by P.D. Lesko

Today, Jack Eaton announced his candidacy first via email to a loosely-organized group of neighborhood activists, city and county politicians. He wrote, “I wanted all of you to hear it from me, because so many of you have encouraged me to do this.” The email listserv came alive with electronic cheers. One of the group’s participants wrote in response to Eaton’s announcement: “YAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!! You might as well be official, since you’re doing all the work anyway.” Another chimed in quickly: “Bravo!”

Eaton discusses his desire to run on what he called a pro-neighborhood agenda. “I don’t think a neighborhood should have to submit a petition to the City Council just to get their elected representatives interested in resolving neighborhood problems. Elected officials need to be responsive to the interests of City residents.”

Ward 4 Council members Marcia Higgins and Margie Teall take regular and brutal electronic drubbings in AnnArbor.com’s comment sections. Both of the women are mocked, characterized as out-of-touch, and taken to task for their poor attendance records at Council meetings. Marcia Higgins, like Margie Teall, is known to have a poor track record in returning constituent email messages and phone calls. When she ran for re-election in 2011, Higgins did not  put up a web site and, unlike most of her Council colleagues, has no web site. She does not send out any regular constituent communications, unlike other Council members, including Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin and Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere. Her 2009 campaign website, HigginsforCouncil.com, is offline.

The question, of course, is whether Jack Eaton (right) can muster enough votes to unseat the city’s Mayor Pro Tempore. In November 2009 Higgins was opposed by a young University of Michigan graduate Hatim A. Elhady in the November general election. Elhady, a political newbie, captured almost 40 percent of the vote, 1,299 of the 3,482 ballots cast. In the 2012 primary election another political newbie, Tim Hull, captured 40 percent of the vote against long-time Ward 2 incumbent Stephen Rapundalo. It was, in part, this strong showing by Hull that led political insiders to believe that Rapundalo could be unseated. He went on to be trounced by Independent Jane Lumm in the November 2012 election. Lumm drew on a city-wide coalition of supporters and donors; Eaton will, no doubt, have the support of many of the same politicos and donors who help put Lumm in office.

In 2012, Democrat Eaton captured 49.42 percent of the vote against Margie Teall; he came 20 votes from knocking off long-time Ward 4 incumbent City Council member. Teall, a loyal drone in Borg Queen John Hieftje’s shrinking Hive Mind Collective, had been unenthusiastic about running for re-election, but had done so nonetheless. That Eaton came so close to unseating her came as a nasty shock, no doubt. After Teall’s close call, Council member Marcia Higgins told several City Council colleagues that she would not run for re-election in 2013. Then, Higgins began cozying up to Eaton, chatting him up during breaks at Council meetings he attended. It was an obvious and ham-handed ploy to neutralize an increasingly powerful political opponent. In early 2013, Higgins pulled petitions to run as a Democrat in the August 2013 primary election. She was first elected to Ann Arbor City Council in 1999 as a Republican and re-elected in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011 as a Democrat.

In 2002, Republican Marcia Higgins ran against John Hieftje for mayor. In fact, the last time a Republican won a city office in Ann Arbor was when Marcia Higgins won as a Republican in the 2003 Ward 4 City Council race. In 2005, she switched parties, and Council became dominated by Democrats. Former Ward 2 Council member and current DDA Board member Joan Lowenstein told the Ann Arbor News an all-Democratic council would still have “differing views.”

“I don’t think it is a concern,” Lowenstein told reporter Tom Gantert in 2005. “When you have everybody with one party, it is almost like having it nonpartisan. We don’t always agree on everything. There are a lot of differing points of view, even among people of the same party.”

What happened, instead, is that City Council became a Hive Mind Collective of drones who voted in virtual lock-step, and who recruited candidates for Council who would also vote in lock-step with the Hive Mind Collective.

While Marcia Higgins (left) has voted a little less in lock-step with John Hieftje as of late, she has, like Margie Teall, voted repeatedly to slash police and fire, and other city services. In fact, in 2009 Marcia Higgins chaired the Council’s Budget and Labor Committee that pushed for cuts to services in order to squirrel away money from the General Fund to finance capital projects such as the new city hall. Like Teall, Higgins was caught up in the 2009 email scandal that led to the ouster of powerful Ward 3 Council member Leigh Greden. The scandal resulted in the city being forced to settle an Open Meetings Act violation lawsuit. The local media caught Higgins and Greden vote-rigging. In response to a 2009 Freedom of Information Act request, it was revealed that Marcia Higgins and Leigh Greden had exchanged emails during an open meeting in which they discussed how they planned to vote on a site plan. Similarly, Higgins participated in email deliberations concerning how to best script the vote on raising salaries for Council members. Unlike her Ward 4 Council colleague, Marcia Higgins never apologized. Instead, she told those present at a 2009 candidate forum that “the voters will decide.”

As for the issues, Higgins’s has an interesting relationship with the city’s unpopular Percent for Art program. She has been frequently critical of the program and its funding. In 2011, her efforts to reduce the percent for art to a half a percent for art were shot down by her Council colleagues. In 2012, after the city’s voters—including those in Ward 4—turned back a proposal to tax themselves in order to fund the Percent for Art program, Ward 2 Council member Jane Lumm proposed a resolution to repeal the Percent for Art ordinance. Higgins refused to support Lumm’s resolution, and instead pushed to establish a committee of Council members to further examine the Percent for Art program.

The move was derided in the comment section of AnnArbor.com, and Higgins, as well as Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere were lambasted for ignoring the will of the voters.

In her 2009 campaign Marcia Higgins took credit for working with residents on the deteriorating Georgetown Mall,  leading the downtown rezoning process, and chairing the city’s A2D2 Steering Committee, which created what are now seen as seriously flawed design guidelines for downtown. Higgins, like defeated former Council members Leigh Greden, Tony Derezinski and Stephen Rapundalo, came out in favor of a city income tax and pushed to put the question of a city income tax to the voters between 2009-2011. After the November 2012 defeat of a bond to build a new downtown library and a tax to fund the Percent for Art program, Marcia Higgins might not be so keen on pushing for voters to decide whether to impose a city income tax.

The blighted Georgetown Mall, however, is Higgins’s Achilles tendon. The development mess, the long-term blight, the waste of tax dollars, rest squarely on her shoulders.

In 2001, Harbor Cos. developer Craig Schubiner paid $6.1 million for the aging mall. By Fall of 2007, Schubiner had devised a $30 million dollar scheme to demolish and redevelop the Georgetown Mall—to build 90,000 square feet of retail and residential space. Never ones to pass up the advances of a developer with kinky redevelopment ideas that involve financial S & M  (with taxpayers playing the role of the blind-folded and ball-gagged masochist), Council jumped into bed with Schubiner.

Schubiner’s $30 million dollar plan to redevelop the Georgetown Mall hinged on two details: First, the Kroger executives had to play ball and commit to leasing 45,000 square feet of space in the new development. They balked and left the site.

The other part of the Harbor Cos. plan revolved around persuading Marcia Higgins to have the Georgetown Mall site rezoned as a TIF ( tax increment financing) site. When done, Ann Arbor taxpayers would finance the debt for the redevelopment of his property. The TIF funding would go toward the private improvements. Improvements that Harbor Cos would profit from. The Ann Arbor public  would ‘invest’ in Schubiner’s redevelopment of the Georgetown Mall, and Schubiner would receive the financial return.

Why did Schubiner have to woo Marcia Higgins to get his parcel rezoned as a TIF site?

Marcia Higgins is the self-appointed zoning Czarina on Ann Arbor City Council. No one touches zoning issues without the permission of the Dowager Duchess of Ward Four.  How do I know this? Third Ward Council member Leigh Greden told me in an email that was coughed up in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Greden typed an email to a hapless newly-minted Council pup warning the newbie to stay away from zoning issues. Greden’s email turned up in a batch of those FOIAed by the Ann Arbor News.

Craig Schubiner of the Harbor Cos. got Czarina Marcia Higgins to propose a resolution to rezone the 6.5 acre Georgetown Mall site as a TIF district. Higgins got her colleagues on Council to vote for the resolution. The Ward 4 Georgetown Mall neighbors got years of blight and empty promises.

If this sad tale of the Georgetown Mall sounds familiar. It is. It is an example of history repeating itself.

I recently came across a story about the “groundbreaking” ceremony at the 7.9-acre Lower Town site. By 2007, when Craig Schubiner of the Harbor Cos. had come to Council to ask for his TIF, the Lower Town redevelopment project had been stalled for 18 months. Lower Town is still-undeveloped—a haven for Canadian geese at the corners of Wall Street and Plymouth Road. That property was rezoned as a TIF site in 2003 so that the developer, Strathmore, could give unto Ward 1 a 773,000 square foot “urban lifestyle” mixed use redevelopment of an old Kroger site. The delusions of development came complete with retail, residential and new urbanism chic.

Guess who represented the City of Ann Arbor at the Lower Town groundbreaking ceremony held years before Craig Schubiner of the Harbor Cos approached Council with his plan to “redevelop” the Georgetown Mall through a TIF site plan?

The Grand Duchess of Czoning herself: Czarina Marcia Higgins.

No doubt Jack Eaton will give Marcia Higgins credit for all of her  zoning “accomplishments,” including the loss of two neighborhood shopping centers, her leadership of the A2D2 Committee, and the resulting zoning mess that has Old Fourth Ward residents protesting a large proposed development on a small parcel at 413 East Huron. It remains to be seen whether Ward 4 voters will toss yet another long-term Council member out of office in favor of a candidate who favors funding services, police, fire and zoning regulations that protect the city’s neighborhoods, as well as its downtown from ill-conceived and poorly funded development schemes.

by P.D. Lesko

52nd District Representative Mark Ouimet and Governor Rick Snyder both let mainstream media assumptions that they were moderate Republicans go uncorrected. The last laugh, in retrospect, has been on all of the Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County independents and Democrats who endorsed, gave money to and voted for the two men. Ouimet went on to vote in lock-step with the Republican ideologues in Lansing as they raised taxes on the middle-class, socked it to oldsters by taxing pensions, and attacked public education by slashing funding—despite the sorry fact that 70 percent of the state’s 4th and 8th graders can’t read at level, according to data compiled by the Children’s Defense Fund. Last year Ouimet went along with his Republican murder of cronies as they cut state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks, and he also voted to impose absolute time limits for children and their parents seeking assistance from the state. This means tens of thousands of families with children whose parents are unable to work or who cannot find jobs are being barred from help.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau released in September 2012, poverty in Michigan has increased 66 percent since 2001. Michigan’s poverty rate continued to rise sharply through 2011, to 17.5 percent up from 16.8 percent just a year earlier, and well above the national average of fifteen percent. Almost 1 in 4 children in Michigan lives in poverty. Child poverty rose to 24.4 percent in 2011, up from 23.1 percent in 2010 and 14.2 percent level in 2001. Michigan is in the worst third of the nation for child poverty.

However, according to Representative Ouimet’s (pictured right) latest Legislative Update, “Two Years of Fiscal Responsibility” have helped give Michigan a big boost. The Legislative Update must have been prepared by some Whirling Dervishes in Ouimet’s employ, because the spin is stunning. Michigan has a “higher credit rating,” claims Ouimet (well, not exactly, but who’s counting?). He claims that Bloomberg research concluded Michigan’s economy is improving thanks to “the leaders of our state continue who work together to reduce spending and make necessary tax and government reforms.” Well, no. According to Bloomberg Business Week: ”Michigan’s economy is recovering from the recession at the second-fastest pace in the U.S., lifted by reviving carmakers.” Carmakers got a boost from President Obama and the Congress, not Governor Snyder, Representative Mark Ouimet or the state’s other Republican legislators and their billion dollar tax break for business.

Taking credit for the work of others is what politicos do, but it’s smarmy nonetheless.

The reality is ugly and doesn’t fit into the libretto penned by the state’s GOP leaders: In Michigan, income inequality continues to grow. The percentage of households making $150,000 or more increased by five percent over the decade, middle-income households declined. Low-income households making less than $35,000 a year increased by over 10 percent, confirming the downward spiral in the living standards of working class families. The largest increases were in the lowest income cohort, households with income under $15,000, according to an analysis by the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS), an advocacy group for low-income households.

All in all, Mark Ouimet has turned out to be about as moderate as Mitt Romney (whom Ouimet is endorsing in the 2012 presidential race). Snyder’s “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” pole dance and Voodoo Economics have not resulted in any significant improvement in the state’s childhood poverty rate. With 641,615 Michiganders on food stamps, our state has the third highest rate in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. census. More Michigan residents are on foodstamps than in 2010, when Ouimet and Snyder were elected.

In point of fact, Mark Ouimet’s main accomplishment in two years has been voting in lock-step with Lansing Republicans, and his sponsorship of a bill to allow the sale of beer at Michigan Stadium. Coupled with Ouimet’s academic degrees purchased from a diploma mill shut down by the FBI, according to reporting by the local news blog AnnArbor.com, and it’s no wonder Gretchen Driskell is challenging Ouimet to represent the 52nd District.

As it turns out, Driskell and Ouimet have more in common than Dem voters might imagine, or Driskell might like to have people know. Both of them donated to Rick Snyder in 2010. Driskell, the Democratic Mayor of Saline, sent along a donation to the RepubliNerd’s campaign, and Ouimet, as a Republican County Commissioner did the same. Both Ouimet and Driskell are up to their political necks in the local job creation boondoggle Ann Arbor SPARK. On her campaign web site, Driskell writes: “I served as chair of the Saline Economic Development Corporation and have been involved significantly with Ann Arbor SPARK. There, we helped develop initiatives designed to spur job growth — including incubators, business accelerator programs, micro-grants, and the talent portal.” Ann Arbor SPARK has skimmed close to $2.5 million in money from public schools in Ann Arbor, as well as from the city’s General Fund since 2009.

With both hands in the cookie jar that is the Ann Arbor SPARK model, including its diversion of money from public education, Driskell assures liberal voters: “Under the current Republican majority, K-12 education has been under constant attack. If we want to improve education, we need to stop cutting K-12 education and raiding the School Aid Fund to plug other holes in the state budget. We need to get ballooning class sizes under control so all our students get the attention they need and deserve. We should be putting the highest quality teachers at the front of the classroom and giving them every tool they need to deliver the best possible education to our kids, including a curriculum that encourages critical thinking and problem-solving skills.”

While Driskell does have the support of the state’s education unions (including a $5,000 donation from the Michigan Education Association) and Planned Parenthood of Michigan, she does not list the endorsement of a single current Washtenaw County Commissioner, or even a member of the Saline City Council she has headed for the past 14 years as Mayor of Saline. Democratic State Representative Jeff Irwin is endorsing Driskell and gave her a $100 donation. Irwin served on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners with Ouimet before both were elected to the State House in 2010.

Irwin recently told the Michigan Daily, “Mark Ouimet’s success in the past has always been predicated on his ability to get more moderate Republicans and even some Democrats to vote for him. Irwin added that Ouimet has campaigned as pro-choice and pro-education, but has voted against both ideals during his time in the House. He (Ouimet) likes to wear maize and blue and go to football games … but he’s willing to cut U of M (funding) by 15 percent.”

State Senator Rebekah Warren donated to Driskell’s campaign via a behind-the-scenes $500 check from Warren’s Envision Michigan PAC, but Warren has not endorsed Driskell against Republican Ouimet. Washtenaw County Commissioner Barbara Levin Bergman donated $200 to Driskell in July 2012. Bergman, who is retiring at the end of her present term, filched over $1,800 from county taxpayers for per diems to which she was not entitled, according to an audit, and has refused to pay back the funds. County Commissioner Leah Gunn, who is also retiring at the end of her present term, donated to Driskell, as well, without endorsing her candidacy. Not to be left out, Joan Lowenstein, a former Ann Arbor City Council member and Downtown Development Authority Board member who called Ward 5 residents “whiners,” and then went on to harangue Ann Arbor voters as “old, stingy and Republican” in a loopy essay published in The Ann in December 2011, gave Driskell’s campaign $100.

Lowenstein, Gunn and Bergman last teamed up to endorse and support Ward 1 Council candidate Eric Sturgis, whose campaign imploded thanks to his lies about his academic credentials, as well as behavior that included angry outbursts at public debates, and removal of his opponent’s campaign signs—captured in photos by the local news blog. Prior to that, the three women backed the losing campaigns of former Ward 2 Council member Stephen Rapundalo, and Ward 3 City Council candidate Ingrid Ault.

Driskell, like Ouimet, is behind a multi-million dollar bungled push for regional transit. She writes on her campaign website: “Likewise, transportation projects such as light rail, commuter rail, regional busing, and the other parts of our comprehensive transit plan come closer to becoming a reality every day….By thinking strategically and comprehensively about how we can utilize these resources in the most efficient way possible, we can offer our businesses and residents a host of options for moving their products and getting around. Implementing this strategy sends a clear signal — particularly to the young, talented, highly-educated workers and the knowledge-economy businesses that employ them — that Michigan is the hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.” Driskell is serving up a heaping plate of Demublican babble, and her platform on transportation should be readily recognizable as the Republican Party line in Lansing.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that her 2012 pro-education, pro-life, pro-rainbows, pro-unicorns and pro-regional-transport campaign platform is very similar to Ouimet’s in 2010. Whereas Driskell has the endorsement and support of unions, Ouimet has the endorsement and support of associations: business associations, builders and contractors associations, insurance associations and the NRA.  He even managed to land the 2011 Legislator of the Year award from the Michigan Townships Association.

If, as Representative Jeff Irwin suggests, Ouimet is a turncoat moderate Republican who campaigned as a pro-life, pro-education candidate only to have “voted against both ideals during his time in the House,” what should Democrats expect from Gretchen Driskell—a woman who supported the Republican candidate for governor in 2010, and who touts her support of the Ann Arbor SPARK “job creation” scheme, a taxpayer black hole that has earned the scorn of conservative political analysts at the Mackinac Center, as well as harsh criticism from newspapers such as the Lansing State Journal, and the Detroit Free Press?

Is Driskell a turncoat Democrat?

Some would argue that any sitting Democratic mayor who supports a Republican gubernatorial candidate over the Democratic candidate is worse than a turncoat. In some states, such disloyalty is punished by tossing the politico out of the party on her/his ear. The question, of course, is whether over the past 14 years in office, during which time she has cavorted with Ann Arbor’s Democrats-for-ALEC, Driskell sold her political soul. She wants to replace the Republican who has disappointed his independent and Democratic friends—friends who perhaps naively believed that he would, as a freshman legislator, stand up to the Republican majority and vote away his chances for re-election. Ouimet may have been caught buying his Master’s degree from a diploma mill, but he is no fool; the Michigan GOP rewarded him for his staunch loyalty with a redrawn district that protected his Republican base, and perhaps even expanded it a bit.

The race in the 52nd District boils down to a political conundrum: Voters must choose between a Republican who managed to convince naive Democrats and independents that he would be a moderate, and a classic Washtenaw County Demublican who wants to convince naive Democrats and independents that she is a progressive. The problem, of course, is that many who run as Democrats in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County belong to the party of Political Opportunism. With her support of Snyder in 2010, her enthusiasm for the SPARK boondoggle, and her subsequent campaign condemning Michigan’s Republican leadership, Driskell is skating on some very thin Democratic ice.

Officials from the Michigan GOP don’t expect her to unseat Ouimet. However, at least one Michigan political analyst in his comments to the local media said that Driskell’s race in the 52nd District was “winnable” by a Democrat and suggested she could, possibly, ride in on President Obama’s coat tails—that is, if local Democrats and independents come out and vote in the same numbers they did in 2008. Will they? That is, literally, a million dollar question. While both DNCC and RNC officials expect Obama to take Michigan, it’s by no means clear that voter turn-out will equal 2008 numbers.

by P.D. Lesko

Michael Woodyard is either Gandalf or Saruman, it just depends on whom you ask. He is challenging Judge Timothy Connors for his seat on the 22nd Circuit Court, a seat Connors has either warmed, or filled admirably, depending on whom you ask. In Washtenaw County, local lawyers simply don’t run against judicial incumbents. Lawyers will explain that it’s because a lawyer who challenges an incumbent and loses could then end up appearing before the incumbent. The obvious fear is that the incumbent judges would hold grudges against their opponents and then make them suffer for it. Considering the fact that judges are supposed to be the adults in the room while lawyers and litigants squabble and scrabble, the prospect that judges would behave vindictively because they had to run for elective office rather than get a free ride every few years should get a little more press than it does.

In Oakland County five incumbent circuit county judges are fending off challengers this election season. It is suspected that a single litigant may be secretly targeting one or more incumbent judges, as the challengers have been the beneficiaries of a million-dollar ad blitz funded by an unknown donor or donors using out-of-state corporations to conceal their identity and motives.

Michael Woodyard (right) lives in Washtenaw County, but works for the Wayne County Prosecutor. Thus, he stands to suffer little professional fall-out as a result of his run against Judge Connors—at least in Wayne County. Here in Washtenaw County, an anonymous letter allegedly mailed to Woodyard urging him to withdraw from the race suggests that his name will be mud should Woodyard “force” local members of the Bar to pony up money to fund Connors’s campaign. Of course, the letter writer implies the local Bar Association and its members are forced to pony up to cover the campaign costs of the sitting judge. Perhaps members of the local Bar prefer to think of it as extortion, rather than blackmail.

A2Buzz.org was created in 2005, and the domain name doesn’t expire until 2014. In a nutshell, the site claims to have been “instrumental in exposing the behavior of  Timothy Connors – Washtenaw  County Circuit Court judge.” The site is outdated, and many of the links broken. Rob Packard, the reporter who allegedly had this to say about Connors in a quote from A2Buzz.org, works at WNWO in Toledo, Ohio:

“As an award winning television journalist, I am frequently required to attend court hearings.  I have a great deal of respect for judges and their position.  In the hearings I attended in this matter, I observed Judge Connors to be rude, constantly interrupting, inattentive, rolling his eyes, sighing, yelling, avoiding eye contact, staring out the window.  I was shocked. There was a clear sense of bias in Judge Connors demeanor.  I have covered federal, civil and criminal court cases for more than a decade. I have never witnessed such a mean and biased behavior in any Judge before.”

Several comments posted anonymously to AnnArbor.com in response to Woodyard’s announcement that he intended to run for the Circuit Court were similarly pointed about Connors’s demeanor in his courtroom. In both 2000 and 2006, Judge Melinda Morris pulled down thousands more votes than her colleague Judge Timothy Connors when they both ran for re-election unopposed. In 2006, when he last ran for re-election, Connors got a little over 65,000 votes out of the 135,126 ballots cast.

To be sure, Michael Woodyard will be outspent, and he will have to make do with just a fraction of the endorsers and endorsements the incumbent will have. However, over the past three years, voters in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County hasve delivered some rude surprises at the polls both to entrenched political candidates, as well as to supporters of ballot proposals that seemed sure to pass, then didn’t. Could Woodyard win? In a 1999 issue of Court Review, a piece about public confidence in our court system argues that, “For most of our nation’s history, perceptions of, and public trust and confidence in, the U.S. Supreme Court have served as the bellwether of the public’s attitudes toward the judiciary. Indeed, people’s opinions about the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to dictate the general attitude toward the judiciary.” If this is true, it’s bad news for Connors. According to a July 2012 piece in the New York Times, the U.S. Supreme Court has an approval rating of just 40 percent. The Pew Research Center’s measure of favorability concerning the U.S. Supreme Court for 2012 is the lowest in 25 years.

A2Politico: Tell us a little about yourself, your connections to Washtenaw County.

Michael Woodyard:  My family moved to Southeastern Michigan in 1976, when I was 10. I lived in Ypsilanti while I attended Eastern Michigan University, graduating in 1997. In 2002 I bought a home in Ann Arbor. I’ve lived here since, and my kids, now 10 and 8, are enrolled in the city’s public schools.

I find the question of community ties for judicial candidates fascinating. Voters who are choosing a candidate for a policy-making elective office like city council or state representative probably would want someone in office who is just like them. Having someone who has lived their whole life in town might be a good way to tell if someone is like you. But a judge doesn’t make laws or policy. A judge interprets the law as it is written, and the law is the same in Ann Arbor as it is in Ishpeming and in Detroit.

We are very fortunate that Washtenaw County, with the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University and various auto suppliers and tech companies, is a destination for people from all over the world. So it’s quite possible that you will find tremendously qualified people who haven’t lived here their whole lives. Basing one’s decision on who to support whether the candidate’s parents went to Huron High School sort of ignores the well-qualified folks who came here later in life.

The law requires that a judge live in the circuit in which he or she serves. So in that respect, my connection to Washtenaw County is important. This is my home, this is where my child was born, were my kids go to school. But insofar as a connection to the community makes it more or less likely that I’ll be a “good” judge, I don’t think that’s an apt data point.

I think a more appropriate question is: how much experience do I have in court, what sort of experience do I have in advocating for justice, will I hold everyone equally accountable before the law, no matter if they’re rich or poor, black or white. And on those points, I am proud of my record, and confident I will serve with distinction.

A2Politico:  Generally, sitting judges get free rides during elections because lawyers who work in the same county are afraid to challenge them for office. You live in Washtenaw County, but work in Wayne County. That explains why you don’t have to fear professional retaliation in Washtenaw County for challenging an incumbent judge, but what makes you think you’ll do a better job than a jurist whose been there since 1997?

Michael Woodyard:  The Circuit Court has jurisdiction over felony criminal cases, certain civil cases, divorce, adoption, child protection, child custody, juvenile delinquency, and other matters. All of these are important areas of law, but the heart of the court lies in its administration of criminal justice. And as a 10-year veteran of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, I have an expertise and depth of experience in law and the administration of justice that is not matched by any other candidate.

According to the Michigan Code of Professional Responsibility, a prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate. So as a “minister of justice,” I have fought for 10 years on behalf of children and families. I’ve represented the People of the State of Michigan in 20 different district courts and in front of 27 different circuit court judges. I’ve tried more than 100 cases to verdict before juries and judges. I’ve handled more than 800 arrest warrants. I have an intimate and deep familiarity with the workings of the system of justice.

My opponent has been assigned a civil docket for the past 15 years. These cases are important, with real people trying to resolve important questions. But my opponent simply doesn’t have the depth of experience that I have in criminal law, in advocating for justice under difficult, adversarial circumstances. It is that rich experience that makes me uniquely qualified to serve as judge.

A2Politico:  Who’s on Team Woodyard, helping you with your campaign?

Michael Woodyard:  My campaign is a completely grass-roots effort. The everyday staff consists of me and my girlfriend, Veena Kulkarni, a magnificent concert pianist, teacher, and gracious thinker. Ebru Uras, a friend and former United States Foreign Service officer, is contributing her expertise. Several attorneys I work with are involved. We’ve got a number of strong supporters at our church, and of course, my kids are a big help, too.

A2Politico:  Both you and Judge Connors are on Facebook, and you’re on Twitter. Is social media playing a significant role in your campaign?

Michael Woodyard:  Social media is a great way to keep supporters up to date on what’s going on, to invite folks to events, and to share information about the campaign.

In fact, we recently updated my website (woodyard4judge.com) to provide direct links to court opinions and government documents containing information about my record and my opponent’s record, so voters can see the facts, without any spin or campaign gloss. This is a terrific way to fold important campaign information and digital technology into a seamless presentation.

A2Politico:   Judge Connors was appointed by a Republican governor (Engler). While judgeships are technically non-partisan, politicos-in-the-know understand that Michigan’s bench has become politically polarized. Where do you fall on the political spectrum?

Michael Woodyard:  I’m a life-long Democrat, and my perspective on the law is formed with a background in prosecution. I believe that we all have a responsibility to work to improve society, and I also believe that people must be accountable for their conduct. I think that interpretation of statutes should be careful, and precedent must be followed. The law is the law, and my conviction is to apply it fairly and with integrity, regardless of who the lawyer is standing in front of me, regardless of the social status of the litigants.

A2Politico:  A2Politico has been getting emails from local lawyers about the fact that Judge Connors works for the University of Michigan as a Lecturer (with a .9 appointment and a pro-rata salary of $609,145.78 as of 2011) and yet he refuses to recuse himself when cases involving the University of Michigan come before him. Should a Circuit Court Judge recuse himself from hearing and ruling on cases that involve his employer, or is this a tempest in a judicial teapot?

Michael Woodyard:  Michigan Court Rule 2.003 lists a variety of situations in which a judge might disqualify himself, or in which a party may seek a judge’s disqualification. One circumstance is when the judge has “more than a de minimis economic interest in the subject matter in controversy that could be substantially impacted by the proceeding.”

I suppose one would have to argue that my opponent could get fired from his $54,000 a year teaching job at U of M if he doesn’t rule in favor of the university, and he therefore has a direct interest in the outcome of the cases. But that is nothing more than speculation, and probably not true, anyway.

What isn’t speculative, however, is that his substantial paycheck from the university – and his wife’s new appointment as a family law professor at the university’s law school – raises fair questions about the appearance of impropriety. And that is the subject of a few provisions of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct.

“Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. A judge must therefore accept restrictions on conduct that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen and should do so freely and willingly.” M.C.J. Canon 2 (2)(A)

In particular, while a judge is encouraged to teach and take part in activities that promote understanding of the law, the “judge should refrain from financial and business dealings that tend to reflect adversely on the judge’s impartiality or judicial office, interfere with the proper performance of judicial duties, exploit the judicial position, or involve the judge in frequent transactions with lawyers or persons likely to come before the court on which the judge serves.” M.C.J. Canon 5 (C)(1).

If a judge takes in about $54,000 from a teaching job at the U of M, and his wife also is employed by the University as a law school professor, at the same time that the judge regularly rules on controversies involving the University, those facts alone do not appear to violate any specific canons or rules of ethics. The situation may, however, raise a legitimate question about the appearance of impropriety. And that is a question that each judge will have to answer for himself.

A2Politico:  In May, you allegedly received an anonymous letter (which you posted to your Facebook page) urging you to drop out of the race. It wasn’t a threat, per se, but nonetheless it wasn’t very sporting to suggest anonymously that you have no business running for office because you don’t practice in Washtenaw County, and will cost members of the local bar money when they are be forced to contribute to Judge Connors’s re-election campaign. The letter does make a fair point that few in the political/legal communities in the county know you, professionally. Someone recently suggested to A2P that you’re either very brave or extremely foolish. Which is it? A little of both, maybe?

Michael Woodyard:  Judges are required to act on behalf of litigants and the community, not on behalf of their friends or local attorneys or the political classes. So the question is really whether the voters think my decade of experience fighting for the rights of children and families who have been victimized by crime in one of the largest and busiest and most violent jurisdictions in the United States qualifies me to fairly and justly determine controversies as judge.

I also think it’s fair to point out that “professional,” for a lawyer, has to do with written and oral advocacy, and the lawyer’s demonstrated abilities to be just. That is a different question from whether one talks to a lawyer at bar association functions, or if one thinks the lawyer is a nice guy.

That said, I’m neither brave nor foolish. I am dedicated to public service, and committed to the ideas of accountability, safety and community. Since at least 1954, Michigan law has provided for contested, non-partisan election of circuit court judges. Local media has reported that this race is the first time that an incumbent Washtenaw Circuit judge has been challenged. I think that’s a shame. I think that a judge, like any elected public servant, should be proud of their record and should place that record before the electorate every chance he gets. And if the electorate thinks another person has the qualifications needed to fulfill those specific duties, than someone else should be elected.

A2Politico:  How’s the fundraising going? Care to share how much money you’ve raised thus far for your campaign? Have you self-funded at all?

Michael Woodyard:  Our campaign is a grass-roots labor of love. I haven’t raised tons of money, I haven’t gotten donations from PACs or Super PACs. I am supported by friends, family, members of my church, and the many, many people that I meet and talk with about my record.

I predict that when financials are reported by the state Bureau of Elections later this month, you will see that my opponent has crushed me in terms of raising money from local attorneys, PACS and members of the political and social establishment.

A2Politico:  You endorsed a candidate in the August primary. A2P got a tip that this is against the Judicial Code of Ethics for Michigan Judges. You’re not a judge, of course, so it’s a moot point, and we told our tipster to take two aspirin and call us in the morning. However, one would expect a candidate for judge to know the rules about endorsing in political contests. Then again, Michigan Supreme Court candidate Bridget McCormack, just endorsed Judge Connors and he graciously accepted it via his blog. Care to comment?

Michael Woodyard:  It’s not a moot point. The particular canon prohibits the endorsement of candidates for non-judicial elected office, and applies to judges and candidates for judicial office as well. Frankly, I was very surprised when you asked me this question, because I haven’t endorsed any candidate for non-judicial office. (In fact, I had to ask you whom I had endorsed!)

It turned out that I attended a fund raiser in May, 2012, for Chuck Warpehoski (my girlfriend serves on the board of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, an organization of which Chuck is the director), and the names written down on the sign-in sheet ended up on Chuck’s website under the heading “endorsements.” When you brought this to my attention I immediately asked Chuck to take my name off the list, and he did.

A2Politico:   You write on your website: “As judge, Mike will bring his passion for service to every decision he makes. He will respect the law, not bend it to favor rich or poor. He’ll respect the office, recognizing that a judge, like everyone else, has to earn your trust every day. And Mike will respect the people who appear before him, treating everyone fairly, ensuring that justice is served.” Certainly, several comments in response to the AA.com article in which your candidacy was announced, suggest Judge Connors should be voted out of office. Are you intimating that Judge Connors bends the law to favor certain groups, or treats petitioners and attorneys unfairly?

Michael Woodyard:  I am simply sharing what I value, how I will comport myself as judge. I will respect the law, the litigants and the system of public justice. I will devote myself to improving the community through fair, evenhanded and predictable application of the law. I’ve seen the comments and talked with lots of people in the community, but I have not appeared in front of Judge Connors. I would let attorneys and others who have appeared in front of Judge Connors discuss his judicial temperament.

A2Politico:  Campaigns for judgeships are the condiciones sine quibus non for a game of insider political baseball. Can you finish up by explaining (without using Latin) why the race for this circuit court judgeship should matter a lot to the average citizen? How does a circuit judge touch the life of an average voter?

Michael Woodyard:  Circuit judges are involved in the most important issues affecting a person’s life: child custody, divorce, felony criminal cases, civil disputes, and family matters of various types. A circuit court judge has a far more direct and immediate effect on the individual appearing before the court than do all of the larger structures of government. And by assuming such a direct role with the individual, the court, by extension, plays an essential part in the community.

These are the things I’ve learned over the past decade, representing the People of the State of Michigan in court every day of the week. The circuit court can be a partner in the community, working to foster a sense of accountability, to improve and maintain safety and to strengthen the community by dispensing justice in a fair, evenhanded and predictable manner. As judge, that is what I will do.

by P.D. Lesko

Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum is a Democrat. He sat on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners from 1983–1988, and was a Washtenaw County Commissioner from 2000–02. In 2004, he was elected as the Washtenaw County Clerk/Register of Deeds, the first Democrat in that position in 72 years.

On September 11, 2012 A2Politico revealed that Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum (right) had neglected to submit his most recent Annual Campaign statement on time and was assessed a modest fine. That piece also revealed that Kestenbaum had missed the September 6, 2012 primary post-election campaign finance filing deadline. However, after the A2P post went live, a batch of pages were posted to the Washtenaw County Clerk’s Campaign Finance page, and the pages titled “Post-Election Campaign Statement for: Primary.” After the September 11, 2012 A2Politico piece was posted, Kestenbaum emailed an explanation on September 14th in response to questions about why he’d submitted the wrong forms, and why those forms had ended up being linked to the County’s official campaign finance web site:

My treasurer sends me a PDF of my campaign finance forms through email.  Obviously I printed and submitted the wrong one (on September 11) for the September 6 reporting date.  I have now printed and submitted the correct form.

I think this means I will be paying an additional late fee, that is, $150 for six days instead of $75 for three days. My staff puts CFR forms on the web site.

I had the completed form for September 6 (in email) ahead of time, as my treasurer was going out of town.  It is entirely my fault that I submitted them late.

In my own defense, I should say that we had a sewer problem at my house, which took a whole lot of my time and attention. Our front yard was dug up (twelve feet deep, which turned out to be deeper than the equipment originally brought could go) and the sewer replaced.

That doesn’t excuse my tardiness, but perhaps explains it a bit.

The signed cover sheet was stamped as received by the Clerk’s office on September 11, 2012 and was dated July 27, 2012 and signed by Kestenbaum and his campaign Treasurer Denise W. Baker. It was, in fact, a copy of the same pre-election campaign finance disclosure page submitted on July 27, 2012 at 4:47 p.m. Closer inspection of the documents submitted by the Washtenaw County Clerk as his missing post-election primary campaign finance forms on September 11th shows that the box “Pre-Election” is checked, as it is on the July 27th documents.

Except for the missing pages of the September 11th document (only every other page was scanned in, according to Kestenbaum in an explanation), Larry Kestenbaum’s pre- and post-election campaign finance disclosure forms were identical, with the set filed on July 27, 2012 identified as the campaign finance forms due on September 6, 2012 and turned in by Kestenbaum on September 11, 2012.

A2Politico reported that Kestenbaum was the only county clerk in the state of Michigan to miss the September 2012 campaign finance disclosure deadline, and in fact is the only county clerk in the state who has failed to file campaign finance forms.

After Kestenbaum’s missing campaign finance forms went live, A2Politico got a tip from a reader to check out the finance forms submitted by the County Clerk and stamped by the County Clerk’s office as officially submitted on September 11, 2012 at 12:45 p.m. The A2Politico piece was posted at 2:33 p.m. on September 11, 2012, and while Kestenbaum’s pre-election campaign finance disclosures were posted on the City Clerk’s web site, his post-election campaign finance forms did not appear on the site at the time the A2Politico piece went live.

According to an official in the Elections Division in Kestenbaum’s office, Kestenbaum submitted his forms on September 11, 2012 to an office employee who marked the documents as officially filed in Washtenaw County, and who then scanned the documents to create PDF files. The employee did not examine the campaign finance forms for accuracy, or make the link to the PDF documents live. According to the same official, once forms are scanned in, the paper copies are placed in a folder for Mr. Ed Golembiewski—the head of the elections division—to “go over with a fine tooth comb.” Only Golembiewski, according to County Clerk’s office elections officials, is charged with examining campaign finance forms for accuracy. Only once forms have been examined for accuracy does Golembiewski make the link to the scanned documents live.

While it’s clear County Clerk Kestenbaum didn’t actually look at the campaign finance forms he submitted to his own office on September 11, 2012, the question remains why the mistake wasn’t discovered before the wrong forms were made live online. Was Golembiewski to blame? Kestembaum explained via email: “As to Ed’s ‘fine-tooth comb’, this round of filings occurred while he was in the middle of preparing the ballot for the November election – a huge project.  Now that the ballot has been finalized (9/13), I expect he will be catching up on other work.”

When asked if County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum could have activated the link to the inaccurate campaign finance forms, the Clerk’s Office employee paused and said, “Yes.” The employee quickly added that Kestenbaum “always goes on the other side of the desk when he turns in his forms. He’s a candidate.”

Joel Hondorp, CMC, is the Byron Township Clerk and a former president of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks. When asked if it would be common for a clerk who oversees elections to miss deadlines for turning in her/his own campaign finance forms, Hondorp replied that in his experience it would be an “unprecedented” mistake. When asked whether a clerk should be expected to submit the correct campaign finance forms, Hondorp repled, “Yes, of course.”

Missing his own campaign finance deadlines multiple times isn’t the only reason Kestenbaum has been criticized by local Dems, many of whom distrust the County Clerk because of close ties to the local Hive Mind Collective. To make matters worse for himself, Kestenbaum has openly taken sides in campaigns, such as against Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin in 2011, that include Dem. incumbents. Washtenaw County Clerk Larry Kestenbaum’s office has been criticized for being slow to improve the County’s campaign finance databases, and for allowing the sale of voter data by one of his staff members. In 2004, the year Kestenbaum was elected, West Liberty Information was formed as an LLC with James Dries as President. Dries was hired by Kestenbaum as the Chief Deputy Clerk and Register of Deeds in January, 2005, one year after Dries formed his corporation. West Liberty Information, LLC is described by Dries on his LinkedIn page thusly: “I compile and market a mailing list based on registered voters residing in Washtenaw County, Michigan. The list is updated quarterly and voting data is added as soon as it becomes available. Customers include the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, Washtenaw Community College, non-profits, various county-wide and school district millage campaigns and many campaigns for local office.”

Clerks and registrars of voter’s offices around the country will sell voter data for election, governmental, scholarly or political research purposes. However, it’s common to require that individuals or organizations that purchase regulated voter data don’t sell, lease, or loan the data out to others.

While, there is no ownership link between Kestenbaum and West Liberty Information, according to records filed with the State of Michigan, the question remains why Kestenbaum’s Chief Deputy Clerk is selling mailing lists “based on registered voters residing in Washtenaw County” on the side.

Kestenbaum is running for re-election in 2012 and his website has the tagline “Count Every Vote.” Well, kinda. In the 2012 August primary, there were several requests for recounts. It was discovered that in one of the county’s municipalities several of the pouches containing ballots cast had been incorrectly sealed, in another municipality a contested millage vote had to stand because all of the pouches that contained the ballots cast had been sealed incorrectly. In Ann Arbor, in a hotly contested City Council election in which the incumbent won by only 18 votes, one Ward 4 precinct was not able to be recounted because a pouch’s seal had not been properly affixed. Kestenbaum’s office issued no explanation concerning whether sewer work at his house was to blame for those problems, as well.

As for his “corrected” post-election campaign finance forms, they are neither stamped as officially received, nor dated, by the Clerk’s Office.

Politicos who miss campaign finance deadlines often make headlines. How politicos handle their own campaign finances is seen as a relevant gauge to determine how honest and responsible they’ll be if put in charge of taxpayer money and resources. In Vermont, the state’s Democratic Party Chair generated significant media interest after several GOP candidates there missed campaign finance deadlines. In New York, a Democrat hoping to take on a long-time Republican state lawmaker missed a July 2012 campaign finance deadline and was slammed in the local media by the GOP for not being able to mount “a credible campaign.”

In the heated 2010 Michigan State Senate race between Democrats Pam Byrnes and Rebekah Warren, Warren missed a campaign finance filing date, and Byrnes’s campaign made hay by using the mistake to bring up a host of issues, including the suggestion that Warren was using her PAC to circumvent campaign finance laws:

“Sadly, Ms. Warren has a history of this as the treasurer of MARAL,” said Byrnes’ campaign manager, Kent Sparks, citing records that show Warren was late in submitting other campaign finance reports in 2006 and 2007 as treasurer for the Michigan Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League PAC.

The latest campaign finance reports show Warren, D-Ann Arbor, has raised $140,968, compared to the $199,558 raised by Byrnes, D-Lyndon Township. The reports also show Byrnes had outspent Warren $119,536 to $74,688 as of July 18, the reporting period ending date.

Byrnes’ campaign also claims Warren worked around campaign finance laws to channel an extra $5,000 above and beyond the amount permitted by state law from her Envision Michigan PAC to her Senate campaign.

Records show Warren gave her campaign a boost in December by transferring $10,000 from her Envision Michigan PAC, the most allowed under state law. Five days later, the PAC made a $5,000 contribution to state Rep. Marc Corriveau, D-Northville, who gave $5,000 to Warren’s campaign the same day.

Lawrence Kestenbaum (pictured, right) is the Washtenaw County Clerk. He makes sure candidates complete campaign finance documents correctly and on time. Mistakes can be costly. Ann Arbor Ward 1 City Council candidate Eric Sturgis missed the recent September 6, 2012 post-election campaign finance deadline. This revelation may come as no surprise to 55th District Michigan House candidate Adam Zemke. In 2010 when Zemke ran for the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, Sturgis was his campaign treasurer. With Sturgis at the helm of Zemke’s campaign finances, the campaign hit a host of campaign finance icebergs. County Clerk Kestenbaum nabbed Zemke’s campaign for incorrectly filling out the primary pre-election disclosure form, and for turning it in late. Zemke also got a love letter from Larry Kestenbaum for failing to file an Annual Statement.  The multiple campaign finance violations in his 2010 campaign cost Zemke $2,495—fines he didn’t pay in full until six months after he set up his Adam Zemke for State Representative campaign committee.

Like Zemke, Ann Arbor Ward 2 Council candidate Sally Hart Petersen got slapped with fines from Kestenbaum for campaign finance violations, and her failure to file required disclosure forms. On September 6, 2012 Petersen’s campaign was sent a letter assessing her campaign a $2,050 fine for failing to disclose late contributions. The day after Petersen submitted her pre-election campaign finance forms for the primary election, Kestenbaum’s office notified her that her campaign had accepted donations above the legal limit from individuals.

If Zemke and Petersen were newbies when they made their campaign finance violations, experienced politicos have also gotten netted by Kestenbaum’s office, as well. In 2009, the Washtenaw County Clerk caught Ann Arbor 1st Ward Council member Sabra Briere accepting an illegal $1,000 contribution from local developer Dennis Dahlmann. She was forced to return $500 of the $1,000 donation to the donor and to amend her campaign finance statement for the reporting period. Ann Arbor Ward 3 Council member Stephen Kunselman, who was initially elected to Council in 2006, has been cited by Kestenbaum’s office on a regular basis for missing campaign finance deadlines, and for failing to submit campaign finance disclosure forms. In total, since 2009 Kunselman has been fined (and paid) $1,625 in late filing fees. To put the amount of the fines in perspective, in 2009 Kunselman spent less than $3,000 on his campaign. Ann Arbor Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin, conversely, first elected in 2007, has never turned in a campaign finance disclosure or statement late, or been fined for any campaign finance violations.

Campaign finance deadlines are absolute. The County Clerk can’t extend deadlines for the political pals to whose campaigns he donates, or overlook illegal contributions without risking prosecution and, quite possibly, jail time. Similarly, Larry Kestenbaum is subject to the same reporting deadlines and donation limits he is expected to enforce. Kestenbaum missed the September 6, 2012 deadline for filing his post-primary election campaign finance disclosure forms. In 2011, Kestenbaum (like Adam Zemke) was late filing his Annual Statement, and paid a modest $25 fine. He will owe a fine for failing to file his post-primary election campaign finance forms, and that fine grows by $25 for each business day the forms remain unfiled by the Washtenaw County Clerk with his own office.

When Kestenbaum ran for County Clerk in 2004, he spent $24,629 on his campaign and ended up with $13,561.14 of campaign-related debt. He self-financed his own campaign for County Clerk to the tune of $13,122.14. As of his latest Annual Statement, Kestenbaum’s campaign was still $9,822.14 in debt.

Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett was first elected in 2001. When she ran in 2008, she raised $44,100 and her campaign currently owes no debt. According to campaign finance documents available online, she has never filed any of her required campaign finance documents late, or been assessed by her own office for any fines for violations of Michigan’s campaign finance laws.

In Oakland County, the Clerk’s Office provides a handy list of all ballot question and campaign committees owing fines. There are currently 98 such entities that owe Oakland County in excess of $150,000 total. Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard, Jr. is new to the job, but he did remember to file his most recently required Annual Statement, an 84-page financial disclosure that shows his campaign committee took in $73,383.69 in contributions during the reporting period, and, like his Wayne County colleague, has a campaign committee that is debt free. Similarly, in Macomb County the clerk there, elected in 2004, has never missed a campaign finance statement or committee finance statement filing deadline.

In fact, Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum is the only county clerk in Michigan who failed to turn in his most recent Annual Statement on time, and who failed to turn in the required post-primary election campaign finance forms by the September 6, 2012 deadline, according to campaign finance information available online for county clerks whose names appeared on 2012 primary ballots in Michigan counties. Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced on July 27, 2012 that a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit is imminent after local city and township clerks in 70 Michigan communities missed state and federal deadlines for providing absentee ballots to military and overseas voters for the August primary election. On this issue, Larry Kestenbaum can breathe easy; Washtenaw County does not appear on the official list of the 70 counties targeted by the DOJ.