WHEN YOU’RE ON TOP

Unlike in 2018, when Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-Rochester, Rochester Hills, northern Oakland, parts of Livingston and Ingham counties) was the underdog in her fight to flip this traditionally Republican district, this go-round Slotkin is the incumbent, with cash-on-hand (as of July 15) approaching $5 million, and a bulls-eye on her back to go with it. Her Republican opponent, Paul Junge, of Brighton, has only raised a tenth of what she has, but he’s determined to fight for the job – even if it means elongating the truth to fit his narrative. Fact checkers at the Detroit Free Press have made mincemeat out of some of his claims, including one where he falsely claimed Slotkin, a former CIA intelligence analyst, National Security Council staffer and senior Pentagon official, had voted against legislation which condemned China’s malignant cyber activity. That four-Pinocchio moment came right after he falsely claimed Slotkin hadn’t condemned the violence and destruction which had come about from certain social justice protests. These phony statements, according to Slotkin’s campaign spokesperson Gordon Trowbridge, are the “latest in a series of false attacks from Junge that fall far short of that basic standard of civility and decency. The voters of the 8th District deserve a campaign based on the facts, not false attacks.”