MSU College Democrats joined protesters Friday in Lansing to oppose U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers' handling of the Mark Foley scandal.
Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, resigned Sept. 29 after he was accused of sending sexually explicit messages to congressional pages. Some of the pages Foley is accused of contacting were minors.
MSU College Democrats President Karissa Chabot said about 40 people turned out to protest in the cold, including Lansing community members and the UAW members.
"We heard it was happening and we wanted to jump on board," she said, adding it was not an event organized by the MSU Democrats. "We were pleased (Rogers) at least said some things about it and did pay attention to us."
Rogers, R-Brighton, said Friday that Foley engaged in illegal behavior and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Democratic protesters were just using the situation for political gains, he said.
"I argued it was good leadership when they found out what happened, they fired him — they being the Republican Conference — and brought in the FBI for investigation," he said. "I don't know what more you can do."
The House ethics committee is entering its second week investigating the scandal and possible GOP coverup.
But scandals such as Foleygate, which pundits have dubbed it, don't largely impact midterm election voters, according to Michigan political observers.
Smaller congressional scandals, such as the ones involving Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay and Foley, don't significantly affect midterm elections, MSU political science Professor Paul Abramson said.
The few incidents that clearly shifted party power proceeding midterm elections occurred in 1974 when former President Richard Nixon resigned in August following the Watergate scandal.
"That was a much bigger scandal than anything we've ever seen," Abramson said.
"In that election in the House, the Republicans lost a net of 43 seats, which is much more than the average losses in a midterm election."
Rogers' opponent for Michigan's 8th Congressional District, Democrat Jim Marcinkowski, said Friday that condemning Foley's actions is not good enough.
"Words are all fine," he said. "What did he have to say about the Jack Abramoff scandal? One Congressman after another is being investigated, indicted, thrown in jail and he has nothing to say."
Marcinkowski said Republicans, who have been involved in many of the scandals, are "tarnishing the image of Congress" and these events should be a reflection on the whole party.
Rogers' spokeswoman Sylvia Warner said such accusations by Democrats carry no weight with voters.
"Voters are a lot smarter than the partisan attackers give them credit for, and they see through that desperate campaigning," she said. "The Congressman is disgusted by those kinds of things happening."
The way Michigan Republicans have been running their campaigns this year seems to have shifted to negative attacks on opponents and creating fear among voters, said Tom Lenard, spokesman for the Michigan Senate Democratic Caucus.
"I don't know if that's an issue people will be voting on, but it's an example of the Republicans being drunk on their own power," he said. "One of the things they're trying to do is lead away the attention from themselves."
There was a question of how this scandal was going to affect Republican candidates, but the fallout has been minimal, Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis said.
"From a short term standpoint, it's had a very little effect on Michigan," he said.
"If they don't have any direct relation to it, guilt by association is very hard in politics."
