Perhaps no House district in 2006 served as a better showcase of the ideological clash between the very conservative Club for Growth and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership than south-central Michigan's 7 th District. But once Club-backed state legislator Tim Walberg dethroned moderate then-Rep. Joe Schwarz in that year's GOP primary, the spotlight on the district seemed to disappear. Everyone assumed Walberg would coast to victory against an unknown and under-funded Democrat, Sharon Renier.
Instead, Walberg's close call in the 2006 general election - he beat Renier by only four points and failed to win an outright majority of the vote - immediately placed him high on Democrats' target lists for 2008. His critics claim that as a take-no-prisoners conservative and perhaps the most strident supporter of the Iraq troop surge in the Michigan delegation, Walberg is an uneasy fit for a district that leans only two points more Republican than the national average.
After many months of turning away entreaties from national Democrats, state Sen. Mark Schauer of Battle Creek has decided to enter the race, pointing to
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