Charges fly in Bishop, Slotkin race — here's what's true

▤ Summary

The race in Michigans 8th Congressional District has gotten heated, with both U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, and his Democratic challenger, former Pentagon official Elissa Slotkin, firing off charges against the other over all kinds of questions. Heres our take on several of the top issues being raised in this toss-up race: For months, Bishop and his campaign have been trying to characterize Slotkin, who moved back to Michigan in 2017, as an outsider with no connection to the 8th District, which stretches from East Lansing through Ingham and Livingston counties through northern Oakland County, noting that for more than a decade she lived outside Michigan, mostly in Washington, D.C. She did this while working for the CIA, for whom she did three tours in Iraq; at the White House, for both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama; and at the Pentagon, where she rose to acting assistant secretary of defense, leaving at the end of Obamas term in 2017. Its also worth noting that the congressman whom Bishop replaced in 2015 — former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Howell — won his first election to a state Senate seat upon returning to Michigan after being gone for some years in the Army and as an FBI agent in Chicago. It is also worth noting that, when this so-called "public option" was debated in 2009 as part of the Obamacare law, the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation found that the plan would be required to be paid for. Bishops campaign has noted that, in December 2014, the late U.S. Sen. John McCain blocked Slotkins nomination by Obama to be an assistant secretary at the Department of Defense, saying, "I do not believe she is qualified" during a hearing before the Armed Services Committee.

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