U.S. Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter tells the Detroit News he is running for re-election to Congress as a write-in candidate.
McCotter, addressing the signature snafu in a column in today's Detroit News, says he is sending a letter to the Secretary of State's Office "agreeing with their finding that my petitions are insufficient to place my name on the August primary ballot."
He also asked for the office to "refer any irregularities to the state attorney general for a thorough investigation" and give voters a chance to vote for or against him — "the only way to clean up my mess."
"While I will not speculate on how this surreal outcome has happened — pending the appropriate state review — I will say that, regardless of how the insufficiencies and possible irregularities occurred, as for the failure to file sufficient petition signatures, the buck stops here with me," he wrote.
State officials are investigating whether fraud was a factor in his petitions. The five-term Livonia Republican ran for president briefly in the GOP primary last year.
