By AARON MUELLER
Niles Daily Star

Editor’s Note: This is one of several stories in the Star’s primary election guide to help voters learn more about candidates. Each issue covers a different campaign race.

For the first time in eight years, Fred Upton is facing competition in the GOP primary election for his Michigan 6th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he has held since 1987.
Jack Hoogendyk of Kalamazoo, who served three terms in the state House of Representatives from 2002 through 2008, has been campaigning as a staunch conservative, while Upton is viewed as a more moderate Republican.
Hoogendyk has received strong support from the Southwest Michigan Tea Party for his fiscally conservative and anti-taxing platform.
In fact, Hoogendyk says he has never voted for a tax increase during his service in the Michigan House.
Hoogendyk has criticized Upton’s voting record, especially his support of President Obama’s Omnibus Appropriations Act that increased federal spending by $32 billion and the government takeover of General Motors and Chrysler.
At a candidate forum at Jefferson Township Hall this month, Hoogendyk said those serving in Washington, including Upton, “have forgotten that the Constitution is supposed to limit government and protect individual liberty.”
He also is proud to be “100 percent pro-life” and is endorsed by Right to Life, a recognition Upton has never sought nor been given. National Right to Life gives Upton an 82 percent rating, based on his votes in favor of stem cell research.
Upton has been as close to a sure thing as there is in politics in recent elections. He has served the 6th District since 1986 and has easily dispatched Democratic challengers in general elections, although his margin of victory has declined in recent years since 1998 when he won with 70 percent of the vote.
The last time Upton had competition in the primary, he easily knocked off Dale Shugars with 66 percent of the vote.
One of Upton’s top goals is to create new jobs and improve the Michigan economy by supporting small businesses and alternative energy sources. Upton, a co-chairman of the Congressional Auto Caucus, has been encouraged by the turnaround of the auto industry in Michigan and defended his support of the General Motors and Chrysler bailout.
“Yes, they needed a handout and they are paying it back with interest,” he said when he visited Pilkington in Niles recently. “But had they gone down, you would have seen a lot of other companies … go down.”
Upton has also defended his stance on spending, pointing out his support of repealing the $2.6 trillion health care bill and a constitutional spending limit amendment.
He voted last week to extend unemployment benefits, arguing Michigan could not afford to let 100,000 residents lose benefits. Hoogendyk questioned Upton’s vote, arguing increasing the federal deficit curbs job creation in the long run.
Hoogendyk has been trying to schedule a public debate with Upton and has accused him of dodging it. The two candidates did debate on WSJM in Benton Township with the recording available online and both participated in an editorial board meeting with the Kalamazoo Gazette this month.
The winner of the GOP primary will face Democratic candidate Don Cooney, a Kalamazoo resident, seven-term Kalamazoo City commissioner and professor of social work at Western Michigan University.
Cooney ran against Upton in the general election in 2008 and earned more votes than any Democrat has before against Upton, garnering 38 percent of the vote. But Cooney remains a longshot to win the election in a district that hasn’t elected a Democrat in decades.

Where to vote:
Polls open from 7 a..m. to 8 p.m.Tuesday.

Niles City residents vote in the following locations:
• Ward 1/Precinct 1 — Niles Senior High School, 1441 Eagle
• Ward 2/Precinct 2 — Niles Senior High School, 1441 Eagle
• Ward 3/Precinct 3 — Niles Fire Station1345 East Main
• Ward 4/Precinct 4 — Westside School, 111 Spruce

Niles Township residents vote in the following locations:
• Precinct 1 — Fairland Church, 1811 River Bluff Rd.
• Precinct 2 — Police Complex, 1600 Silverbrook Ave.
• Precinct 3 — Nile Charter Township, D.P.W 322 Bell Rd.
• Precinct 4 — Community Evangelical Free Church, 120 E. Bertrand Rd.
• Precinct 5A — Morris Farm Fire Station, 2001 Morris Drive
• Precinct 5B — Morris Farm Fire Station, 2001 Morris Drive