Topsy Turvy 10th
Carl Marlinga with his wife Barbara in 2006.
The race to elect a new congressman
By Paul Natinsky
In the race between homegrown candidate and ambitious office seeker, the latter looks to be out front in the contest for Michigan’s 10th congressional district as the general election nears.
Pollster Steve Mitchell had Republican veteran and businessman John James leading by nine points over former state Circuit Court Judge and Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga in an August poll. Mitchell said the Detroit News had James ahead by eight points in mid-October.
Marlinga said his polling numbers put him ahead of James 47 percent to 45 percent in mid-September.
John James with his family from an earlier campaign.
Regardless of which numbers are sharper, the race comes down to undecided voters, a group that Marlinga estimates to be about 8 percent of the district’s registered voters.
James carries the Trump imprimatur, which seems to play well in the redrawn 10th, most of which is in blue-collar Macomb County. But he’s not from the area, and that could come into play, said Marlinga.
“(James is) really a stranger to any part of the district—whether it be the Macomb County part or the Rochester and Rochester Hills part,” said Marlinga. “He currently lives 18.6 miles away from the closest part of the district, which tells you that he just wants to be a congressman, he’s not really there to represent us because how could he? He’s not a part of our communities.”
James responded to a question about his residency prior to the primary, saying that he and his wife were working with a real estate agent but did not want to interrupt his children’s school year.
Mitchell thinks the residency issue is a non-starter. “People don’t care if you’re a carpetbagger. They just never have—Republicans, Democrats. I’ve polled this issue. I can’t tell you how many times.
“(Current Oakland County Sheriff) Mike Bouchard ran in three House districts in three cycles before he finally got elected to the Michigan House.”
Marlinga says the charismatic James polls well and that his familiarity among voters leads many to believe he lives in the district. James has run for U.S. Senate twice. He lost his 2018 campaign against Sen. Debbie Stabenow by about five points and was barely edged out by Sen. Gary Peters in 2020.
Marlinga says James wants a seat in Congress as a launching pad for another Senate run.
James said he is a good match for voters in the district. “I am running for congress in Michigan’s 10th congressional district because I feel my personal skills and experience align closely with this heavily automotive and defense manufacturing area.”
While campaign logistics and dynamics are front and center in the 10th, issues and policy will have a place in the race.
Both candidates say they want to bring jobs and manufacturing to the area, and both claim the blue collar and small business roots needed to understand the district’s residents.
“The key thing is that we still have to have an atmosphere that is good for small business and that’s what I’m committed to when I go to Washington,” said Marlinga, whose parents owned a small store in the district, which they ultimately sold to a Chaldean family.
“I’ve always had this bond with Chaldean families because so many of them started off with a similar business to what I worked in as a kid,” said Marlinga.
“The economy is always going to be of great significance. It is the measure of how we think about our future, how we plan or future, how we live our lives,” said Marlinga.
“This is a strong community of immigrants from all over the world who came to Metro Detroit in search of a better life. I personally identify with this history as the son of a man who came to Detroit from Mississippi in search of a better life,” said James ahead of the primary.
Broad goals for the area economy are where the policy similarities end.
Marlinga is a pro-labor candidate who supports Obamacare (with some modifications) and expanding student loans to include money for trade schools and small business start-ups. He supports legal immigration, including those persecuted in other countries.
James had this to say when asked which campaign issues are most important to him: “The liberal left is tearing us apart, and we need relevant leadership that can unify us and tackle the problems facing us right now without taking our eye off the future. Look no further than a federal government that would rather fight culture wars than fight for us at home while families suffer with skyrocketing inflation and energy prices. We are ‘led’ by leftist talking heads who use today’s crises to push radical pipe dreams like the Green New Deal, rather than practical solutions, and who have walked in lockstep with a party that all but abandoned our allies in Afghanistan and Ukraine and who have left us vulnerable to the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico by neglecting our border.”
However this race turns out, it might not speak conclusively about the political future of the district. While the Oakland County part of the district might be starting to lean Democratic, unpredictable Macomb County makes up most of the 10th.