Congressman Dave Camp rep­re­sents this dis­trict, but he may not always have our best inter­ests in mind.

On Tuesday, Aug. 18, Rep. Dave Camp, a Republican, paid a visit to Ferris State University to talk about his “Stimulus That Works” ini­tia­tive. Camp’s announce­ment of this new plan to cut taxes was just a very minor part in his press con­fer­ence with Ferris State President David Eisler and for­mer FSU stu­dent Scott Christensen. The actual hid­den rea­son behind Camp’s visit to cam­pus when classes were not in ses­sion seems to be to pay thanks to the Friends of Ferris Political Action Committee (PAC).

According to fer​ris​.edu, this com­mit­tee is the offi­cial polit­i­cal action group of Ferris State University. Some of the top donors include President David Eisler, Board of Trustee Member Sueann Walz, and Ferris Vice President for Student Affairs Daniel Burcham. During the course of the 2008 elec­tion, the only recip­i­ent of funds from Friends of Ferris was Rep. Dave Camp, who has held the fourth Michigan Congressional District since 1991, which includes Ferris State University.

As stated on the Federal Election Commissions (FEC) Web site, the total con­tributed to Camp in the 2008 elec­tion cycle by the Friends of Ferris amounted to $1,241.

During the press con­fer­ence, Rep. Camp took a few ques­tions from the audi­ence, includ­ing one from a Ferris stu­dent, but the oth­ers were from FSU fac­ulty and staff. Since my ques­tion was never answered dur­ing the con­fer­ence, I caught up with Mr. Camp on his way out the door. My ques­tion to him was where he stood on the whole health care reform issue. He then stated, “I am not in favor of a pub­lic option.”

Camp also went on to say that the fig­ure of 47 mil­lion unin­sured Americans that is float­ing around in the media is false. “The actual amount is more like between seven and ten mil­lion”, stated Camp. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the cor­rect num­ber of Americans liv­ing with­out health insur­ance is approx­i­mately 46 mil­lion. Sorry Mr. Camp, you have your num­bers wrong.

This is not a sur­prise though as he has accepted sev­eral dona­tions dur­ing the 2008 elec­tion cycle from var­i­ous health care orga­ni­za­tions. Some of the top donors include $4,500 from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan PAC; $10,000 from the American College of Cardiology PAC; and $5,000 from the National Association of Psychiatric Health PAC. According to the FEC, Camp’s total amount received from PACs dur­ing the 2008 elec­tion was just over $1.64 million.

With all of this said, who does Congressman Camp really rep­re­sent? The work­ing mid­dle class like his Web site claims, or the large PACs that make up 74 per­cent of his contributions.

Editor’s Note: infor­ma­tion for this col­umn was found using the list below.

• FEC PAC Donation List
• Friends of Ferris PAC Donation List
• Friends of Ferris PAC
• Article con­tain­ing US Census Bureau Figure