By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff

Election: Defeated Rep. Joe Knollenberg , R

Residence: Bloomfield Hills

Born: Dec. 1, 1958; Pontiac, Mich.

Religion: Episcopalian

Family: Wife, Colleen Ochoa Peters; three children

Education: Alma College, B.A. 1980 (political science); U. of Detroit, M.B.A. 1984; Wayne State U., J.D. 1989; Michigan State U., M.A. 2007 (philosophy)

Military: Naval Reserve, 1993-2000, 2001-2005

Career: College instructor; investment firm branch executive

Political highlights: Democratic nominee for Mich. Senate, 1990; Rochester Hills City Council, 1991-93; Mich. Senate, 1995-2002; Democratic nominee for Mich. attorney general, 2002; Mich. Lottery Bureau commissioner, 2003-07

Peters’ legislative priorities are likely to be as varied as his career, which includes a stint in state government, service in the military, work as an assistant vice president at Merrill Lynch and a professorship at Central Michigan University.

Like most politicians from Michigan, Peters says he wants to help the state’s economy, particularly the ailing auto industry. He is a skeptic of free trade and has railed against the Bush administration for the agreements it has negotiated as well as its enforcement of those agreements. He advocates cutting taxes for the middle class and ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He has, however, ducked questions about whether he would be open to any tax increases.

Peters labels himself as fiscally responsible, pointing to the fact that operations of his state Senate office and the Michigan Lottery Commission both came in under budget, saving taxpayers money. He pledges to cut wasteful spending in the federal government.

House Democrats are likely to turn to Peters, a decorated Navy veteran, to provide an authoritative voice on military affairs. He has been an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq. “We should never have gone into the war in the first place,” he says. “And to me the best way to support our troops is to . . . start withdrawing them now.”