Council Candidates Live: Ann Arbor Dems

Ann Arbor Democratic Party hosts forum for all council candidates

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The Ann Arbor Democratic Party is hosting a forum for city council candidates this morning, July 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Community Center at 625 North Main Street.

micro-phone

This is a microphone.

The Chronicle plans to broadcast live audio from the event. A live-stream audio player is included below. [Updated: The live stream audio player has been replaced with a set of .mp3 audio files from the event.]

Primary elections take place on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014.

All candidates who have qualified for partisan primary ballots are Democrats. No Republicans have filed in any ward. In Wards 1, 2 and 3, the Democratic primary is contested.

The Ward 1 race features one-term incumbent Sumi Kailasapathy and Don Adams, who is seeking elected office for the first time. [Ward 1 Candidate Forum: CTN Broadcast]

The Ward 2 city council race features current chair of the city planning commission, Kirk Westphal, and current trustee on the Ann Arbor District Library board, Nancy Kaplan. [Ward 2 Candidate Forum: CTN Broadcast]

This year’s Ward 3 contest features Julie Grand, Bob Dascola and Samuel McMullen, who are all competing for the seat that Christopher Taylor is leaving in order to run for mayor. [Ward 3 Candidate Forum: CTN Broadcast]

Ward 4 does not offer a contested race. Graydon Krapohl, a Democrat who is currently vice chair of the park advisory commission, is the only person who has qualified for the ballot.

The race in Ward 5 is also uncontested, practically speaking. Leon Bryson, who will appear on the Democratic primary ballot, has announced that he’s withdrawn his candidacy and won’t campaign for the seat. That means that one-term incumbent Chuck Warpehoski is almost certain to prevail in the primary.

Listen to the broadcast from the July 12 forum using the audio player below. 

A comment thread is open. Feel free to use the commenting section to alert us to any technical difficulties.

After the live broadcast, we expect to make the recorded file from the event available for playback at a listener’s convenience.

Two text boxes will appear below the audio player as a way to provide live notes to listeners – for example, the current question that candidates are answering, who is currently talking, or other listener aids. The first box is programmed to force the scroll continuously to the bottom of the text notes file – so that no manual scrolling or refreshing should be required. The second box does not force the view to the bottom of the file.

Below are .mp3 files of candidate responses from the event edited together by ward and sorted by ward:

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7 Comments

  1. By David Cahill
    July 12, 2014 at 4:23 pm | permalink

    I am impressed at how well-behaved everyone was at the debate. Everyone was positive, taking the “high road”.

  2. By Alan Goldsmith
    July 14, 2014 at 1:02 pm | permalink

    “Ward 4 does not offer a contested race. Graydon Krapohl, a Democrat who is currently vice chair of the park advisory commission, is the only person who has qualified for the ballot.”

    So Mr. Krapohl didn’t feel it was necesary to show up?

  3. By Dave Askins
    July 16, 2014 at 10:14 pm | permalink

    Re: “So Mr. Krapohl didn’t feel it was necessary to show up?” Krapohl had a training exercise associated with his military service that he was attending instead. A statement was read aloud on his behalf.

  4. By Alan Goldsmith
    July 17, 2014 at 8:14 am | permalink

    @3

    Thanks. Do you know if he’ll be attending any of the public forums?
    From our past representatives in Ward 4, it’s looking like deja vu all over again.

  5. By Jack Eaton
    July 17, 2014 at 9:59 am | permalink

    Re (2) & (3) Mr. Krapohl was unable to attend because he had a military service obligation. Mr. Krapohl sent a message explaining his absence which was read to those in attendance. As I recall, his military service obligations will end before he takes office. I do hope we don’t disparage him for his service to our country.

  6. By Alan Goldsmith
    July 17, 2014 at 1:45 pm | permalink

    @5 Jack, I’ve worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs for most of my career so I don’t need a reminder about disparaging anyone for their military service. I don’t know a great deal about Mr. Krapohl other than he was hand picked by Leah Gunn and supported by all the usual suspects. I expect my represantives to show up for debates and show up for work on Council. Other than you, that hasn’t always been the case in the 4th Ward. Hopefully the candidate will make himself available in a public forum, even if he’s running unopposed.

  7. By Alan Goldsmith
    July 17, 2014 at 2:24 pm | permalink

    I suppose it doesn’t matter since Mr. Krapohl isn’t on the August primary ballot in the 4th Ward according to the Ann Arbor City Clerk site. Since he has no opposition, when you vote for the rest of the races, you don’t have a change to leave his name blank or write in anyone in protest. Nice.