MI-SEN: Peters Moves to Lean Democrat
After serving three terms in the U.S. House, Democrat Gary Peters won this open seat in 2014 with 55 percent to 41 percent for former Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land. This was supposed to be among the most competitive races of the cycle, but Land proved to be a weak candidate. But, as Peters gears up to run for a second term next year, Republicans believe that he is very vulnerable, citing polling that shows that the incumbent is not very well known and thus undefined in the minds of voters.
Peters had careers in banking and education before politics became a full-time job. He worked as an assistant vice president at Merrill Lynch from 1980 until 1989 when he joined UBS/Paine Webber as a vice president. In 2003, he left banking to become the commissioner of the Michigan Lottery. After leaving that post in 2007, he taught at Central Michigan University.
Peters got his start in politics in 1990 when he won a seat on the Rochester Hills City Council. In 1994, he won a seat in the state Senate that he held until 2002. In 2008, Peters ran against then-GOP U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg in what was the 9th congressional district. The district included Southfield and West Bloomfield, and had a Partisan Voting Index of D+1, meaning that it voted one point more Democratic than the nation as a whole. Since 2008 was a very good year for Democrats nationally, it wasn’t a big surprise that Peters beat Knollenberg, 52 percent to 43 percent, in such a marginal district. President Obama carried the district with 56 percent, one point lower than his 57-percent performance statewide.
Given how competitive the district was, Republicans targeted Peters in 2010. His GOP challenger was state Rep. Rocky Raczkowski. While it was a good year for Republicans nationally, Raczkowski struggled to raise money and was tripped up by comments he made questioning Obama’s citizenship. It still ended up being a close contest; Peters won that race, 50 percent to 47 percent.
https://cookpolitical.com/analysis/senate/michigan-senate/peters-moves-lean-democrat
