A2Politico: Anti-Prop C Group Says Jesus, The Ghost of Mother Theresa, and Diddy Oppose Nonpartisan Elections

by P.D. Lesko

Correction: Prop D would mean the City of Ann Arbor would earmark $420,000 to candidates, not $4.5 million.

The questions are simple:

The opposition to both proposals is led, in its entirety, by Ann Arbor’s elected City Council, the people with the most to lose. “Proposal C will make Ann Arbor’s elections worse, and lead to extreme candidates being elected,” they say. Can there be a more “extreme candidate” than Ward 1 Council member Lisa Disch who said in 2021 at an open meeting, after it was revealed that Ward 4 Council member Jen Eyer and her children had been attacked by Eyer’s then husband, that domestic violence was between the wife beater and his wife?

Ostensibly, Alex Lowe, a 30-something local political mastermind and leader of the Ann Arbor political machine (not), formed the committee to oppose Proposal C. This proposal (above) will appear on the ballot in Ann Arbor this November.

Lowe is a political stooge, a front man.

The real power and big money behind the opposition to nonpartisan elections, and a proposal (Proposal D) to allocate $420,000 out of the City’s General Fund (0.3% of the General Fund budget) to level the playing field between real people and corporate money/big money sweethearts, are Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor and his rubber stamp City Council. These Corporate DINOs tout themselves as the “most progressive” City Council ever in the history of, well, history. Meanwhile, they don’t support Ann Arbor Rep. Rheingans’s rent control bill in Lansing, and siphoned millions from the Affordable Housing Fund to build a new Election Center. This misappropriation of public funds prompted a lawsuit.

Mostly, though, the Anti-Prop C folks want you to know that all of the same local and County political lemmings are against nonpartisan elections, because nonpartisan elections are dangerous. According to one glossy, sexy, 4-color postcard mailed to women in Ann Arbor, nonpartisan elections are more dangerous than going to one of Diddy’s White Parties wearing a black cocktail dress and heels. That’s why Diddy says, “Be like me. Say Hell Nah to Prop C.” Due to his present legal entanglements, Diddy also opposes any charges that he used date rape drugs in order to sexually assault men and women.

The local NAACP chapter is against nonpartisan elections (this is true), because Lord knows we don’t need Black political serfs getting any ideas that they could up and just run for local office without the permission of the local White Political Boyars. No, no, City Council members want to pick and choose the minorities who run. To do otherwise, that would be bad for Democracy.

Mayor Taylor compared nonpartisan elections to November free-for-alls where voters don’t know the candidates. Maybe voters don’t know candidates in the biblical sense, but voters and candidates have every opportunity to get to know each other politically.

After all, what does Ann Arbor need more, a new Election Center for the City Clerk, or, say, low-income and affordable housing for people with rents set at 30-60 percent AMI ($800-$1,500 per month)? The most progressive City Council ever in the history of City Councils answered that question with a unanimous vote: Ann Arbor’s renters need a multi-million dollar Election Center for the City Clerk. Duh.

The attacks on Proposal C, sound much like Donald Trump’s screeds about immigrants “eating pets,” and promises to make Ann Arbor Great Again. The ads against Prop C are centered on fear, xenophobia, lies and more lies. In the anti-Prop C group’s one Facebook ad, the AI created audio includes this: “fringe weirdos could be elected.” Let’s finish the thought: “By voters whom we will no longer be able to fool, bamboozle and manipulate by simply claiming to be Democrats.”

Let’s be real, the anti-Prop C message, like Donald Trump’s is all about “border control.” For the past two decades, Ann Arbor’s political “border” has been controlled by DINOs who have done little but make Ann Arbor less affordable, more gentrified, and a city where seniors and young professionals can only afford cans of Fancy Feast after paying property taxes and/or monthly rents.

Taylor, since 2014, has been feeding the public a line about his commitment to tackle the city’s affordable housing problem.

“We need hundreds of units of new, permanent affordable housing built throughout Ann Arbor.” Mayor Taylor, Facebook, 2020

“Affordable housing is a foundational issue for us. We can fund our affordable housing plan. We can build and support new affordable housing throughout the community.”—Mayor Taylor, April 2018, mayoral debate.

“The city lacks the legal ability to require property owners to include affordability as a criterion for getting permits. So, that’s something we should work on with the state to get. I’d further say that the city has a commitment to affordable housing, which means that we want to encourage others to (focus on affordable housing) through some kinds of preferential treatment for developers.” Mayor Taylor, Feb. 2018, speaking to U-M students.

“If you want to work on affordability, the thing that you do is try to increase supply. So, that is going to be a community conversation that we are going to continue to have. Obviously it’s going to mean that we have to continue to have this conversation without destroying the character of our near downtown neighborhoods because it is so important to the look and feel within Ann Arbor. Finding that balance is going to be what we are going to need to work on.” Taylor, December 2014, Second Wave Media

The truth? A county-wide study which investigated the City’s gentrification and lack of affordability, showed Ann Arbor officials needed to build hundreds of units of affordable housing annually. That same year, 2015, the year after Taylor was elected Mayor, City Council adopted a goal to work with others to create nearly 2,800 new affordable rental units in the city by 2035, about 140 per year. In 2021, the City’s Asst. Administrator John Fournier told the public Ann Arbor was 600 units behind in its goal. Should that gap persist, by 2035, Ann Arbor will have missed that 2,800 unit goal by 1,500 units.

It’s entirely possible that the Mayor and City Council members are terrified of nonpartisan elections because the reality is that some “fringe weirdo” would do a better job of coming up with ideas to combat gentrification and unaffordability than the Corporate DINOs who have controlled local politics since 2000.

On the webpage of the group formed to oppose Prop C, there is the fact that the Prop C group has accepted donations from, hold on to your butts, REPUBLICANS. Can I let you in on a little secret? Mayor Taylor has accepted tens of thousands of dollars from donors who are Republicans and who support Republican candidates. One of Taylor’s big money donors is a local real estate developer who ran for City Council as a Republican, Jeff Hauptman. Current City Council members have accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from this same Republican, the owner of Oxford Companies. Mayor Taylor, as a Council member, donated money to and endorsed, two City Council members who ran for local office as Republicans, then switched parties in order to be elected: Marcia Higgins and Stephen Rapundalo. Higgins served as a Republican on City Council and Rapundalo ran for mayor as a Republican.

In 2020, executives at Oxford Companies contributed to a number of candidates. CEO Jeff Hauptman, Associate Director Melissa Gumenick and Bill Wilson, Board of Advisors member, combined for a total of $5,150. On the receiving end of those contributions were Council members Lisa Disch, Travis Radina, Erica Briggs and Jen Eyer. 

Ann Arbor’s Mayor Taylor supported the candidacy of former Republican Governor Rick Snyder.

The anti-Prop C group boasts that lots of other politicians are against nonpartisan voting. First among those pols is U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell. In 2022, Mrs. Dingell’s top 15 campaign contributors included Delta Airlines, DTE, ITC Holdings, Maddog Technology, and the National Auto Dealers Association, all companies which gave the majority of their donations to Republican candidates. One might make the fair observation that Mrs. Dingell is a Democratic darling of big money companies that work and spend millions to elect GOP candidates.

The other big news from the anti-Prop C crowd is that the local League of Women Voters is against Prop C. The group allegedly did a “report,” a deep dive after which the group decided Prop C was not for them, us, or anyone else. Let’s be clear: the local League of Women Voters is a 501(c)4 organization. In other words, the group exists to, among other activities, lobby for or against ballot questions. The LWV Ann Arbor Area 990 federal income tax filing states as its mission that it “influences public policy through advocacy.” The LWV is no different than the NRA. Same tax status 501(c)4, same advocacy goals (to influence public policy).

The “impressive report” attributed to the League of Women Voters lists no authors. After all, why would it be important to know who wrote a report telling voters that expanding the number of people who run for office is not in the best interests of Democracy? For that matter, it’s impossible to find out who is on the Board of the local League of Women Voters chapter.

Finally, the anti-Prop C Hive Mind Collective wants everyone to know that various unions (which have given our Mayor and Council tens of thousands of dollars over the past decade) oppose nonpartisan elections. Since when are unions all about democracy? Unions, internally, function as meritocracies. The smarter, more harder-working member with two years of experience earns less than the burned out, phoning it in since 2001 member. In most cases, it pays better to work for a union than to be represented by one. Just look at the public schools and their AFT and NEA affiliates.

Should more people run for office? Of course. How many people are happy Biden stepped aside, but frustrated that not one other Democrat stepped forward to run for president? That privilege was handed to Kamala Harris, a Vice President whom the President allowed less of a portfolio and less of a political mandate than LBJ’s Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Prop C was put on the ballot by thousands of registered voters through a signature drive. The campaign against Prop C is cynical, self-serving, funded by millionaires, corporate money, fueled by manipulation and outright deception. In Michigan, only Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti still elect local officials through partisan elections. The only people with something to lose if Prop C passes are the people who will lose their control of dictating who may run for local office.