Short version: when this story first appeared in the Hill it referred to Representative Hansen Clarke of Michigan as a Republican, not a Democrat. This matters because Rep. Clarke had just called for a bailout of Detroit (which includes parts of Clarke’s district) by the federal government; and, obviously, that’s only a story when a Republican legislator is the one doing it. For a Democratic one, it’d be best classified as a by-product of breathing.
Oh, was that mean of me? Probably. I blame my cold. I’m sure that Rep. Clarke is a very nice person when he’s not requesting my tax money in order to shore up the shining exemplar of modern urban liberal governance.
I generally assume a congressman from Detroit area would be Democrat. All that union labor would vote D, but that is an uneducated assumption on my part.
Gotta be careful with “Detroit area”. There are some solidly R areas around the city — they’re the ones who get blamed for its current situation.