Council and Mayoral Candidates This page was started on December 23, 2013. Much of this began as speculation. Originally, we listed possible candidates based on announcements and rumors. The deadline for filing petitions to appear on the August primary ballot was April 22, 2014 and the list below reflects those who filed. November General Election Mayor
Ward 1
Ward 3
August 5, 2014 Primary News We link to Ann Arbor Chronicle stories, when possible, because we find them most reliable and accurate.
Mayor John Hieftje announced in 2013 that eh would not run for reelection in 2014. Stephen Kunselman for Mayor 2885 Butternut St. Ann Arbor, MI 48108 stephenkunselman@yahoo.com
Sally Hart Petersen for Mayor 2976 Hickory Lane Ann Arbor MI 48104-2865 sally@a2sally.com
Committee to Elect Sumangala Kailasapathy 2530 Mallard Court Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105 sumi@sumi4aa.com
Nancy Kaplan for Council 3065 Hunting Valley Drive Ann Arbor, MI 48104 http://www.nancykaplanforcouncil.org/contact-us Third Ward Christopher Taylor is the Third Ward incumbent who announced plans to run for Mayor.
Bob Dascola for City Council Fourth Ward1815 Baldwin Ave. Ann Arbor , MI 48104 bdascola@gmail.com
Leon Bryson for City Council 636 Center Dr. Ann Arbor , MI 48103 leon4council@gmail.com With neighborhood friendly incumbents in only the First and Second Wards, this election season is less dangerous to our interests than the 2013 elections. Potentially, we could have a new, neighborhood friendly Mayor and perhaps pick up a Council seat or two. Background Soon after the
2013 election season concluded with the November elections the next cycle began. The 2014 local elections
may be particularly interesting because of the potential number of open seats.
Here are a couple of news articles about the upcoming race for Mayor:
"Names
of other possible candidates include Ward 2 councilmember Sally
Petersen, and Washtenaw County commissioners Conan Smith and Yousef
Rabhi."
Council Members
Petersen and Taylor would be facing re-election this year for their
Council seats and if they run for Mayor instead would leave those races
open for new candidates. Similarly, County Board of Commissioners
members Smith and Rabhi cannot run for re-election for their County
positions if they choose to run for Mayor. In
Michigan, we will be selecting a Governor, U.S. Senator, State
Representatives, some State Senators, all State House members and many local officials in 2014.
The money and time needed to run a good local race will be harder to
acquire with so many other campaigns going on in the same election
season. Not My Job The following is from a comment Kirk Westphal left on a facebook page called Save Our Streets (SOS):I
apologize for hijacking your problem to make my own point, but I think
it's relevant: we the taxpayers are investing money in a new,
purportedly more efficient, trackable system to help provide
accountability and results for requests like yours, as well as paying
customer service people to answer phones and make referrals.
Some council members have taken it upon themselves to circumvent these
systems, encouraging constituents to "call me first," and making
requests directly to staff, which may help with re-election but is not
considered good form. It is also not the role of a council member (yes, "not their job")
to be a front-line maintenance request person. Some enjoy doing this,
but I would venture it is often to the detriment of the job they were
elected to do, which is passing the budget, supervising the city
administrator and attorneys, hiring an auditor, and making good policies
that help our future and make us financially sustainable. Now,
if a dedicated citizen like you attempts to solve a problem through the
established methods and it doesn't work (or if a citizen doesn't know
about the established channels), then that's a staff problem that needs
to be fixed for good, not circumvented in a one-off fashion. Given
there's no clear chain of command published on the city's website, that
seems to warrant a call to a councilmember, who will contact the city
administrator to find out what the root of the problem is. It seems he
has a good track record of doing so. In
summary, I hear your frustration. I was unsuccessful last night in
placing my first request via the new A2 Fix It, so that's today's
volunteer activity to troubleshoot. I wish I could offer more hope but
honestly, I think we may be in for more frustration as our city's costs
grow faster than our revenues in the short term. Ideas for cost savings,
revenue generation, process improvements are always welcome. |
Past Issues > Elections >