The congressman from the 9th District is Gary Peters, a Democrat elected in 2008. A fifth-generation Oakland County native, Peters grew up in Pontiac. He had early success in his business career. He was vice president of investments for Paine Webber from 1989 to 2003, and before that, he was an executive with Merrill Lynch for nine years. At age 34, Peters became a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserves, training as a sharpshooter and ultimately spending a dozen years in the Reserves. In the early 1990s, he got involved in politics, landing a seat on the Rochester Hills City Council, where he helped unearth an overcharge to the city that saved taxpayers $400,000. In 1995, he was elected to the state Senate, where he pushed legislation to cut taxes for the middle class and to improve access to children’s health insurance. He also led an effort to ban oil drilling in the Great Lakes. In 2002, Peters became the state’s lottery commissioner. The Detroit Free Press later praised him for increasing lottery sales. Read More

The congressman from the 9th District is Gary Peters, a Democrat elected in 2008. A fifth-generation Oakland County native, Peters grew up in Pontiac. He had early success in his business career. He was vice president of investments for Paine Webber from 1989 to 2003, and before that, he was an executive with Merrill Lynch for nine years. At age 34, Peters became a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserves, training as a sharpshooter and ultimately spending a dozen years in the Reserves. In the early 1990s, he got involved in politics, landing a seat on the Rochester Hills City Council, where he helped unearth an overcharge to the city that saved taxpayers $400,000. In 1995, he was elected to the state Senate, where he pushed legislation to cut taxes for the middle class and to improve access to children’s health insurance. He also led an effort to ban oil drilling in the Great Lakes. In 2002, Peters became the state’s lottery commissioner. The Detroit Free Press later praised him for increasing lottery sales.

In the 2008 election, Peters challenged eight-term Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg. A fiscal conservative, Peters talked about middle-class tax cuts during the campaign, but didn’t swear off raising taxes on the wealthy, a group that includes many of his district’s constituents. Knollenberg criticized him for that stance. Peters attacked the incumbent for voting against legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Knollenberg had faced some difficult races during the previous 16 years, but none that challenged him on nearly every front. He started out with a financial edge, but with the help of the national Democratic Party, Peters was able to bridge the gap. GOP presidential nominee John McCain pulled out of Michigan, making a tough political environment for Michigan Republicans even worse. Knollenberg also lost the endorsement of the powerful United Auto Workers, which backed Peters, despite Knollenberg’s leadership in securing a $25 billion bailout for the industry.

A crowded field in the general election favored Knollenberg. The three other candidates, including the assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, were expected to pull votes away from Peters. But the affluent district was mired in an economic downturn, which fueled anti-Republican sentiment. Peters defeated Knollenberg 52% to 43%; Kevorkian received 3% of the vote.

Peters has been a fairly loyal Democrat, backing his party on major votes but showing his independence at times. He joined three other junior House Democrats in 2010 to propose major cuts in defense, energy and other areas. He also came out early in support of the Republicans’ push to extend the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all taxpayers, including the wealthiest.

With his background at Merrill Lynch, he was an obvious choice for the Financial Services Committee. In March 2009, he introduced legislation to place a surtax on bonuses paid to employees of insurance giant AIG, which was bailed out by the government. Later that year, during debate on requiring private pools of capital to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he got a provision through the committee that exempted firms with less than $150 million in assets. In a surprise move, he was put on the 2010 conference committee on the financial services overhaul as a way of boosting his prospects at election time. Peters was able to add a provision to the bill that helped automakers’ financing businesses.

On the Science and Technology Committee, he got a bill through the House in September 2009 authorizing $2.9 billion for research on advanced and environmentally friendly vehicle technologies at the Energy Department. Another bill he sponsored, with California Republican Elton Gallegly, to outlaw videos depicting animal torture, became law in 2010.

With Michigan’s economy in such dire straits, an aggressive challenge to Peters was inevitable in 2010. But he was fortunate in some ways to draw as an opponent former state Rep. Andrew “Rocky” Raczkowski, a former Army reservist. Raczkowski first had to win a four-way GOP primary in which his opponents raised concerns about a business fraud lawsuit filed against hm. Raczkowski’s troubles mounted when a video clip aired of him questioning President Obama’s citizenship and when Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the conservative Eagle Forum, contended at a Raczkowski fundraiser that unmarried women voted for Obama because they wanted government benefits. Raczkowski also could not keep pace with Peters in fundraising. Bucking the Republican tide that year, Peters won 50%-47%, and four minor-party candidates split the remainder.

Michigan is to lose one of its congressional seats in 2012 because of its declining population, and many political experts think the GOP-led process will force Peters into a district in which he must face a more experienced Democrat in a primary.