By KATIE JOHNSON
Niles Daily Star

Don Cooney has already been asked the questions only a day into his announcement.
“People say, ‘Cooney, are you crazy? You don’t have a million dollars,'” Cooney said.

The Democrat announced Wednesday at the Greater Niles Senior Center he is taking a second run against U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in the 2010 race for the 6th District Congressional seat.

Cooney, a 13-year Kalamazoo city commissioner, lost to Upton in 2008 38.6 percent to 58.9 percent.

The second time around may not be any easier.

Upton, of St. Joseph, has held the 6th District seat since 1986; he is currently in his 12th term. He has received $825,000 in campaign contributions for the 2010 election alone. Upton will be challenged in the primary election by former state representative Jack Hoogendyk, a Republican from Kalamazoo.

“Silence is consent,” Cooney told a small group at the senior center Wednesday night. “From World War II to the mid-70s, we kept expanding the middle class … but then things began to change.

“The Democratic Party has been a party of the people,” he said. “We cannot have Congress go depend on corporate donations and lobbyists.”

An assistant professor of social work at Western Michigan University and former Catholic priest, Cooney, 73, is a strong advocate of social welfare programs. He has been against the Iraq war from the beginning, and supports the health care reform bill. Cooney kicked off his announcement Wednesday in Kalamazoo and wrapped up in Benton Harbor after his visit in Niles.

“I walk the streets of Kalamazoo every day, and I’ve met hundreds of people who would love to pay taxes, but they can’t find a job,” he said.

“We need this spark,” Berrien County commissioner John Klimek said of the Democratic Party. “We need a leader … you’ve got my support. The liberal views you have stated, it’s 100 percent my views.”

Cooney, a native of Philadelphia and resident of Kalamazoo for 21 years, serves on the Michigan Association of Children with Emotional Disorder, World Trade Peace Center and Task Force for Prevention of Youth Violence.

The Sixth Congressional District encompasses Kalamazoo and Van Buren, St. Joseph, Cass and Berrien counties, as well as portions of Calhoun and Allegan counties.
The general election will be held Nov. 2, 2010.