Krapohl Forms Campaign Committee
Graydon Krapohl has filed paperwork to form a campaign committee to run for a seat representing Ward 4 on the Ann Arbor city council. According to information posted the Washtenaw County elections website, the committee was formed on Jan. 9, 2014. As of Jan. 15, Krapohl, a Democrat, has not yet pulled petitions with the Ann Arbor city clerk’s office.
Park advisory commissioner Graydon Krapohl at the May 21, 2013 meeting of the commission.
Krapohl currently serves on the city’s park advisory commission, and was elected as vice chair of that group on Sept. 17, 2013. He was nominated to the position by mayor John Hieftje and confirmed by the city council in late 2012. He is adjunct faculty with the U. S. Army War College and is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Krapohl’s campaign filing lists Leah Gunn as treasurer. Gunn, a former Washtenaw County commissioner and former Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board member, is also treasurer for Christopher Taylor’s mayoral campaign. Taylor currently is a Ward 3 councilmember and serves on the park advisory commission with Krapohl.
Gunn has served in the past as campaign treasurer for Ward 4 councilmember Margie Teall, whose term ends this year. Teall has not publicly indicated whether she intends to seek re-election.
Updated at 8:29 p.m. Jan. 15, 2014: Teall spoke with The Chronicle after the Ann Arbor Housing Commission meeting, a group for which Teall serves as the city council liaison. Teall said she’s not planning to run for re-election this year. Teall was first elected in 2002, and after mayor John Hieftje, is currently the longest continuously serving member on the city council. With Teall’s departure from the council in November this year that distinction will belong jointly to Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5), who were both first elected in 2007.
In other Ann Arbor wards, Democrat Kirk Westphal pulled petitions on Jan. 15 to run for a Ward 2 city council seat – which will be open as a result of Sally Petersen’s mayoral candidacy. And Democrat Julie Grand pulled petitions on Jan. 14 to run for the city council seat that will be left open in Ward 3 as a result of Taylor’s mayoral candidacy.
Incumbent Democrats Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) and Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1) also have taken out petitions to seek re-election. The only other person shown in city clerk records to have taken out petitions for local office is Eric Sturgis for the Ward 1 council seat. But an asterisk recorded next to his name includes a note that says Sturgis has indicated to the clerk’s office that he does not intend to file signatures to become a candidate. Sturgis contested the Ward 1 Democratic primary in 2012, which was won by Kailasapathy.
The field of mayoral candidates in Ann Arbor is somewhat wide open this year, because mayor John Hieftje announced on Oct. 11, 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election to an eighth two-year term in 2014.
Four current councilmembers are running. Ward 2 councilmember Sally Petersen announced on Jan. 15, 2014 that she’d be running for mayor. Ward 1 councilmember Sabra Briere made her announcement of a mayoral run on Jan. 10, 2014. According to city clerk staff, Briere took out the petitions on Jan. 15. Ward 3 councilmember Christopher Taylor announced his mayoral candidacy last year, on Dec. 20, 2013. Stephen Kunselman was the first to announce a candidacy for mayor, taking out petitions on Sept. 27, 2013 – even before winning re-election to his Ward 3 council seat on Nov. 5, 2013.
Ann Arbor’s 11-member city council consists of two representatives from each of five wards plus the mayor. All positions serve terms of two years. Briere and Kunselman are running for mayor in the middle of their terms, so if either of them is elected mayor, the council would need to appoint someone to serve out the remainder of their term.
Petitions for the partisan primary in August 2014 must be turned in by April 22. For mayor, the requirement is for 50 signatures from each of the city’s five wards, for a total of 250 signatures. For councilmembers, 100 signatures are required from their ward.
Limits on the amount that an individual can contribute to a candidate’s campaign were lifted through Public Act 252 of 2013. For this year’s local elections, the limit that any individual can contribute to a city council candidate is $1,000. The limit for mayoral candidates is $2,000. Those amounts for councilmembers and mayor were previously $500 and $1,000 respectively.
It is interesting that Mr. Krapohl he is listed as a colonel in the USMC. I wonder if he is on active duty status.
Alan Goldsmith, also of the Fourth Ward, has been asked to run by many residents but he has indicated that his status as a federal employee (he works as a supervisor at the John Dingell VA facility)bars any public office candidacy under the Hatch Act.