Democrats line up to replace Michigan U.S. Rep. Gary Peters

Jessica McCall

   Democrats are beginning to get in line to replace U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, a Bloomfield Township Democrat who wants to become Michigan's next U.S. senator.
   Farmington Hills resident Jessica McCall is the latest to jump into the race to replace Peters in the 2014 election.
   State Rep. Rudy Hobbs, a Southfield Democrat, is already a declared candidate for the S-shaped   Democrat-leaning congressional seat that starts in Pontiac and ends in Detroit.
   McCall is a former volunteer for former Gov. Jennifer Granholm's 2002 campaign. She says she also served as director of scheduling to first lady Michelle Obama during the president's re-election campaign, and under U.S. Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius during the president's first term.
   Hobbs is a former district director for U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, and a former member of the Southfield school board.
   He was first elected to the state House in 2010 and is in his second two-year term.
   The 14th Congressional District that McCall and Hobbs want to represent includes all or parts of the Oakland County communities of Pontiac, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, Orchard Lake, West Bloomfield Township, Farmington Hills, Lathrup Village, Southfield, Oak Park, Royal Oak Township, and the Wayne County communities of Hamtramck, Harper Woods, the Grosse Pointes, and about half the city of Detroit.

Rudy Hobbs

Peters was elected to a third term in the U.S. House last November, but opted to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014 when U.S. Sen. Carl Levin announced he wouldn't be seeking a seventh six-year term. So far, the Republican candidate seeking Levin's seat is former Michigan secretary of state Terri Lynn Land.