Thaddeus McCotter

Thaddeus McCotter
Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011
Leader	John Boehner
Preceded by	Adam Putnam
Succeeded by	Tom Price
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 11th district
In office January 3, 2003 – July 6, 2012
Preceded by	Joe Knollenberg
Succeeded by	David Curson
Personal details
Born	Thaddeus George McCotter (1965-08-22) August 22, 1965 Livonia, Michigan, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Rita McCotter (1992–)
Children	George (1993), Timothy (1995), Emilia (1997)
Residence	Livonia, Michigan
Alma mater	University of Detroit (B.A., J.D.)
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Thaddeus George "Thad" McCotter (born August 22, 1965) is an American politician, radio host, and a member of the Republican Party who was the U.S. Representative from Michigan's 11th congressional district from 2003 to 2012. The district at the time consisted of portions of Detroit's northwestern suburbs, such as Livonia, Westland and Novi.

From July 2 to September 21, 2011, he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in the 2012 election. After ending his presidential campaign, McCotter decided to run again for his seat in Congress, but he failed to qualify for the 2012 Republican primary in his congressional district after most of his petition signatures were rejected as invalid. The fallout from the ensuing scandal prompted McCotter to resign from Congress in July 2012.

Early life, education, and career

McCotter was born in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Detroit Catholic Central High School, Redford in 1983. His mother, Georgia Joan McCotter, was the City Clerk of Livonia. He received a B.A. from the University of Detroit in 1987 and a J.D. from the same school in 1990.

McCotter had a private law practice and was a Schoolcraft College Trustee before being elected to the Wayne County Commission in 1992. While on the Commission, he worked to change the county charter to require that new taxes require the approval of two-thirds of the Commission and 60% of voters.

McCotter was elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1998. As a State Senator, he helped apportion the U.S. Congressional district from which he was subsequently elected in 2002.

U.S. House of Representatives

Committee assignments

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
  • Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade

Party leadership and caucus memberships

• Congressional COPD Caucus
• House Sovereignty Caucus (Co-Founder)
• International Conservation Caucus
• Sportsmen's Caucus

Shortly before the midterm elections in November 2006, McCotter made a $250,000 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee. After the elections, when the Republicans became the minority party in the House of Representatives, McCotter was elected chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, the fifth-ranking post among House Republicans. The other Republican seeking the post was Congressman Darrell Issa of southern California.

Political positions

McCotter was a member of both the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership and the conservative Republican Study Committee.

In May 2007, McCotter, along with 55 other Republicans, voted for a bill written by House Democrats aimed at stopping energy price gouging, against the wishes of House Minority Leader John Boehner, who labeled the bill "as pointless political pandering".

McCotter was a supporter of the United States' involvement in both the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. In his 2011 book Seize Freedom!, he wrote that the wars "were never separate wars; they have always been battle theaters in the War for Freedom."

On September 22, 2008, McCotter became the first Republican in the House of Representatives to oppose the $700 billion Paulson bailout plan, calling it "American socialism." A week later, he and 132 other Republicans voted against the bill.

At the end of July 2009 McCotter introduced a bill to allow pet owners a $3,500 tax deduction for pet care costs. The bill, called the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act, was criticized by Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center as "the poster puppy for all that is wrong with the tax code."

McCotter supported union-friendly measures including collective bargaining agreements for government jobs and card check, although he later said his vote for the so-called card check method was a mistake.

Political campaigns

McCotter was elected in November 2002, defeating Democratic Candidate Kevin Kelley of Redford, to the 108th Congress. He was re-elected in the 2004 Congressional elections. McCotter ran unopposed for the 2006 Republican primary. His opponent in the November 2006 general election was Democrat Tony Trupiano, a progressive radio talk show host from Dearborn Heights. McCotter, Trupiano, Libertarian Party nominee John Tatar, and U.S. Taxpayers Party nominee Charles Tackett met only once for a recorded League of Women Voters public forum in mid-October. In radio and direct-mail advertisements, McCotter criticized Trupiano's position on illegal immigration and was re-elected with 55 percent of the vote.

In November 2008, McCotter defeated Democrat Joseph Larkin, Green Party candidate Erik Shelley, and Libertarian John Tatar. McCotter won 51 percent of the vote to Larkin's 45 percent. In November 2010, McCotter defeated Democrat Natalie Mosher. McCotter won 59 percent of the vote to Mosher's 39 percent.

Presidential campaign 2012

Main article: Thaddeus McCotter presidential campaign, 2012

In May 2011, McCotter confirmed that he was considering a run for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States in 2012. By late June, sources indicated that McCotter would enter the race. On June 23, 2011, a McCotter representative bid $18,000 for a site at the Ames Straw Poll Auction in Iowa. On July 1, 2011, McCotter announced that he had filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as a Republican candidate for president. On July 2, 2011, McCotter announced his candidacy at WAAM Freedom Fest in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, outside of Detroit.

Throughout his campaign, commentators suggested that McCotter's lack of name recognition nationwide would hamper his chances of winning the nomination. In opinion polls that included McCotter, he received less than one percent and he came in last place in the August 2011 Ames Straw Poll. On September 22, 2011, McCotter announced the end of his campaign for the presidential nomination, and said that his exclusion from presidential debates hindered his campaign. Given the lack of media coverage of his campaign, McCotter called the end of his presidential campaign "death by media." McCotter stated that he would endorse Mitt Romney and would run again for his 11th congressional district in 2012.

2012 Congressional campaign and petition scandal

In April 2011, McCotter was the only member of Michigan's 15-member congressional delegation who did not confirm he was running for re-election. He indicated interest in running against incumbent Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan for the 2012 election, but in May 2011, he announced that he would not campaign for the position. After ending his bid for president, McCotter announced that he would seek re-election to his congressional seat.

After announcing his intention of running for reelection, McCotter was expected to easily win the Republican nomination, but on May 25, 2012, Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced that McCotter had failed to submit enough valid petition signatures to qualify for the August 7 primary ballot. Although McCotter had submitted 2,000 signatures, the maximum permitted by Michigan law for congressional primaries, a preliminary review indicated that fewer than the required minimum of 1,000 were valid. According to a spokeswoman with the Secretary of State's office, several of McCotter's petition signatures appeared to be duplicates. Michigan election law stipulates that if duplicates are found, both the original and duplicate are ruled invalid. McCotter had the option of running as a write-in candidate in the primary election or as an independent in the general election if he failed to qualify for a primary ballot spot. At the time the apparent fraud was uncovered, McCotter was on a congressional trip to Taiwan.

On May 26, a source within the McCotter campaign told the Detroit Free Press that McCotter conceded that the signatures would be ruled invalid, and that McCotter was considering a write-in effort for the Republican primary. McCotter confirmed this to Nolan Finley of The Detroit News, and added that he did not understand what happened with the signatures on the petitions.

Late on May 27, the Secretary of State's office announced that it found the potential fraud egregious enough to ask state attorney general Bill Schuette to look into the matter. In an op-ed that ran in the May 29, 2012 Detroit News, McCotter announced he would mount a write-in campaign in the Republican primary for his seat. He also acknowledged that the signatures in question were indeed invalid, based on his own legal team's review. Likening himself to George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, McCotter said that he was running a write-in campaign to "clean up my own mess."

Election Director Thomas also said that McCotter had turned in 1,830 signatures where the maximum allowed is 2,000, and all but 244 were discarded, including original and copied signatures.

On June 2, McCotter announced that he was ending his bid for re-election and would leave the House at the end of his current term. In his statement, he said that he felt obligated to fulfill his duties in Congress and assist Schuette and Johnson in getting to the bottom of the petition fraud. These obligations, he said, made mounting a write-in bid for Congress impossible. "One can't clean up a mess multitasking," he said.

A month later, on July 5, The Detroit News reported that McCotter had spent much of the time since his presidential campaign failed writing a television pilot script for a comedy/variety show starring himself, to be called Bumper Sticker: Made on MoTown. It featured characters with the same nicknames he used for members of his staff and a guest appearance by conservative commentator S.E. Cupp. "They take pot shots about McCotter's ill-fated bid for the White House while spewing banter about drinking, sex, race, flatulence, puking and women's anatomy," the newspaper wrote.

Resignation and aftermath

On July 6, 2012, McCotter resigned from the House. He said:

[T]his past nightmarish month and a half have, for the first time, severed the necessary harmony between the needs of my constituency and of my family. As this harmony is required to serve, its absence requires I leave. The recent event's totality of calumnies, indignities and deceits have weighed most heavily upon my family. Thus, acutely aware one cannot rebuild their hearth of home amongst the ruins of their U.S. House office, for the sake of my loved ones I must "strike another match, go start anew" by embracing the promotion back from public servant to sovereign citizen.

He also wrote:

I do not leave for an existing job and face diminishing prospects (and am both unwilling and ill-suited to lobby), my priorities are twofold: find gainful employment to help provide for my family; and continue to assist, in any way they see fit, the Michigan Attorney General's earnest and thorough investigation, which I requested, into the 2012 petition filing.

Though McCotter has not been charged with any crime, his staffers were. District Director Paul Seewald pled guilty to falsely signing a petition and was given 2 year probation. Deputy District Director Don Yowchuang pled no contest to 10 felony counts of forgery and was given 3 years probation. Scheduler Lorraine O'Brady, pled no contest to five counts of falsely signing a nominating petition and was sentenced to 20 days in jail. District Representative Mary M. Turnbull pled no contest to the felony of committing an illegal act and was sentenced to 2 years probation and a day in jail.

McCotter's resignation left the 11th district unrepresented until the November elections, when Democrat David Curson was elected in a special election to finish McCotter's term. Republican Kerry Bentivolio succeeded Curson in January 2013 as the representative of the redrawn 11th district.

Radio program

In January 2014 McCotter launched a radio program called "Thaddeus McCotter's Freedom Asylum" on FM 92.7 & AM 1400, The Patriot in Detroit, however it was canceled by June 2014.

Writing

• Seize Freedom!: American Truths and Renewal in a Chaotic Age, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011

Personal life

McCotter is a practicing Catholic. He is married to Rita Michel, a nurse. They have three children.

In December 2005, McCotter joined with several other Congressmen to form the "Second Amendments," a bipartisan rock and country band set to play for United States troops stationed overseas over the holiday season. He plays lead guitar. In June 2006, the band played for President Bush's Picnic on the White House lawn, where Bush was quoted calling McCotter "that rock and roll dude." McCotter was once in a band called the New Flying Squirrels.

Media appearances

McCotter is a guest on the late-night Fox News Channel television show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.

McCotter is also a guest on Dennis Miller's radio show, where the comedian-host refers to him as "young Thad" and "T-Mac" and frequently comments that he "likes the cut of [his] jib."

In June 2011, McCotter appeared on the Fox News Channel show Huckabee, where he played the guitar.

McCotter is a co-host on The John Batchelor Show, a radio news magazine.

External links

• Thaddeus McCotter's Freedom Asylum, official radio program site
• McCotter 2012, official presidential campaign site
• Congressman Thaddeus McCotter official U.S. House site
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission (presidential)
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org (presidential)
• Profile at SourceWatch

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Joe Knollenberg	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 11th congressional district 2003–2012	Succeeded by David Curson
Party political offices
Preceded by Adam Putnam Florida	Chairman of House Republican Policy Committee 2007–2011	Succeeded by Tom Price Georgia