Knollenberg Campaign off Track

Today's Politically Speaking column in the Detroit Free Press refers to a post made on this blog. Apparently Sandi Knollenberg, wife of Joe Knollenberg has taken a comment here and turned it into a fundraising issue. Glenn Clark, 9th District chair for the Republicans is being so petty as to suggest that a picture on a piece of literature is considered "elitist" because a logo appears in one photo, but not another. It seems the Knollenberg campaign is off into the grass now and is so rattled by the strong anti-Knollenberg campaign, that they are forgetting about the issues facing voters in Oakland County, like health care, the economy and a disastrous war in Iraq. How about we raise the level of discussion, Joe and stop using the Karl Rove play book?

As far as Joe Knollenberg's record on health care issues, look at these rankings from several health advocacy groups.

2007 Alliance for Headache Disorders ranked Knollenberg as a 0

2007 American Academy of Family Physicians gave Knollenberg a 0 rating

2007 Children's Health Fund gave Knollenberg a 0 rating.

2006 American Public Health Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 rating.

2005-2006 AIDS Action Council rated Knollenberg with a 0 rating.

2005-2006 American Academy of Emergency Mediine ranked Knollenberg - 50 percent.

2005-2006 American Nurses Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 percent.

2005-2006 National Rural Health Association ranked Knollenberg with a 0 percent.

Congressional contest gets snarky

It was a big week in presidential politics. The presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees started hammering each other on the economy, the war in Iraq and ethics.

But in Oakland County, one congressional campaign was mired in concerns of who said who's a jerk and breast cancer.

Sandie Knollenberg, the wife of U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, a Bloomfield Township Republican, issued a fund-raising letter blasting Democratic challenger Gary Peters for labeling her husband a "jerk" for supporting breast cancer prevention.

But the "jerk" label came from a blog by Bruce Fealk, a Knollenberg provocateur who is not connected with the Peters campaign. Fealk, using wildly creative interpretation, wrote that a newspaper column by Knollenberg suggested that women are responsible for creating their own cancer.

Republicans took another shot at Peters, a former state lottery commissioner. They noted his campaign brochure shows a stern-looking Peters wearing a blue shirt with a Ralph Lauren Polo label. On the inside photo, the Polo label has vanished.

Republican activist Glenn Clark claimed that Peters airbrushed the Polo label to show he's not elitist, suggesting, of course, that he really is. Peters' campaign pooh-poohed the claim as a nonissue to distract from Knollenberg's record.

Economy and war, anyone?