The 2nd Congressional District, which extends northward along the Lake Michigan shoreline from part of Allegan County to all of Benzie, is the most Republican among Michigan's 15 districts.

It is represented by conservative nine-term Representative Pete Hoekstra of Holland, and has four conservatives seeking the seat that he is vacating to run for governor.

On Friday came the surprise revelation by Grand Haven businessman Field Reichardt, who was GOP chairman of the district well before its current configuration, that he has filed preliminary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to seek the Republican nomination.

He told me he would run "as an old-fashioned moderate" who is "proenvironment, pro-small business, and pro-choice" and is "very, very disturbed by the tenor and tone of American politics."

Reichardt said he was a campaign supporter of 1963-69 Governor George Romney and 1969-82 Governor William G. Milliken, and worked in Maine on Nelson Rockefeller's 1968 presidential campaign and in New Hampshire 1971-72 for Paul McCloskey's presidential campaign.

If that's not enough to indicate his tilt within the GOP, he called the moderate Milliken "one of my political heroes."

Reichardt, 61, clearly would have little chance in a one-on-one primary match with a conservative in a district that includes Ottawa County and other conservative enclaves. But the current field could split up the conservative vote while Reichardt might appeal to moderate Republicans, independents, environmentalists, and those who share his views on social issues.

Declared candidates are Senator Wayne Kuipers, 48, of Holland; ex- Representative Bill Huizenga, 40, of Zeeland; Fruitport businessman Bill Cooper, 40, and an interesting newcomer who is creating a good deal of buzz -- Jay Riemersma, 36, a former University of Michigan football star who played for the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers, and is Midwest director of the Family Research Council.

Asked if he will formally announce as a candidate, Reichardt said he would if his polling and soundings on fundraising are positive.

Meanwhile, as he ponders a final decision, he cites an interesting array of well-credentialed Republicans who are advising him, including such former state representatives like Bill Bobier of Hesperia, an environmental champion, and Mickey Knight and Nancy Crandall of Muskegon. He also named former Manistee County Prosecutor Dennis Swain.

In 2008, Hope College history professor Fred Johnson got a mere 35% as Democratic challenger of Hoekstra. He's running again this year.

(On Saturday U.S. Representative John Dingell (D-Dearborn), 83, the longest-serving House member ever, announced that he will seek a 28th term. It's good news for all of Michigan. Representative John Conyers (DDetroit), 82, second in longevity among current members, will seek a 24th term.)

Dispute on Stimulus Impact

A day after Vice-President Joe Biden declared in Saginaw-area appearances that the year-old stimulus plan "is working" and was good for Michigan, Hoekstra and U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter (RLivonia), Wednesday joined Michigan Republican State Chairman Ron Weiser in a conference call with state reporters to declare it a failure.

Also on Wednesday, President Barack Obama, marking the anniversary of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said it staved off another Great Depression but appropriately acknowledged, "It doesn't yet feel like much of a recovery."

Hoekstra insisted, "all evidence is very clear" that the Recovery Act "did not work for Michigan or the nation."

I asked Hoekstra if he would, as governor, reject stimulus funding. He said he would look with a "fine comb" at each program.

Weiser said that in Michigan, money was awarded for projects that "people did not even want." Asked to cite an example, he referred to a Leelanau Enterprise story about stimulus aid going to a "dead" Leelanau County sewer project in the unincorporated village of Cedar in Solon Township.

In March, Governor Jennifer Granholm said the township would receive a $300,000 grant included in a low-interest loan of more than $1.3 million to help in construction of a wastewater treatment plant.

Asked Friday about the issue, Solon Township Supervisor Jim Lautner said the money was not actually requested and "wasn't going to go to what we wanted. It was not the best way to go."

He said that as presented, it would have been costly to the township because of the federal requirement that the "prevailing wage" must be paid for workers on funded projects. As communities across the northland know, that means higher wages prevailing downstate.

Camp Response to Obama

It's a Washington ritual that a prominent member of the opposition party is selected to respond to the president's weekly address broadcast across the nation.

It's not reaction to the president's actual words because the response is crafted before the address is delivered.

The response last week to President Obama was delivered by 4th District Representative Dave Camp of Midland, lead Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee and a key figure in the Capitol Hill debate on health care as the president scheduled a White House summit on the issue.

At the outset of his response, Camp said: "...Americans are demanding that President Obama and the Democrats in control of Congress scrap their misguided plan of a government takeover of health care. They don't want 2,000-page bill that threatens jobs and drives up health premiums; they already have enough challenges to deal with in their daily lives. They want Washington to start over with a step-by-step approach to health care reform that begins with reducing costs and ensures they can keep their current plan if they like it."

Camp/Cox Combat Carp

In the high-profile battle to prevent destructive Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, no politicians are more aggressive than Attorney General Mike Cox, who leads a multi-state legal effort, and Camp, who, along with Senator Debbie Stabenow, is pushing the fight on Capitol Hill.

At an "Asian Carp Summit" Wednesday in Traverse City, Camp said the

great natural resource of the Great Lakes, largest body of freshwater in the world...is up against one of the biggest threats it has ever faced: Asian carp, a fish that has been ranked the number one most threatening invasive species in the world."

Cox also scheduled similar summits in the hometowns of Republican Representatives Fred Upton of St. Joseph and Vern Ehlers of Grand Rapids.

They are good gigs for a Republican AG who is running for governor.

But it remains to be seen whether all of these "summits" that politicians in Washington and Lansing are calling these days will actually produce solutions.

On Friday, the 10-member Michigan Shoreline Caucus in the state House filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Cox's renewed motion for an injunction to close Chicago shipping locks to block the carp from entering Lake Michigan. The caucus includes Republican Representatives Kevin Elsenheimer of Kewadin, the House minority leader, and Wayne Schmidt of Traverse City.

George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.