Stories indexed with the term ‘Ann Arbor mayoral race’

Final unofficial results from the Washtenaw County clerk’s office have confirmed the results of early, informal reports directly from the Aug. 5, 2014 polls: Christopher Taylor has won the Democratic nomination for mayor of Ann Arbor.

Incumbent mayor John Hieftje is not seeking re-election, and there is no Republican candidate. Taylor will face independent Bryan Kelly in the Nov. 4 general election.

Some observers felt the four-way race could be won with as little as 35% of the vote. Taylor achieved a near majority, but fell a couple of percentage points short of 50% citywide. Taylor received 7,070 votes (47.6%) compared to Sabra Briere’s 2,967 (20%), Stephen Kunselman’s 2,447 (16.5%) and Sally Petersen’s 2,364 (15.9%).

The 16,591 ballots cast translated into a turnout of 16.67% registered voters citywide.

The ranking and clustering of the four candidates was roughly consistent with the amount of money each campaign raised in the pre-primary period – if the self-funded portion of Petersen’s campaign is discounted.

The rank order and clustering of candidates was also consistent with the results of a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling about a week before  the election. That poll also showed Taylor as a clear favorite over the other three candidates, who were grouped significantly behind, with Briere slightly stronger than Kunselman and Petersen.

Outgoing Democratic mayor John Hieftje never lost any of the city’s 48 precincts in seven election cycles. Taylor prevailed in 39 precincts. Briere won seven of them, while Kunselman won his home precinct in Ward 3. Briere and Petersen tied for most votes in one precinct – splitting the two votes in the lightly voted Precinct 1-1.

Taylor had the highest vote totals in each of the city’s five wards, with a majority of votes in three of them. In Ward 3, Ward 4 and Ward 5, Taylor received 50.4%, 52% and 50.6%, respectively.

All four candidates did best on their home turf – Briere in Ward 1, Petersen in Ward 2, Kunselman in outer Ward 3. But Taylor was strong not just in the Burns Park neighborhood of Ward 3, but also citywide, achieving better than 50% in 13 of 48 individual precincts, while winning 39 of them.

Charts of results by ward, as well as dynamic color-coded maps for each mayoral candidate, are presented below. [Full Story]

In Ann Arbor, local elections are mostly determined in the Democratic primary, held this year on Tuesday, Aug. 5. The mayoral race is well contested with four Democratic candidates. Races in three of the city’s five wards offer actively contested races.

No Republicans are running for mayor or in any of the city council races. Only one independent candidate – Bryan Kelly, who’s running for mayor – will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Races for probate judge and circuit court judge offer fields of five and three candidates, respectively.

This article provides a roundup of Chronicle election coverage, for anyone who’s still studying up on the candidates. It includes links to reports and recordings of candidate forums, campaign finance data, analysis and other information. Links are also provided to candidate websites and League of Women Voters candidate profiles.

If you’re not sure whether you’re registered to vote or you’re not sure which ward you live in, Michigan’s Secretary of State website offers an easy way to check. The site also lets you look at a sample ballot. To give you a general idea of what ward you live in, check out this ward boundary map.

Polls open on Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Readers can follow along during the day as The Chronicle goes poll-hopping, checking in at locations throughout the city. We’ll also be posting updates with results starting soon after the polls close. The Washtenaw County elections division website also provides unofficial results on election night.

Below you’ll find more information on the Ann Arbor mayoral and city council candidates, as well as judicial candidates for the probate and 22nd circuit courts. [Full Story]

From July 28-29, several Ann Arbor residents reported being polled by telephone about their preferences in the upcoming Democratic mayoral primary election. The Chronicle has obtained the results of that poll of 435 likely voters by Public Policy Polling (PPP), a North Carolina polling firm.

They show Ward 3 councilmember Christopher Taylor to be a clear favorite, with about a week to go before the Aug. 5, 2014 primary. Taylor polled at 39% compared to 19% for Ward 1 councilmember Sabra Briere.

Ward 3 councilmember Stephen Kunselman and Ward 2 councilmember Sally Petersen polled a few points behind Briere at 15% and 13% respectively.

The poll indicates that 15% of voters still haven’t made up their minds. Margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 4.7%.

The relatively large four-candidate field is attributable to the fact that no incumbent is in the race.

Kunselman was the first of the four candidates to declare his candidacy – before mayor John Hieftje announced last year he would not be seeking reelection to an eighth two-year term.

The PPP poll also asked respondents if they approved of the job that Hieftje was doing as mayor.

One of the patterns revealed in the analysis of the poll responses is that Kunselman would be a 12-point favorite if the election were held just among those voters who disapproved of Hieftje’s performance. But the poll indicated that only 27% of Ann Arbor voters disapproved of Hieftje’s performance.

A polling question that asked about favorable or unfavorable opinions of candidates – independently of an inclination to vote for them – showed Kunselman polling with the highest unfavorable opinion numbers, at 36%. But the “not sure” category for that question polled fairly high across all candidates, ranging from 29% to 43%.

The poll also included two questions about future growth – one about downtown development, and the other about the need for an improved train station. The poll indicated 46% support for the downtown projects that have been approved and built in recent years and 39% opposition. The need for a new train station polled at 52%, while the alternate view – that the current station is adequate – polled at 35%.

The content of the poll – which evinces some knowledge by its creator of the Ann Arbor political landscape – was not commissioned by The Chronicle or by any of the four mayoral campaigns. Tom Jensen grew up in Ann Arbor and is now director at Public Policy Polling, a firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina. But Jensen still follows Ann Arbor politics. It was Jensen who put the poll together – out of his own interest. And it was Jensen’s voice that was used in the interactive voice response (IVR) technology deployment of the Ann Arbor mayoral poll.

The poll drew as a sample all those who’d participated in any primary election (Democratic or Republican) since 2006. Poll respondents included 32% Republican or other non-Democratic affiliation.

In a telephone interview, Jensen stressed that any poll result should be viewed with a lot of caution, especially with local elections. “I would definitely, as a pollster, encourage people to take caution in over-interpreting one poll of a low-turnout race in the middle of the summer. You’re definitely prone to more error.”

But based on the results of this poll, he said he was 99% confident that Taylor was going to be the next mayor of Ann Arbor.

Additional charts and some additional background on the polling methodology are presented below. [Full Story]

A dataset analysis of pre-primary contributions to 11 different local campaigns for Ann Arbor elected office confirms some clear patterns among the donors. The primary election will be held Aug. 5, 2014.

The dataset was compiled by The Chronicle after the Friday, July 25 deadline for filing campaign finance reports. It includes contributions to the 2014 mayoral Democratic primary campaigns for the four candidates – Sabra Briere, Sally Petersen, Christopher Taylor and Stephen Kunselman – as well as contributions to Democratic city council primary campaigns of seven candidates in three wards: Don Adams and Sumi Kailasapathy in Ward 1; Nancy Kaplan and Kirk Westphal in Ward 2; and Julie Grand, Bob Dascola and Samuel McMullen in Ward 3.

Contributors to those 11 campaigns appear to perceive city council candidates Don Adams, Kirk Westphal and Julie Grand as aligned with mayoral candidate Christopher Taylor – as well as with each other. And judged by their donations, contributors appear to perceive city council candidates Sumi Kailasapathy, Nancy Kaplan and Bob Dascola as politically similar to each other – and to some extent politically similar to mayoral candidates Sabra Briere and Stephen Kunselman.

Those conclusions are based on the 1,278 individual contributions totaled across all the campaigns (517 for city council races and 761 for the mayoral race). The Chronicle counted at least 312 contributions that were made by people who gave to more than one of the campaigns. Those 312 contributions came from 99 different people. Not typical of the contributions were those of 22nd circuit court candidate Veronique Liem, who gave money to seven of the 11 campaigns, including all four mayoral candidates.

The Chronicle also tagged donors in the dataset as current or past members of public bodies – like the city council, the city planning commission and the Ann Arbor District Library board. That exercise revealed that every current member of the library board made at least one contribution to mayoral or council campaigns. Taylor received contributions from five of seven library board members and Briere from one. Westphal received contributions from three library board members.

Stephen Kunselman has campaigned in part based on his endorsements from four current city councilmembers – all of whom contributed money to his campaign. Ward 2 council candidate Nancy Kaplan received contributions from the same four, plus a former councilmember.

When former councilmembers are included in the count, Taylor received contributions from a total of seven. Briere received contributions from four former councilmembers. Among council candidates, Westphal received the most contributions from current and former councilmembers – a total of seven.

The Chronicle initially compiled the set of data – for three city council races and the mayor’s race – in order to generate analyses of geographic trends and distribution of amounts that have been contributed to each campaign. Those analyses are presented in previous coverage: “Council Election Finance 2014: Charts, Maps” and “Mayoral Election Finance 2014: Charts, Maps.”

The dataset should be viewed with the caveat that data entry was done manually from scanned documents generated by the campaigns, so they include a range of spelling variants and other minor inconsistencies. In addition, The Chronicle’s institutional knowledge about donors’ background, even when combined with online research, is imperfect. Some donors in various categories might have been missed.

Below we present some of the patterns of contributions made by donors to the campaigns.  [Full Story]

Editor’s note: The candidate forum was moderated by the writer, Chronicle publisher Mary Morgan.

Twenty candidates for political office attended a forum hosted by the Arts Alliance on July 23, held at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor and focused on the creative sector.

The event included presentations by each candidate as well as opportunities for questions from the audience, and drew out policy positions related to the arts.

County-level candidates shared their thoughts on the possibility of a countywide arts millage.

And mayoral candidate Sally Petersen took the occasion to float the idea of an Ann Arbor city income tax as an approach that would generate more revenue, at the same time shifting some of the burden of local government funding to those who work in Ann Arbor but do not live here.

Bryan Kelly, independent candidate for mayor of Ann Arbor in the Nov. 4 general election, made his first public appearance since qualifying for the ballot. “I can say firsthand that being an artist is the toughest damn job in the world. I’d rather run for mayor than keep writing novels,” he quipped.

Ypsilanti mayoral candidate Tyrone Bridges shared an example of his daughter’s artwork with forum attendees.

Favorite public art named by the candidates included the mosaic adorning the Fourth and Washington parking structure, as well as the half-mile of daffodils planted in The Arb.

And Ann Arbor Ward 5 incumbent Chuck Warpehoski delivered his opening statement in the form of a rap.

In her remarks at the end of the forum, Arts Alliance executive director Deb Polich urged candidates and elected officials to tap into the experts who know the creative sector. She encouraged candidates to touch base with ArtServe Michigan and the Arts Alliance to get accurate information. Ann Arbor is losing ground to other communities like Grand Rapids and Detroit, she said, and that’s why public funding and investment in the arts is important. “Private funding is absolutely here in this county, but it’s not enough – there’s not enough.”

It’s not just about funding, however. Polich stressed the importance of public policy to make the city a fertile ground for the creative sector.

Polich reported that the Arts Alliance will be holding a statewide conference called Creative Convergence on March 19, 2015. Thought leaders from across the country, state and Washtenaw County will be coming to speak about these issues, she said.

This report focuses on state and local candidates, including the Ann Arbor mayoral and city council races, Washtenaw County commissioners, and state legislators. It also includes responses to a candidate survey distributed by the Arts Alliance prior to the forum. Not included here are statements by the two Congressional candidates who attended the forum: Democrat Debbie Dingell, who’s running in the primary against Raymond Mullins of Ypsilanti for the District 12 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; and Republican Douglas Radcliffe North, who’s running against incumbent Republican Tim Walberg for the District 7 seat in the U.S. House.

The outcomes of many of the local races will be determined in the Aug. 5, 2014 Democratic primary elections, if no Republicans or independent candidates are running. More information about candidates can be found on the Washtenaw County elections division website. Check the Michigan Votes website to find out your polling location and view a sample ballot. [Full Story]

According to reports filed with the Washtenaw County clerk’s office, the four Ann Arbor mayoral candidates in the Aug. 5, 2014 Democratic primary have raised a total of $153,847 in itemized cash contributions. The filing deadline for pre-primary reports was July 25.

Based on Ann Arbor’s population of about 114,000, that works out to about $1.35 per resident.

All four mayoral candidates currently serve on the Ann Arbor city council: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

Raising by far the most of any candidate was Christopher Taylor with $75,198. (The campaign reported a total of $75,698 in its filings, but that amount was $500 more than the contributions calculated by The Chronicle, based on the campaign finance itemized list.) [link to WC clerk filing by Christopher Taylor] Taylor’s total came from 365 contributions, with an average contribution of $206.

Next was Sally Petersen with $44,495 from 133 contributions for an average contribution of $334 per donation. Petersen’s total was boosted with a $10,000 contribution of her own and $15,000 from her husband. The $2,000 limit does not apply to candidates themselves or members of their immediate family. [link to WC clerk filing by Sally Petersen] That total does not include a $5,000 late contribution filed by Petersen, bringing the total she and her husband contributed to $30,000.

Raising $26,680 was Sabra Briere. That total came from 204 contributions, for an average contribution of $130. [link to WC clerk filing by Sabra Briere]

Raising $7,474 from 59 contributions for an average donation of $126 was Stephen Kunselman. He had been the first to announce his candidacy for mayor – before current mayor John Hieftje decided that he would not be seeking an eighth two-year term. [link to WC clerk filing by Stephen Kunselman]

By way of comparison, when Jane Lumm raised roughly $18,000 for her pre-general election race for Ward 2 council in 2011 and then raised $20,000 for the same period in 2013, those totals were considered remarkable.

Here’s a read-only link to the shared Google Spreadsheet used by The Chronicle to generate charts and maps: [2014 Mayoral Campaign Finance: Ann Arbor]

Below we present charts and maps to illustrate the distribution of donations by amount and geography. [Full Story]

The winner of Ann Arbor’s mayoral Democratic primary to be held on Aug. 5, 2014 will face an independent candidate on the ballot in the general election. Bryan Kelly is now qualified to appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, according to Ann Arbor’s city clerk, Jackie Beaudry.

The last of Kelly’s signatures were validated late yesterday, July 16, the day before the deadline for independents to file. Mayoral candidates must obtain signatures from 50 voters in each of the city’s five wards for a total of 250. Kelly was short in Ward 2 and Ward 3 for his initial submissions, but filed sufficient supplemental signatures to qualify. By ward, his signature tally broke down as follows: Ward 1 (52); Ward 2 … [Full Story]

A forum for Ann Arbor mayoral candidates  is being hosted tonight at 7 p.m. at St. Clare’s and Temple Beth Emeth, located at Genesis of Ann Arbor at 2309 Packard St. The forum will focus on issues of homelessness and affordable housing.

Competition for the Democratic Party’s mayoral nomination is a four-way race: Stephen Kunselman, Sabra Briere, Christopher Taylor, and Sally Petersen. All candidates currently serve on the Ann Arbor city council. Kunselman and Briere are in the middle of their two-year terms, while Taylor and Petersen have chosen to run for mayor instead of seeking re-election to their Ward 3 and Ward 2 council seats, respectively.

The topics of homelessness and affordable housing have come up at previous mayoral forums – such as those hosted by Literati Bookstore, the League of Women Voters and the Ann Arbor Democratic Party. Here’s an .mp3 file from the Dems forum that includes just candidates’ responses to a question about affordable housing: [.mp3 of responses on affordable housing]

Tonight’s forum will be moderated by Julie Steiner, former executive director of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance. Candidates will have five minutes to talk about addressing homelessness and increasing affordable housing in Ann Arbor. Candidates will then respond to questions prepared by local advocacy groups, service providers, and faith communities. Questions from the audience will then be answered.

Listen to the forum live in the embedded audio player below. [Full Story]

The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area is hosting candidate forums for the Aug. 5, 2014 primary elections, as it does every year for local races.

Competition for the Democratic Party’s mayoral nomination is a four-way race:  Stephen Kunselman, Sabra Briere, Christopher Taylor, Sally Petersen.

The scheduled broadcast start time on CTN is at 8 p.m. today (July 9) and can be viewed as a live video stream in the embedded player below.

The relatively large field this year is due to the fact that there is no incumbent in the race. Current mayor John Hieftje announced last year that he would not be seeking re-election to an eighth two-year term. No Republican stepped forward to run. Although one independent candidate, Bryan Kelly, has submitted some petitions to appear on the November ballot, he has not yet filed a sufficient number of signatures to qualify. The winner of the Democratic primary has a strong likelihood of election in the fall, regardless of other candidates who might qualify.

All four mayoral candidates are current members of the city council. Briere and Kunselman are in the middle of their two-year terms and will continue to serve on the council, even if they don’t prevail in the mayor’s race. Taylor and Petersen are at the end of their terms and will not continue their service on the council unless they are elected mayor.

CTN has pre-recorded some comments from candidates in all races. [link to CTN video-on-demand for mayoral candidate comments ]

And the League of Women Voters provides written candidate profiles with responses to questions on its Vote411.org website. [Mayoral Vote411.org profiles]

For a Chronicle column on the mayoral campaigns, see: “Mayoral Folk, Easy Listening”

If you’re not sure whether you’re registered to vote or you’re not sure which ward you live in, Michigan’s Secretary of State website offers an easy way to check.

If you don’t think you’ll be able to make it to the polls on Aug. 5, an application to receive an absentee ballot can be downloaded from the city clerk’s website. [.pdf of absentee ballot application form]

Completed applications can be mailed or hand delivered to the clerk’s office on the second floor of city hall, 301 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104. The applications can also be scanned and emailed to cityclerk@a2gov.org.

Watch the mayoral candidate forum below. [Full Story]

Bryan Kelly has submitted petitions to qualify on the ballot as a candidate for mayor of Ann Arbor in the Nov. 4, 2014 general election. According to city clerk’s staff, Kelly submitted signatures on July 7. They have not yet been validated.

As a candidate not affiliated with a political party (i.e., an independent candidate), he has until July 17 to collect at least 50 valid signatures from each of the city’s five wards. Kelly took the petitions out on June 3, 2014.

Kelly is the only potential candidate so far who could oppose the winner of the Aug. 5 Democratic primary, which features four sitting city councilmembers: Sabra Briere, Sally Petersen, Christopher Taylor and Stephen Kunselman. No Republicans took out nominating petitions.

Updated July 9: According to the city clerk’s office, an insufficient number of valid signatures was submitted by Kelly and he will need to submit supplemental signatures in order to qualify for the ballot.

Updated July 15: According to the city clerk’s office, as of 9 a.m. this morning, Kelly had achieved enough signatures in Wards 1, 4 and 5, but staff were still processing supplemental signatures from Wards 2 and 3.

[Full Story]

On June 26, the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber hosted a forum for the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti mayoral candidates.

The four Ann Arbor Democratic candidates for mayor attended: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). They all currently serve on the city council. Both the mayor and city councilmembers serve two-year terms.

There are three Ypsilanti mayoral candidates: Tyrone Bridges, Amanda Edmonds, and Peter Murdock. All are Democrats, but only Murdock currently serves on the city council. Bridges did not attend the June 26 event.

No Republicans are running for mayor in either city for the Aug. 5 primary. More candidates than usual have entered the race at least in part because the incumbent mayors – Democrats John Hieftje of Ann Arbor and Paul Schreiber of Ypsilanti – are not seeking re-election.

This report focuses on the Ann Arbor mayoral race. Each candidate was given five minutes to make a statement and spent another five minutes answering questions from the audience. Questions covered a variety of topics, including regionalism, public transportation, road repair, the possibility of a city income tax, downtown parks, and the regulation of drivers for hire. Taylor was asked specifically about his job as an attorney, and whether he’d continue working in that capacity as mayor. He indicated that he would.

This report includes written summaries of the Ann Arbor candidates’ responses, as well as audio clips from The Chronicle’s live broadcast of the event. (Remarks by the two Ypsilanti mayoral candidates will be reported in a separate article.) Several other forums are planned in the coming weeks, leading up to the Aug. 5 primary.

The June 26 event was held at the Ann Arbor Regent Hotel and moderated by chamber president Diane Keller, with audience questions moderated by Andy LaBarre, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs and administration – who also serves in elected office as a Washtenaw County commissioner. It was followed by a mixer for chamber members and other candidates for local, state and federal offices. [Full Story]

Four Democratic candidates for Ann Arbor mayor – and three Ypsilanti mayoral candidates – will be answering questions at a forum today hosted by the A2Y Regional Chamber of Commerce. The event, held at the Ann Arbor Regent Hotel at 2455 Carpenter Road, begins at 4:30 p.m. The Chronicle will be providing a live audio broadcast. Update: The forum has concluded. Here’s a link to the full recording: [link]. Separate files for remarks and answers from individual candidates are included below.

All four Ann Arbor mayoral candidates currently serve on the Ann Arbor city council: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

The Ypsilanti mayoral candidates are Tyrone Bridges, Amanda Edmonds and Peter Murdock. Murdock currently serves on the Ypsilanti city council.

There are no Republicans running for mayor in either city for the Aug. 5, 2014 primary. In both cities, the incumbent mayors – John Hieftje of Ann Arbor and Paul Schreiber of Ypsilanti – are not seeking re-election.

The June 26 chamber event will include audience questions as well as an opportunity for candidates to talk about their vision for Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. After the forum, a mixer will be held for chamber members and candidates for local, state and federal offices.

The Chronicle’s live audio broadcast is planned to start around 4:20 p.m. to allow for sorting through technical issues that might arise. [Full Story]

A debate for Ann Arbor’s four Democratic Party mayoral primary candidates is being hosted tonight, June 25, at 7:30 p.m. by Literati Bookstore. [.mp3 of audio from the event]

Literati is located at the southwest corner of Washington and Fourth in downtown Ann Arbor.

All four mayoral candidates currently serve on the Ann Arbor city council: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

It’s likely that the winner of the Democratic primary on Aug. 5 will also win the general election in November. No Republican candidate took out nominating petitions this year. One independent candidate – Bryan Kelly – has taken out petitions for mayor, but not yet submitted them to the city clerk’s office.

Ann Arbor’s mayorship is an open race with no incumbent this year, because current mayor John Hieftje announced last year that he would not be seeking re-election to an eighth term. Terms for the mayor of Ann Arbor, like those of city councilmembers, last for two years.

The Chronicle is planning to broadcast live audio from the event (see below) and – if events unfold favorably – provide live text corresponding to that audio (see further below).

The event is described by Literati co-owners Hilary and Michael Gustafson on their bookstore’s website as follows: “As a new downtown business, we here at Literati are part of a growing and changing Ann Arbor landscape. But one thing that doesn’t change is our community. We’re proud to not only serve our community as a general bookseller, but to act as a space where our community can come together.”

The event will focus on downtown issues. It will be moderated by the Gustafsons.

The Chronicle’s live audio broadcast is planned to start around 7:20 p.m. to allow for sorting through technical issues that might arise. [Full Story]

For about 90 minutes on Saturday morning, the four Democratic candidates for Ann Arbor mayor answered questions on a wide range of topics at a mayoral forum hosted by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party.

The candidates all currently serve on city council: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

Questions touched on affordable housing, downtown development, factions on city council, relationships with the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, an assessment of Ann Arbor SPARK, non-motorized transit, commuter rail, and the role of the mayor.

Candidates were also asked to say something nice about each of their opponents – and they did. When Taylor answered the question by describing similar qualities that both Briere and Petersen shared, Briere responded by saying: “I’ve been lumped together!” Distinguishing themselves from the other candidates was a challenge they all faced. The sharpest contrast came when Kunselman said if elected mayor, he would ask Eli Cooper, the city’s transportation program manager, to step down from the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority board, calling the two roles a “conflict of commitment.” The other three candidates disagreed with Kunselman’s view on that.

Briere stressed her listening skills, problem-solving approach and independence, pointing to specific examples of her work on council. “It doesn’t bother me at all that we have factions, but I’m really resistant to joining one,” she said.

Petersen highlighted her experience in the private, nonprofit and public sectors, saying that this gives her a fresh perspective and skills as the city is on the cusp of growth. She pointed to her work toward developing an economic strategy for the city, and said she’d prioritize improving relations with the University of Michigan.

Kunselman told the audience he’d represent the working class, and stressed that he’s the only candidate with policies and politics that differ from the current mayor, John Hieftje, and from Hieftje’s supporters. “I’m offering you a choice of someone that is not in that camp,” he said.

Taylor, in contrast, thinks that the city is on the right track, though he’d work to improve basic services. He also repeatedly pointed to priorities for affordable housing, parks, and efforts to reduce the impact of climate change.

This report includes written summaries of the candidates’ responses, as well as audio clips from The Chronicle’s live broadcast of the event, which was held at the Ann Arbor Community Center. Several other forums are planned in the coming weeks, leading up to the Aug. 5 primary. There are no Republicans running for mayor this year. So far one independent candidate, Bryan Kelly, has taken out petitions. [Full Story]

Four candidates for the Democratic mayoral primary in Ann Arbor will appear on Wednesday, April 16 in a town hall format at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy to answer questions from students enrolled in Public Policy 456/756.

The class is taught by Ann Arbor mayor John Hieftje, who announced last year that he would not be seeking re-election.

Hieftje and the students organized the town hall format event, which is scheduled from 1:10-2:30 p.m. in the Ford School’s Annenberg Auditorium at 735 S. State St.

The event is open to the public. The town hall will be moderated by students in the class. Questions from the audience will be considered as time allows.

Confirmed to appear at the event will be Sabra Briere, Stephen Kunselman, Christopher Taylor and Sally Petersen. All are Democrats and are currently serving on the Ann Arbor city council.

As of the morning of April 16, only Kunselman had submitted the required signatures from registered voters in each of the city’s five wards to qualify for the ballot. Signatures must be submitted to the city clerk by April 22. Although no one other than these four councilmembers has announced an intent to contest the mayoral primary race, it’s still technically possible to take out petitions and collect signatures in time to qualify for the ballot.

The forum is being co-sponsored by UM’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

The Chronicle has made arrangements to provide CART (Communication Across Real Time) text streaming services for the event. If all technical challenges have been met, text will start streaming after the jump around 1:10 p.m. on April 16. [Full Story]

Ward 2 city council representative Sally Petersen has announced that she’s running for mayor of Ann Arbor. She made the announcement in a press release Wednesday morning, Jan. 15, 2014. The city clerk’s office confirmed that she pulled petitions that morning to contest the August Democratic primary. [.pdf of Petersen's press release]

Petersen’s press release cites her previous employment experience with CFI Group, ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, and HealthMedia, as well as her service on nonprofit boards. Petersen holds an MBA from Harvard University.

If Petersen is elected mayor, it will be with two years of experience on the city council. She was first elected to the council in 2012, prevailing in the August 2012 Democratic primary against incumbent Tony Derezinski with 55% of the 2,102 votes cast. Among the four declared candidates from the council so far, two years would be the shortest period of service.

By November this year, Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) will have logged six years of council service, having been first elected in 2008. By election time, Sabra Briere (Ward 1) will have served seven years on council. And Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) will also have seven years of Ann Arbor city council experience – which began with his election in 2006, but was interrupted for a year when he lost the 2008 Democratic primary to Taylor. Kunselman was returned to the council in 2009, prevailing in the Democratic primary over Leigh Greden.

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. Briere announced on Jan. 10, 2014 that she’d be running for mayor. Taylor announced his candidacy last year, on Dec. 20, 2013. 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 city council includes two representatives from each of five wards, one of which is up for re-election every year for a two-year term. Ann Arbor’s mayor is also a member of the 11-member city council, and serves a two-year term. So only if Petersen or Taylor were elected mayor would either of them remain on the council. They can’t run for mayor at the same time they run for re-election to represent Wards 2 and 3, respectively. [Full Story]