"Nine offices in nine years"???

I'm shocked that yet another false statement by Fred Upton slipped by me. I have already wrote about Upton's error-riddled statement on electoral history.

Upton Botches Election Data Again

Here is the beginning of Upton's statement.

Upton/Hoogendyk Debate

Upton: Well, I don't know if he could win or not. Voters will make that decision. I do know as I watched his career in the House and watched him run for nine offices in nine years, a career candidate on a host of fronts, governor, U.S. Senate, I watched him as a state Rep take what I considered a safe Republican district in Portage and make it awfully close, in fact, it had a recount to make sure he crossed the finish line as a Republican. When he ran for U.S. Senate, in that same district, Carl Levin beat him. What we saw with Jack in the state house was a steady decline in terms of support from the people that knew him best. Those that live in the same precinct.

Wait a minute! Did Jack run for nine offices in nine years? He certainly did not run for nine distinct offices. But we'll assume Upton means Jack ran for office nine times. This is true, though a bit misleading. It includes the time in 2006 when Jack briefly ran for Governor when no top-tier Republican was running, before dropping out when Dick DeVos entered the race. Jack then ran for reelection the same year.

But did Jack do this over nine years? No! He first ran for office in 1999. This is 2012. Jack's political career has spanned 13 years. Even if Upton wants to weasel and say he meant nine distinct, non-consecutive years, this is still wrong due to the 2006 issue described above.

In contrast to to Jack running for office "nine times in nine years", Fred Upton has run for one office fourteen times, which is totally different.