Rep. Mike Rogers (R) Elected 2000, 2d term
Born:	June 2, 1963, Livingston Cnty.
Home:	Brighton
Education:	Adrian Col., B.A. 1985
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Diane)
Elected  Office:	MI Senate, 1995-00, Maj. Floor Ldr., 1999-00.
Military Career:	Army, 1985-88.
Professional Career:	Co-founder, E.B.I. Builders, 1985; FBI Spec. Agent, 1988-94.
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Lansing is Michigan's state capital, chosen in 1847 because of its geographic position halfway between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and away from the border with Canada and the threat of invasion by British forces, but in ignorance of the fact that it has fewer days with sunshine than any place else in the state. But it is a tidy and pleasant city with more than its share of amenities. It has a beautifully restored Capitol and a fine state history museum and is neighbor to Michigan State University in East Lansing, started in 1855 as America's first land-grant college. Its Oldsmobile plant stimulated growth in the first half of the 20th century, and state government did the same in the second half. GM announced in 2000 that it would close its Olds line, but two new GM assembly plants have been under construction in the Lansing area and the Oldsmobile name will remain alive at two local museums and a baseball stadium for the Lansing Lugnuts. Lansing has tended to go with the party controlling state government. When the legislature was apportioned to stay Republican, as it was until 1964, the Lansing area was usually Republican; Democrats have had majorities in the state House in 28 of the 40 years since and Lansing has voted mostly Democratic.

Just east of Lansing's Ingham County is quite another part of Michigan, Livingston County (most of the counties in these parts were named for members of President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet; Livingston was secretary of state and Ingham secretary of the Treasury). Thirty years ago, Livingston County was mostly rural, known mainly for its many lakes. But in the years since then, thousands of Detroit area residents have driven out I-96 to Brighton and Howell and other Livingston townships, and subdivisions, schools and shopping malls have sprouted up. Most of these people are conservatives, happy to leave the problems of Detroit behind them, angry at high taxes and annoyed by government regulations and hewing to traditional religious faiths. They have made Livingston Michigan's fastest-growing county and one of its most Republican. In 1970 Livingston had 58,000 people to Ingham's 261,000; in 2000 Livingston had 156,000 to Ingham's 279,000. So as Ingham has grown more Democratic, Livingston has been casting bigger Republican margins to partly counterbalance Ingham's Democratic margins. In the close presidential election of 1968, 19,000 people voted in Livingston and gave Richard Nixon a 3,000-vote margin. In the close presidential election of 2000, 75,000 people voted in Livingston and gave George W. Bush a 16,000-vote margin.

The 8th Congressional District includes all of Ingham and Livingston Counties, Shiawassee County south of Owosso, plus Clinton County directly north of Lansing and northern Oakland County. Redistricting in 2001 removed Democratic-leaning parts of Washtenaw County west of Ann Arbor, and adding townships of Oakland County in the Detroit suburbs, including Independence and Oxford. The political balance in the 8th was one of the chief concerns of the Republicans. This district had switched back and forth between the parties in 1994, 1996 and 2000; only one other district saw party control switch three times between 1994 and 2000, the New York 1st, and that was because the incumbent congressman switched to the Democratic party and then was defeated. Now there was a Republican congressman, Mike Rogers, elected by a margin of 111 votes, and the redistricters wanted to protect him. So from the old 8th District they removed Democratic-leaning Genesee County townships outside Flint and rural Washtenaw County townships that they felt might be infected by the adjacent liberal university town of Ann Arbor. They added reliably Republican Clinton County (Bill Clinton carried very few of the nation's many Clinton Counties), southwest Shiawassee County and most of the northern two tiers of townships in Oakland County. These are fast-growing areas, demographically and politically very much like Livingston County. The district's Bush 2000 percentage was increased from 47% to 51%, the best that could be done without putting part of Lansing into the 7th District where it might weaken Republican Nick Smith in 2002 or make the district vulnerable to a Democrat when Smith keeps his term limit promise and steps down in 2004, as he has announced.

The congressman from the 8th District is Mike Rogers, a Republican elected in 2000 (He is one of two Republican Mike Rogers in the House; the other hails from Alabama). He grew up in Brighton, in Livingston County, and graduated from Adrian College in southeastern Michigan. He was commissioned by the ROTC as commander of an Army rapid deployment unit. Next, he graduated from the FBI Academy, and he focused on public-corruption cases as a special agent in Chicago for six years before returning to Michigan in 1994 and winning election to the state Senate. In 1999 he was selected to be majority floor leader, where he handled pieces of Governor John Engler's legislative program. Rogers also co-founded E.B.I. Builders, a family-owned home construction business. When Democrat Debbie Stabenow gave up the 8th District seat to run successfully for the Senate, Rogers and Democrat Dianne Byrum, a fellow state senator, waged one of the tightest and most-watched open seat campaigns in the country: forecaster Charlie Cook predicted that this could be the closest race in the country, and it was. Each candidate raised about $2 million; neither faced primary opposition. It took six weeks to count the final tally, and Rogers won by 111 votes. Byrum carried her base of Ingham County by a 58%-40% margin and Rogers won his base of Livingston County by 64%-34%.

Rogers describes his political philosophy as consistent with Bush's "compassionate conservatism," with a more moderate record on cultural issues than on the economy. He strongly advocated the provision in the Bush tax cut that provides tax-free status to the earnings from college savings accounts. With his military, law-enforcement and legislative backgrounds, Rogers was well-positioned to advise colleagues on policies to respond to the September 11 attacks. He provided expertise on the high-tech tools to track terrorists and on the use of wiretaps, sought federal aid to pay for National Guard troops at Michigan's borders with Canada, and urged that airport screeners have federal supervision. He traveled with congressional delegations on five trips to the Middle East and Afghanistan in just two years; after returning from a March 2003 trip, he said that Iraqi military defectors reported that Saddam Hussein had authorized the use of chemical weapons in the event of war. On local issues, he sought more authority for Michigan to limit its flow of trash from other states and Canada. He opposed higher CAFE standards for the automobile fleet until the industry is in better financial condition. Despite a campaign appearance by John McCain on the eve of the 2000 election, he opposed his campaign finance bill, worried that it might disrupt the Bush agenda and that the measure was full of loopholes. In 2003, he won a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

At home, Democrats accused Rogers of abusing the state's pension law by setting himself up for favorable benefits before he left the state Senate, and they talked up the $10,750 in fines that the Federal Election Commission levied on his campaign in 2000 for illegal contributions. He also received unfavorable publicity when a young woman on his staff resigned after revealing to Vanity Fair details of her flirting with congressmen at the Capitol Grille and her one-night stand with a well-connected Republican aide. But none of this caused reelection problems for Rogers. Redistricting discouraged serious Democrats from running. With a $1.6 million fundraising advantage, Rogers won 68%-31%. So the House member with the narrowest margin of victory in 2000 appears to have made his seat safe by 2002. He has a seat on an important committee, and one from which it is easy to raise money. Political insiders in Michigan have speculated that he might make a strong statewide candidate.

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DC Office
133 CHOB 20515, 202-225-4872; Fax: 202-225-5820; Web site: www.house.gov/mikerogers

State Offices
Lansing, 517-702-8000.

Committees

• Energy & Commerce (29th of 31 R): Energy & Air Quality; Environment & Hazardous Materials; Health; Oversight & Investigations.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	13	0	0	25	100	56	90	92	83	92
2001	5	--	10	7	--	--	61	96	84	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	36%	--	63%		9%	--	87%
Social	38%	--	61%		39%	--	57%
Foreign	4%	--	87%		0%	--	85%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Mike Rogers (R)	156,525	68%	$1,604,619
	Frank McAlpine (D)	70,920	31%	$11,443
	Other	3,152	1%
2002 primary	Mike Rogers (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Mike Rogers (R)	145,190	49%	$2,195,500
	Dianne Byrum (D)	145,079	49%	$2,093,216
	Other	7,335	2%

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	153,798	51%
	Gore (D)	141,770	47%
	Other	8,426	3%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Eighth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 2
• District Size: 2,288 square miles
• Population in 2000: 662,563; 70.0% urban; 30.0% rural
• Median Household Income: $52,510; 8.4% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 23.0% blue collar; 62.6% white collar; 14.4% gray collar; 11.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 87.7% White, 4.8% Black, 1.9% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.6% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 3.5% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 17.3% German, 9.6% English, 9.2% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.