by P.D. Lesko

Second Ward Ann Arbor City Council member Stephen Rapundalo has 25 friends on Facebook. Two of his 25 Facebook friends (Joe Upton and Carey Jernigan), according to information contained in a press release issued on September 15, 2011, have signed on to the campaign committee of Independent Jane Lumm. Lumm (pictured right) is challenging Rapundalo to serve the city’s Second Ward on City Council. Stephen Rapundalo can’t afford many more defections. After 6 years on Council, Rapundalo snagged 575 votes in the August 2011 Democratic primary election, in a Ward with over 10,000 registered voters. In fact, the incumbent was almost knocked off by political newbie Tim Hull, who managed to capture over 40 percent of the vote in the primary.

“We don’t like that Council member Rapundalo (pictured left),” chuckled a member of the city’s Police Department, when asked how he felt about the possibility of Rapundalo losing his seat in the November General election. The city’s Firefighters are equally disdainful of Rapundalo, who has been spewing anti-union rhetoric and taking credit for squeezing concessions out of the city’s unionized employees in his role as the Chair of the City Council’s Labor Committee. Rapundalo, a member of the Labor Committee, spent many years recommending his Council colleagues vote to approve the very same benefit and pay packages for the city’s unionized workers he is now attempting to portray as out-sized compensation giveaways.

Rapundalo is also responsible, as the Chair of the Labor Committee, for signing off on millions in perks, such as car allowances, cell phone and texting packages, doled out to senior city managers over the past 24 months—at a time when services such as police and fire have been slashed to close budget gaps.

On September 15, 2011 former Second Ward Council member Jane Lumm issued a press release in which Lumm revealed the members of her “campaign committee.” Lumm served on City Council as a Republican between 1993 and 1998. When she ran for mayor in 2004, the endorsement she got from the Ann Arbor News was both an indictment of John Hieftje and a testament to what the editorial board thought would be her strengths in elected office:

We endorse Jane Lumm for mayor. Lumm, a Republican, spent five years on the City Council ending in 1998 and understands the complex issues facing Ann Arbor, especially ones tied to spending, revenue and taxation. She knows that the city’s financial problems are as much about spending as they are about lost revenue.

And, Lumm most notably differs from Hieftje in her willingness to be forthright. She would work tirelessly for the good of the city, and has a profound commitment to public participation by residents. She knows how to lead, in part, because she values input.

Hieftje’s largest failure is not one of vision, but leadership.

And it stems from a reflexive defensiveness that too often pushes any dissenting or questioning voices from the table. Instead of building lasting coalitions, Hieftje opts for short-term wins that are relatively easy to accumulate because Democrats hold such an overwhelming majority on the City Council.

Hieftje’s ongoing reluctance to an open, public process was evident during the successful campaign for the Greenbelt. Given the opportunity to pull all sides together, Hieftje instead cast a complex issue in the simplest of terms and treated opponents with legitimate and substantive questions as villains.

Jane Lumm’s committee is a murderer’s row of political heavy weights from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the political aisle—albeit heavy weights from the late-80s and early-90s. From the release:

Named as Co-Chairs of the Jane Lumm Campaign Committee are Ingrid Sheldon and Leslie Morris. Sheldon, a Republican, represented the 2nd Ward as Councilwoman from 1988 to 1992 and served as Mayor of Ann Arbor from 1993 to 2000. Morris, a Democrat, represented the 2nd Ward as Councilwoman from 1977-1983 and was the Democratic Party nominee for Mayor in 1983.

Lumm’s campaign committee list goes on to include the names of both Democratic and Republican former Second Ward City Council members, as well as former Ann Arbor Mayor Louis Belcher. Democratic former Washtenaw County Commissioner Vivienne Armentrout also included her name on the list, as did Democratic Library Board member Nancy Kaplan.

It’s likely we’ll see a parry in this contest from Rapundalo who will send along a list of endorsers to AnnArbor.com that includes many of the politicos on his Facebook page, Hieftje supporters and political appointees, such as former Second Ward Council member Joan Lowenstein.

Lowenstein most recently endorsed Fifth Ward City Council challenger Neil Elyakin (just a few months after Lowenstein called a large number of Ward Five residents “sulkers” at a televised public meeting.) Lowenstein also endorsed against Third Ward Council member Stephen Kunselman in the August 2011 primary. Together with Washtenaw County Commissioners Leah Gunn and Barbara Levin Bergman, as well as former Third Ward Council member Jean Carlberg, Lowenstein backed challenger Ingrid Ault. Lowenstein also backed Rapundalo in the August primary.

When running in the primary, incumbent Rapundalo raised about $2,500, and neglected to put up a campaign web site. To be sure, with the Fuller Road parking garage project riding on Rapundalo’s re-election (8 votes on City Council are required to approve contracts, and Hieftje would have a much more difficult time getting Lumm’s vote for the parking garage project), Hieftje and his political allies will pull out all the usual stops to try to win re-election for Stephen Rapundalo.

On October 5, 2011, Lumm and Rapundalo will face off in an Ann Arbor League of Women Voter’s debate which will be televised in CTN.