Schwarz on Congressional Bid

 

      Although the drop-dead date for filing for office is not until May, former Michigan Congressman John Schwarz is politically dropping dead before that.  He will not run to regain his seat he lost to conservative Tim Walberg last time out in the Battle Creek area.

      Caught on the state senate floor on Wednesday, Schwarz was asked if he would run?

      "I don't think so. My plate is pretty darn full right now.  It would probably be inappropriate to get in a congressional race now," he reveals for the first time.

        The affable Schwarz is no stranger to Southeast Michigan as he ran for governor but couldn't get past the right wing fanatics in the state GOP who couldn't stomach a pro-choice moderate in the governor's chair.

       Schwarz finally made it to congress four years ago but lost his reelection bid.  Since then he has flirted with running again, or running as a democrat or as an independent.

         He notes that the democrats have "a candidate" and as for an independent bid he laughs, "The road to higher office is strewn with the bodies of people who have run as independents."

         Schwarz says he "came close but not close enough" to re-entering the contest but in the end, what he termed his "philosophical difference" with the core republican party in Michigan, kept him out of the hunt.

         Schwarz says his dream job is to be Secretary of the Navy in a McCain administration.  "I've thought about it, but not talked about it" with his buddy McCain who is the GOP nominee for president.

         As for the second spot on the ticket, Schwarz has some advice to his former Navy pal:  The 71 year-old McCain needs to find a V.P.  who is not 71.

        "I think younger, yes…it is a necessity," he argues. But he says when McCain is sworn in, if he is, he will be 72, which is "a couple of years younger than Ronald Reagan at his second inauguration."

       As for the Navy post, Schwarz figures,"It's not going to happen.  It's a pipe dream, but why not dream?"

       Why not.

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