law "nuts.") But there are major fiscal-policy differences as well. Schwarz has supported tax hikes, voted for sugar subsidies, demanded that Katrina rebuilders comply with Davis-Bacon union pay schedules, and opposed the Republican Study Committee's tight budget. He favored raising the payroll tax rather than personal accounts as a solution to Social Security's problems. Walberg, on the other hand, promises to be a budget-cutter in the mold of Texas's Jeb Hensarling.

The League of Conservation Voters and the Service Employees International Union are working to re-elect Schwarz; the Club for Growth is behind Walberg.

08/07 02:37 PMShare