LANSING — Another week of infighting in the “aggressive” Michigan GOP Senate Showdown. Also, can someone remind Mike Rogers that home is where the heart (or the million-dollar mansion you own) is? Rogers abandoned Michigan nearly a decade ago, ditching the winter boots for flip-flops in his 4,751-square-foot Cape Coral mansion.
Here’s the latest on the Republicans’ “brutal intraparty battle:”
- When most people think of Mister Rogers’ neighborhood, they think of the beloved children’s show. In our case, we think of Cape Coral, Florida where Mike Rogers owns a million-dollar mansion that “was his official residence until his decision to run for U.S. Senate.”
- On top of Rogers having the Florida mansion as his official residence, he also received a $50,000 homestead tax exemption on the mansion and pulled a renovation permit worth $327,000, more than the cost of his entire Michigan house.
- The Detroit News highlighted how the Michigan GOP Senate candidates are “bashing one another” and how Trump will “complicate their campaigns.”
- Pensler called out Rogers and Meijer for making their careers by “avoiding taking on a lot of the tough issues.”
- Pensler jabbed his “professional politician” opponents who “want the job so bad that they’ll say things and do things just to keep the job.”
- Wednesday marked the anniversary of the first Social Security check being issued. Rogers, Meijer, and Pensler have pushed to end Social Security, which would increase health care costs and rip away benefits Michiganders worked to earn.
See for yourself:
Michigan Advance: Where is Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood?
- Where does former Michigan U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers live?
- Records show Rogers, 60, owns homes in Michigan and Florida, but is registered to vote at a different Michigan address.
- Rogers, who retired from a Michigan U.S. House seat in 2015, was living in Florida and was registered to vote there before deciding to run for office again in Michigan in 2023, per the Detroit News.
- By the time Rogers officially announced two months later his pursuit of the GOP nomination, the exact location of that home remained unreported…
- address on Aug. 16, 2023. That same address is also listed in county property records as being owned by his sister-in-law, Deborah Miller.
- Oakland County tax records show Rogers and his wife purchased a one-bedroom, 728-square-foot home in White Lake Township for $295,000 on July 10, 2023.
- Rogers also owns a large home in Florida. The 4,751-square-foot home in Cape Coral valued at $1.7 million was his official residence until his decision to run for U.S. Senate. Public records show he received a $50,000 homestead tax exemption on the property for 2022, as well as pulled a renovation permit that same year worth $327,000, more than the cost of the entire Michigan house.
Detroit News: Anti-Trump baggage could dog some Republican Senate candidates in Michigan
- As the Michigan Republican primary for U.S. Senate gets cranking, so are the attacks on candidates who have been critical of former President Donald Trump…
- Top contenders for the nomination bashing one another over their Trump stances was inevitable… that could complicate their campaigns for the party’s nomination in the Aug. 6 primary election.
- In that sense, a new TV ad bashing former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, for his past criticism of Trump is likely just the beginning.
- Democrats argue that the Trumpy discord in the Senate GOP contest could help them by producing a weaker candidate in the general election who will be linked to Trump’s record on everything from abortion to the “big lie” claiming he won the 2020 election.
- “As the primary gets more divisive by the day, it’s clear that their brutal infighting will leave them with a badly damaged nominee who is out-of-step with Michigan families,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said.
- Craig has piled on Rogers for his Trump criticism while on CNN, saying he’s just “pretending” to support the former president. Pensler consultant Stu Sandler also contended a liability for Rogers will be his years’ worth of commentary on CNN during which he regularly was asked to weigh in on Trump news of the day.
- Craig and Rogers have both gone after Meijer. Rogers said the one-term congressman got “snookered,” and Craig has said Meijer and Rogers are “damaged goods” who “had their shot in D.C., and they wasted it.”
- “You don’t respect somebody who is just kind of willing to debase themselves,” Meijer said of those who twist into knots to win the former president’s support.
WJR Focus: Pensler: “Really, you’ve been talking with Mike [Rogers] and Peter [Meijer] and I think they’re a variety of professional politicians that really have made their career avoiding taking on a lot of the tough issues.”
WJR All Talk: Pensler: “I think one of the problems with professional politicians is that, in general, they want the job so bad that they’ll say things and do things just to keep the job.”
American Journal News: Top Republican U.S. Senate candidates call for gutting Social Security
- In Michigan, all three of the leading Republican candidates for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat have shown a willingness to cut Social Security and other federal aid programs. In May 2023, former Rep. Mike Rogers claimed Social Security was in need of a major overhaul.
- In November, former Rep. Peter Meijer told WJR radio that cutting Social Security would be necessary to address the national debt.
- Businessman Sandy Pensler, who previously ran for senate in 2018, listed reforming entitlements as a priority on his campaign website.
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