“We didn’t in ’02, ’04, ’06 really go after Rogers for being deceptive,” Alexander said.

When talking about Alexander, though, his friends and constituents said what you see is what you get.

“This is not about his career,” said Stephen Purchase, a former president of MSU Democrats. “He’s perfectly content retiring and dealing with local activism. He is informed of the working political process in the sense of you and me and working for the everyday people.”

Once a teacher in the impoverished Chicano/Latino section of Detroit, Alexander moved to Lansing in 1979 when his friend Edward Pierce won a state Senate seat. The move was supposed to be for just one year, but he hasn’t left Lansing.

In that time, Alexander has established himself as what Purchase called a grassroots activist. He has led movements in the Lansing area to expand health care options to senior citizens, improve nursing home facilities and was a key figure in petitioning for the increase in the state’s minimum wage in 2006.

Alexander and East Lansing City Councilmember Nathan Triplett, then a student at MSU and volunteer for Alexander’s campaign, organized a petition drive that spanned 54 performances of “The Lion King” at Wharton Center that winter. He said Republican politicians and their families witnessed people scrambling to sign the petitions, which he believes influenced Republican legislators to draft a bill raising minimum wage to make it their own law.

“Because we froze to get those signatures night after night, the average person making minimum wage now makes $1,100 extra per year,” Alexander said.

Triplett said he will never forget that experience, and that it speaks volumes about Alexander’s character.

“The two things he has imparted to me is staying true to your own principles and maintaining a connection with the people you are trying to serve,” Triplett said.

“I think fundamentally, Bob’s strength is he recognizes the last eight years have been rough on the people of Michigan.”

It’s the people of Michigan, Alexander said, who are helping his election effort through a volunteer-heavy campaign. Previous 8th District Democratic campaigns have been underfunded, he said.

Alexander said much of the past six months of his life has involved making phone calls to collect donations. When he’s not at his campaign office in Lansing, he’s out in the district, even traveling to towns that have been historically considered Democratic long shots.

Purchase said there was a definite lack of resources in Alexander’s 2004 campaign, but he hasn’t been surprised to watch Alexander turn that around this year.

“Something about Bob that anybody who knows him will tell you is he’s a fighter,” he said.

“He won’t lay down his principles because the times are tough for it.”