Joe Knollenberg

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Joe Knollenberg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 9th district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Dale Kildee
Succeeded by	Gary Peters
Born	November 28, 1933 (1933-11-28) (age 76) Mattoon, Illinois
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Sandie Knollenberg
Residence	Bloomfield Township, Michigan
Alma mater	Eastern Illinois University
Occupation	insurance agent
Religion	Roman Catholic
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1955-1957

Joseph "Joe" Knollenberg (born November 28, 1933) is a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. From 1993 to 2009, he was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 9th congressional district.

He was defeated by Gary Peters in the 2008 election by a margin of 52% to 43%.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Congressional career 3 Committee Assignments 4 2006 election 5 2008 election 6 Family 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Knollenberg was born in Mattoon, Illinois and graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1955. He has lived in the Detroit area since 1959, and has lived in Oakland County since 1967. After graduation, he served in the United States Army from 1955 to 1957. He then spent more than three decades as an insurance agent. Initially working for New York Life and Sears, he founded his own agency in the late 1980s. He served as chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party from 1978 to 1982.

[edit] Congressional career

In 1992, Knollenberg signed on as campaign manager for Congressman William Broomfield, who had represented most of Oakland County in Congress since 1957. However, at a meeting with Knollenberg and other advisers, Broomfield announced he wasn't running for a 19th term. He then asked Knollenberg to run in his place in the 11th District, which had been renumbered from the 18th District after the 1990 Census. Despite being the only candidate in the three-way Republican primary not holding elected office, Knollenberg won the nomination by over 13 points. As the 11th was one of the most Republican districts in Michigan and the nation at the time, he was virtually assured of becoming only the third person to represent the district. He was reelected six times without serious difficulty, never dropping below 55 percent of the vote.

Knollenberg was reelected to his seventh term in 2004 with 58% of the vote. Only two years later, however, Knollenberg was nearly defeated by Democrat Nancy Skinner, a liberal talk show host in the Detroit area.

Generally, Knollenberg's voting record was conservative, despite a growing Democratic trend in his district. He has supported North American Free Trade Agreement and led the campaign against President George W. Bush's steel tariffs^[1][2][3]. In 2002 he was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh Medal by the President of the Republic of Armenia.^[4] On September 29, 2008, he voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.^[5]

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Appropriations Committee
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (Ranking Member)

[edit] 2006 election

Knollenberg was challenged in the 2006 Republican primary by moderate Republican Patricia Godchaux. Democratic candidate Nancy Skinner, a popular former radio-talk show host in the Detroit area, was her party's nominee for the 9th district. Matthew R. Abel of the Green Party and Adam Goodman of the Libertarian Party were third-party candidates also in the race.

Prior to 2006, Knollenberg's election was widely considered to be relatively easy given the traditionally Republican leanings of Troy, the largest city in his district. However, recent demographic shifts in the district, and Oakland County as a whole, made what was once a bastion of suburban conservatism much more competitive. For example, George W. Bush barely won the district in 2000 and 2004. The 2000s round of redistricting made Knollenberg's district much friendlier to Democrats. While the district lost heavily Democratic Southfield, it picked up equally Democratic Pontiac and lost a Republican-leaning spur of Wayne County.

In the 2006 election, Knollenberg was nearly defeated, taking only 52 percent of the vote to Skinner's 46 percent. Abel received .9%, and Goodman received 1.3%.^[6] This was the closest a Democrat had come to winning the district in 48 years; in 1958 Broomfield only won a second term by 5.5 points.

Knollenberg spent $2.7 million in his campaign.^[7]

[edit] 2008 election

In January 2006, Congressman Knollenberg announced his intent to seek re-election in 2008. The narrowness of his 2006 reelection bid, combined with his district's changing demographics led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to target him for defeat.^[8] The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee targeted Congressional Districts where Republicans garnered less than 55% of the vote.^[9]

The Democratic nominee was Gary Peters, the former state lottery commissioner. Skinner initially made plans for a rematch, but bowed out to clear the field for Peters.^[10] On 12 March 2008, Dr. Jack Kevorkian announced that he would challenge Knollenberg as an independent candidate.^[11] The Libertarian nominee was Adam Goodman and the Green nominee was Douglas Campbell. Kevorkian, Goodman and Campbell each raised & spent less money than the mandatory reporting threshold.

On November 4, 2008, Knollenberg was defeated, garnering 43 percent of the vote to Peters' 52 percent. Knollenberg was likely swamped by a heavy Democratic tide in the Detroit area; Barack Obama carried Oakland County by a 15-point margin, six percentage points more than Peters' margin over Knollenberg. Another factor in Knollenberg's defeat was a series of advertisements criticizing his vote against S-CHIP, a children's health insurance program. His poll numbers fell five points after they aired.^[12]

[edit] Family

Knollenberg has two sons with his wife, Sandy.

His son, Marty Knollenberg, was elected in November 2006 by a 58%-42% margin to the Michigan State House of Representatives from the 41st District, representing Troy and Clawson, and defeating Democratic college student Eric Gregory of Troy. In the August 2006 primary he defeated Clawson School Board Trustee Mike Bosnic by a 53.5-46.5% margin, despite the endorsement of Bosnic by then-representative Robert Gosselin. That contest was labeled by a Lansing-insider political publication as the fourth most interesting primary in Michigan. MIRS News Service, Subscription only.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Joe Knollenberg for Congress official campaign site
• Joe Knollenberg at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — Joseph K. Knollenberg campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Joe Knollenberg issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Joe Knollenberg campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Joseph K. 'Joe' Knollenberg (MI) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Joe Knollenberg profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Joe Knollenberg voting record
• Retire Joe Knollenberg -- a Rochester Hills, Michigan based web site critical of Knollenberg

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Robert W. Davis	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 11th congressional district 1993–2003	Succeeded by Thad McCotter
Preceded by Dale Kildee	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 9th congressional district 2003–2009	Succeeded by Gary Peters