This is about the issues.

This election is about the issues. I do want to apologize to Gary Peters for any grief my letter caused to his campaign, even though the letters attacking me made statements that were lies about me and my relationship to Gary Peters and his campaign. Many of the letters were written by Republicans with ties to Joe Knollenberg's campaign and volunteers working on Knollenberg's campaign. One letter was written by an employee of the Michigan Republican Party. Suffice it to say, the response letters were a coordinated campaign, not random citizens.
In fact, one of Joe's letter writers/volunteers, is Caron McCracken, is Joe's top petition signature gatherer.

Another letter writer, Lauren Gervason, is the field director for Joe Knollenberg's campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Field Director

Knollenberg for Congress

(Public Company ; Political Organization industry)

June 2002 – November 2006 (4 years 6 months)

- Assisted with the 2002-2006 U.S. House of Representatives campaigns
- Organized Letters to the Editor, oversaw absentee ballots, planned and worked events
- Responsible for community outreach

Janelle Tischer, is the wife of Chip Tischer, current political director of the Oakland County Republican party. Chip used to work for the Knollenberg for Congress campaign.

Amy Drumm is a current employee of the Michigan Republican Party.

Teresa Stayer is a member of the GOP 9th District Committee .

Valerie Knol is the current mayor of Farmington, a "non-partisan" position.

Margaret Alberts, wife of attorney Dennis Alberts of Troy, has given large amounts of money and has spread it between the RNC, Joe Knollenberg, the Michigan Republican State Committee, the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Federal Action Committee and lists her occupation as attorney, homemaker and landlord, depending on the contribution you look at. In total, she has given over $13,000 to the various Republican causes and candidates.

The letter that started the flurry of responses was mainly about the issue of health care and Joe Knollenberg's hypocrisy of hosting a women's health conference while receiving a 0 ranking from the National Breast Cancer Coalition and a plethora of other health care advocacy groups. While I applaud Joe Knollenberg for hosting the conference and trying to emphasize the importance of women doing self examinations and having screening tests for breast cancer, he can better serve the interests of the women that attended his conference and all women by actually voting for legislation supporting the issue of women's health, not just talking about it. It might be a good idea for the people that are affiliated with Knollenberg's campaign to do their own research and find out why the National Breast Cancer Coalition gives Knollenberg a 0 rating.

Most of my posts on this blog about Joe Knollenberg have been about issues. They are issues I care about deeply, the economy, health care, the war in Iraq, the gutting of our civil liberties by the Bush administration.