Congressman Fred Upton discusses Mayday PAC, climate change in Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board interview
KALAMAZOO, MI — Congressman Fred Upton said Friday that some funders of the Mayday Political Action Committee that has started a $1.5 million ad campaign against the congressman are regretting their decision.
Upton said in an interview with the Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board he has talked to some funders of the PAC who contributed six figures to it under the illusion that the PAC would work on eliminating dysfunction in politics.
The national crowd-funded super PAC launched a $1.5 million ad campaign against Upton accusing him of taking $2.5 million from drug and insurance interests during his time in office. A 30-second ad launched on local and cable television stations this month.
"They are really ashamed," Upton said of the funders. "They are distraught. They said they were taken for a ride. It's too late. They bought the stuff. It came out of the blue."
Upton declined to name the funders.
Upton said it is his philosophy to work with Republicans and Democrats to get things done. He called for a code of ethics for election campaigns.
"I think we need a code of ethics, some national group to say maybe if you run for national office will you sign our pledge to say you're going to be positive, you're not going to trash, you're not going to be part of a negative campaign," Upton said. "(The Mayday PAC is) out of the blue, it's out of sync, and I think our voters in our district will see through it."
When asked how voters can trust Upton to be independent when he accepts PAC money, he said he has a pro-business record and receives contributions from business groups, including in the agricultural and manufacturing industries, that form PACs. But those contributions do not influence his votes, he said.
"We have a positive message," Upton said. "We're talking about things that I think people care about — solving diseases, working on a bipartisan agreement. That's who I am. To do that, yes, you have to raise money. You have to be prepared for some of these groups that are very nasty, that clearly distort the record on a host of things. ... (Campaign contributions) do not influence my votes at all."
Upton said he has voted against business. For example, he said, he voted to ban drilling in the Great Lakes. He said he also led the effort against BP with Chicago's mayor when the company wanted to increase its discharge in Lake Michigan.
"My record is transparent. All of my votes, anyone can find them. I believe in transparency on our campaign contributions. Anyone can look them up. When you've been in office 25, 26 years, the average campaign in the country is usually a million dollars to win. Because of Mayday PAC, this'll be one of the most expensive races in the country, probably in the top 10."
The longtime Republican Congressman faces three opponents in the Nov. 4 election. Challenger Paul Clements, a Democrat, is seeking the seat, along with Libertarian Erwin Haas and Green Party candidate John Lawrence. The district covers Southwest Michigan.
Clements was interviewed by the Gazette Editorial Board last week.
Upton addressed several other topics in his editorial board interview:
Do you believe that climate change is a problem for the earth?
"We've experienced climate change for a long time, highs and lows. We had the coldest winter ever last winter. There was a report out that the Great Lakes are six degrees below what they were a year ago. I don't know that climate scientists can really predict where we're headed."
Upton said temperatures have gone higher and lower for some time, and mentioned that the Great Lakes are six degrees below what they were a year ago. He said he has not made a stand on whether climate change is caused by man.
"What my job to do is what are the impacts of legislation that are going to impact jobs and people's lives here at home," Upton said. "You look at any standard the last number of years, our emissions in the U.S. have actually gone down. I support an all-of-the-above strategy, nuclear power, no carbon emissions. I support wind and solar."
Upton pointed out he worked with Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College to establish a wind turbines school at KVCC. ... I also know when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, we've got to have a source of energy for our jobs."
Upton said he is working on a bipartisan basis to utilize efficiency measures to lower costs versus imposing a new tax on energy consumers.
A year ago, we were highly critical of you for toeing the Republican Party line when you voted to tie government spending to a one-year delay in the Affordable Care Act's mandate to buy insurance, which led to a government shutdown. What is your position today on Obamacare?
Upton said he was approached by a small business owner at a breakfast meeting Friday who said his business' health care premiums will be increased by 50 percent next year.
"The sad thing about the Affordable Care Act is, what's happening is it's proceeding exactly along the lines as what Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the architects of it for the president, said what they wanted to do, end employer-based health insurance by 2020."
Upton said he introduced a bill last year that passed the House with Democrat support that would allow individuals to keep their health care plans. A similar bill passed last month in the House.
"I supported health care reform," Upton said. "Not this version of it, but we needed to move the ball on a number of fronts. We need to deal with folks with pre-existing conditions so that they're not going to be penalized trying to be able to purchase insurance. I'm for competition. I want to encourage employers to provide health insurance and that means it shouldn't be just in the state of Michigan but a variety of different states. Tort reform — that gets costs down. As you try to encourage employers to provide health insurance, I think they need some tax incentives to encourage them to take care of their employees."
How would your 21st Century Cures initiative help people in Southwest Michigan?
"We know that there are 7,000 diseases. We have treatments for 500 of them. ... Stryker and Pfizer, they've got some devices that they've worked on that will knock your socks off," Upton said. "They're ready to go, thousands and thousands of dollars less for patients. They're licensed in other countries overseas but not here. What is it that we can do to streamline the process to make it shorter, less expensive, still safe to expedite, to speed up the approval of drugs and devices so Americans can use them."
It's a bipartisan effort to speed the approvals up so the diseases can be treated but so that we also can keep the jobs here, Upton said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/10/mayday_pac_ad_funders_against.html
