One Republican candidate said months ago to watch for someone to raise the issue that GOP hopeful Lena Epstein, oil heiress seeking the party nod in the August balloting for the 11th Congressional district, is not a resident of the district that she is seeking to represent. As of deadline for the July Oakland Confidential – nada. So we took our own look. Yep, source was dead-on. Epstein lives in Bloomfield Township and has been registered to vote there since January of 2011,

Speaking of Lena Epstein, some members of the local Jewish community are waging a Facebook campaign to protest a $1,000 per person ($2,700 per couple) fundraiser for her being held in late June at Franklin Hills Country Club, where wealthy Jews hang out. Several notable affluent Jews are among the hosts/co-chairs, including former Michigan Republican Party chair Bobby Schostak, insurance moguls Alan Jay Kaufman and Mert Segal, and real estate barons Harold Beznos, Warren Rose

Congressman Mike Bishop (R-Rochester/Rochester Hills) in June opposed the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy resulting in thousands of children of undocumented immigrants illegally entering the country being separated from their parents — sort of. “As a father of three, Rep. Bishop does not want to see children separated from their families,” a Bishop spokeswoman told The Detroit News on Monday, June 18. Bishop added to his position the next day as pressure on

Retiring Congressman Dave Trott (R-Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Rochester Hills) has found a degree of freedom when not having to worry about a re-election campaign. The 11th District rep in May separated himself from the President by joining a handful of others in signing a petition to force a vote on a bill that seeks to force a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children. On Wednesday, June 20, Trott broke days of radio silence

As if the Larry Nassar mess wasn’t nasty enough (the former MSU doc and Team USA gymnastics doctor convicted of sexually assaulting dozens of young gymnasts), two state Representatives who hope to face off against one another in November to be the Congressman for the 11th District nearly came to blows (figuratively) in May over legislation that would allow retroactive lawsuits in sexual assault cases. Rep. Klint Kesto (R-Commerce, West Bloomfield) chairs the House committee t

Now former candidates Dan Haberman and Kristine Bonds have been disqualified by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers from the ballot for this August’s primary election for the 11th Congressional District. Haberman, a Democrat, and Bonds, a Republican, were running for the seat now held by Rep. Dave Trott, who isn’t running for another term. The board of canvassers found both candidates had “insufficient” nominating petitions to be placed on the August ballot. While Haberman

West Oakland politicos have noted with a touch of irony the musical chairs Novi Republican political power couple Hugh and Kathy Crawford have long played. First he was a Novi city council member, then a county commissioner before becoming a state House rep – and she filled his county commission seat. When Hugh was term limited in the state House, she ran and got it. He returned to the county commission. And round and round. Now word is, according to a recent MIRS (Michigan I