South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has raised more than $1 million for his own campaign treasury since his "You lie" shout during President Obama's address to Congress two weeks ago. And now Wilson is spreading the wealth with his Republican colleagues.

Wilson is headed to Michigan Oct. 2 for a fundraiser with Tim Walberg, a Republican who held the 7th District seat for one term before he was ousted by Democrat Mark Schauer in 2008. Walberg is now seeking a rematch in what is expected to be a competitive race.

According to Walberg's Web site, the event in the 7th District city of Jackson, "will feature Congressman Wilson and Tim Walberg discussing health care and the need to stop a government takeover."

For $150, attendees would get two tickets and a photo with Wilson.

Wilson chief of staff Eric Dell told CQ Politics that the four-term congressman -- who is seeking re-election next year -- will then head to Missouri later that week for a speaking engagement with local politicos at the request of Rep. Roy Blunt, the likely GOP nominee in the state's open-seat Senate contest.

John Cherry's two terms as lieutenant governor of Michigan make him a solid early favorite to win the nomination for the contest to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. But it has long been clear that he will face opponents for the August 2010 primary, with the main question being, "How many?"

That number rose to two officially announced rivals last week, when former state Rep. John Freeman told the Detroit Free Press he is getting into the race. Freeman, a lawyer, joined state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, who announced her bid for governor in late June.

George Perles, a former head football coach at Michigan State University and now an elected trustee of that school, has not officially launched a candidacy but has publicly stated he plans to run. And two experienced officeholders, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and state House Speaker Andy Dillon, are thinking about entering the Democratic race.

Rick Snyder, a technology industry veteran from Ann Arbor, officially kicked off a dark-horse bid in the crowded 2010 Republican primary for governor, and set off on a four-day announcement tour across the state.

Snyder's bid to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm is his first campaign for public office, and he is framing himself as a political outsider.

A former president and chief operating officer of computer company Gateway Inc., Snyder contends his business and high-tech background makes him the candidate who is best able to re-energize the recession-plagued state's economy and repair the low opinion most Michigan voters currently have of their state government in Lansing.

Snyder sought to link himself to the legacy of inventor Thomas A. Edison during his announcement speech at Greenfield Village, part of the Henry Ford Museum in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. His event was held at Edison's Menlo Park, N.J., laboratory, relocated to the museum, which "embodies the inventive spirit we need to embrace," Snyder said in a statement.

Tim Walberg, a former one-term House Republican, confirmed Tuesday that he will try to reclaim Michigan's 7th District seat that he lost to Democrat Mark Schauer in 2008.

Walberg's decision to run in 2010 -- which he had signaled was likely -- will be one of the key rematches in districts that the Democrats captured from the Republicans last year, expanding the House majority they claimed in the 2006 elections.

Schauer won by just more than 2 percentage points, and Democrat Barack Obama won the presidential vote by 6 points in the largely rural 7th District, where the biggest city is the cereal-making capital of Battle Creek. But the south-central Michigan district has a heritage as GOP turf that dates way back to the 1850s, when one of the founding meetings of the Republican Party was held in the city of Jackson.

State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith confirmed Friday that, as expected, she is joining the crowded 2010 race for governor of Michigan. She previously staged a short-lived bid for the same office in 2002.

Smith, whose state House district includes the eastern Michigan city of Ypsilanti, is the third Democrat to enter the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. She joins Lt. Gov. John Cherry and George Perles, a former head football coach at Michigan State University and now an elected trustee of that school who has publicly stated he plans to run.

Cherry is considered the early favorite for the Democratic nomination, having served alongside Granholm for both her two terms.

Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land announced Thursday that she is not going to enter the already crowded 2010 race for governor.

The unexpected move by Land -- who was widely assumed to be a candidate in the open-seat race -- came with another surprise, as she endorsed one of the declared Republican contenders: Michael J. Bouchard, the sheriff of populous Oakland County in suburban Detroit and a former state senator, who was the GOP's unsuccessful challenger to Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow in 2006.

Bouchard on June 3 officially launched his campaign for the 2010 contest to choose the successor to two-term Democratic incumbent Jennifer M. Granholm, who is barred from running again under Michigan's term-limit law.

George Perles, a former Michigan State University (MSU) football coach and athletic director, told the Detroit Free Press he plans to run for governor as a Democrat in 2010.

Perles' election as an MSU trustee by state voters in 2006 was his only previous campaign for public office, but he told the paper he believes his public prominence in the sports-mad state can help him in an election. "Name recognition is a big thing," said Perles, who turns 75 years old on July 16. "You get attention in both the political pages of the newspaper and the sports pages. It's a unique situation."

Perles certainly has plenty of football credentials. After his career as an MSU player was cut short by injury, Perles served as an assistant coach from 1959 to 1970, a period that included the Spartans' championship era in the mid-1960s. He segued to more than a decade as an assistant coach of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers during their Super Bowl glory days.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox officially launched a long-expected 2010 bid for governor Wednesday. The suburban Detroit Republican, who has been exploring the race since November, told supporters that he was "ready to lead the fight for Michigan's future."

"As a Marine, prosecutor, and Attorney General, I have spent my life fighting for the people of Michigan," Cox said in a release. "I will be a governor who is willing to make the tough decisions to help grow Michigan's economy."

The economy clearly will be the top issue in next year's race to succeed term-limited Democrat Jennifer M. Granholm, who was elected in 2002 and 2006. Staggered especially by the sharp downturn in its crucial automobile industry, Michigan led all states with a 12.7 percent unemployment rate in April.

Cox joins a crowded field of Republican hopefuls looking to reclaim the seat after eight years of Democratic control under Granholm, who was preceded in the seat by Republican John Engler.

A bill that would set mortgage standards and aims to curb predatory lending practices was easily passed by the House Thursday on a 300-114 vote, with the support of all but three participating members of the Democratic majority, as well as 60 Republicans.

And the measure proved popular with members from partisan swing districts.

Of the 34 Republican lawmakers from districts that split their tickets to back Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 election, 25 (or 74 percent) voted for the bill.

The bill was drew much less support, on a percentage basis, from members whose districts went Republican both for president and the House last year. "Aye" votes were cast by just 35 of the 144 Republicans (24 percent) from districts that favored Republican John McCain over Obama.

Oakland County Republican Paul Welday is going to try to do something his former boss, ex-Rep. Joe Knollenberg couldn't do: beat Democrat Gary Peters.

Welday announced Wednesday that he was mounting a campaign to unseat Peters in Michigan's 9th District, which takes in suburban Detroit, including eastern Oakland County. Welday used to be the chief of staff for Knollenberg, an eight-term incumbent whom Peters upset in 2008.

"For over six years Michigan's economy has been in the tank, and now America is feeling much the same pain we have become all too familiar with," Welday said during an anti-tax Tea Party in Troy, Mich. "While we have been promised hope and change, what we are getting from our current congressman is grandstanding and massive deficit spending."

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick J. Toomey announced Monday that he is stepping down as president of The Club for Growth, a conservative political organization he has headed for the past four years.

Toomey's move appears the latest signal that he intends to seek a 2010 rematch of his close 2004 primary loss to Sen. Arlen Specter, a prominent Republican centrist who is gearing up to bid for a sixth term.

Chris Chocola, a Republican who represented Indiana's 2nd District in the U.S. House from 2003 to 2007, is succeeding Toomey as Club for Growth president.

Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry hasn't officially declared his candidacy for governor in 2010, but he sure looks like he's headed in that direction.

Cherry, who is second-in-command under term-limited current Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, launched a new Web site Thursday, titled "A Whole Lot of People Supporting John Cherry." Beneath his name it reads, "Democrat for Governor."

Cherry is considered to be the leading contender for the post on the Democratic side, though it's unlikely he'll have the race to himself. He, Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel and state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith have all formed exploratory committees that allow them to fundraise for a potential run.