Image links to the Google digital scan of the 1,204-page volume "Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan Passed at the Regular Session of 1859." The act in this screenshot amended the act that incorporated the city of Ann Arbor.

As this year’s May 15 filing deadline nears for Ann Arbor’s Aug. 7 partisan primaries, Laidlaw reflects on how it came to be that Ann Arbor’s local elections involve political parties at all. 

Ann Arbor was incorporated as a city 161 years ago, by a special act of the Michigan legislature in 1851.

At that time, special acts were required to incorporate cities and business corporations. So Act 101 of 1851, which incorporated Ann Arbor, was the original city charter. Subsequent Ann Arbor city charter amendments were also made by special acts of the Michigan legislature – in 1859, 1861, 1867 and 1889. Ann Arbor was governed under the 1889 special act charter until 1956.

The original Act 101 charter established the offices of a mayor, recorder, marshal, street commissioner, assessor, treasurer, three constables, four aldermen, two school inspectors, two directors of the poor, and four justices of the peace.

Demise of Special Act Cities

The 1908 Michigan Constitution moved control of the organization of cities to the local communities. It virtually outlawed the creation of special act cities. However, existing special act cities, like Ann Arbor, were allowed to continue in that form. The Home Rule Act adopted by the legislature in 1909 provided a procedure for existing or future cities to frame their own charters. But it would be a long struggle before Ann Arbor would adopt its own charter.

Home Rule Ann Arbor charters were proposed and voted down in 1913, 1921, and 1939. A big issue was the “radical” idea of replacing the complex governing system with a city manager. The 1889 Ann Arbor charter spread the administration of local government over a mayor, a common council president, 14 aldermen, a three-person board of public works, a three-person board of fire commissioners, a three-person board of public health, and a three-person board of building inspectors.

The idea of replacing citizen control through the various boards was not popular. Also, the Board of Realtors opposed the 1939 revision because of a fear of high taxes. Nonetheless, the cumbersome system of governance persuaded the electorate to approve the establishment of a charter commission in 1953. The commission’s task was to draft a charter according to the Home Rule Act, that could be put before voters.

The charter commissioners struggled with the concept of a city manager. They announced that they did not want a manager position that had full hiring/firing authority or the usual manager’s budget authority. On the other hand, they said they did not want a mere “errand boy.”

Out of this struggle they came up with the concept of a city administrator. The hiring and firing by the city administrator would have to be approved by the city council. The administrator would not even manage all the departments. The assessor and treasurer would report to the mayor. The planning department would report to the planning commission. (A subsequent amendment made the assessor and treasurer report to the city administrator rather than the mayor.)

Partisan Elections for Home Rule Ann Arbor?

Besides organizational governance, the other key issue for the 1953 Ann Arbor charter commission was partisan elections.

The original Act 101 charter addressed a variety of election issues that were not related to partisanship. For example, the original charter authorized the city to provide part of its financing through a poll tax. Section 31 stated:

The common council is authorized to assess and collect from every white male inhabitant of said city, over the age of twenty-one years, (except paupers, idiots and lunatics,) an annual capitation or poll tax not exceeding seventy-five cents; and they may provide by their by-laws for the collection of the same; Provided, That any person assessed for a poll tax may pay the same by one day’s labor upon the streets, under the direction of the street commissioner, who shall give to each person so assessed, notice of the time and place when and where such labor will be required; and the money raised by such poll tax, or the labor in lieu thereof, shall be expended or performed in the respective wards where the person so taxed shall reside.

The 1851 charter made no mention of political parties. But partisan state, national and local elections were provided by state election laws.

Under the 1889 special act charter and state election laws, nominations for the elected offices had been by a partisan primary election. But the Home Rule Act authorized local elections on either a partisan or non-partisan basis. That was a choice the 1953 Ann Arbor charter commission faced. From persons addressing the 1953 Ann Arbor charter commission, there was little support for non-partisan elections. George Wahr Sallade, who was common council president at the time, submitted a statement saying:

I feel very strongly that partisan elections are an indispensable part of the American democratic process. I have no sympathy with the often repeated argument that there is no Republican or Democratic way of collecting the garbage. After all, that could be pursued further with the statement that there is no Republican or Democratic way to build state highways or direct the state police and therefore the state legislature and the office of governor ought to be filled at a non-partisan election.

[Interestingly, Sallade was elected council president and later a state representative as a Republican. But he later ran for state office as a Democrat.]

Attorney John Dobson told the charter commissioners:

… I urge the retention of the present partisan election system for our local office holders. In Ann Arbor, at least, it seem[s] clear that the citizens have a much greater interest in partisan elections than they do in those which are non-partisan. The records of the persons voting in city government elections as compared with those voting in the city school elections makes this clear. Further, I strongly believe in party responsibility for candidates. By this, I mean that the party offering a candidate for office must assume responsibility for that candidate’s conduct in office. Thus the parties maintains [sic] or should maintain a continuing interest in their candidates performance. They can influence the candidate toward a better performance, and, if this influence is unsuccessful, can eliminate him. I feel that both parties in this community have, generally speaking, met this obligation.

However, a letter from the Ypsilanti manager to the charter commission stated:

I believe whole-heartedly in non-partisan City elections despite the strong argument that partisan politics create interest. I do not believe that a City government’s purpose is to promote interest in politics and parties, as such. I would prefer that government concentrate on service, efficiency and effectiveness and rely on the quality of these to generate and promote interest in local government.

The arguments in favor of partisan elections prevailed. In the report to citizens before the election to approve the charter, the charter commission stated:

The nomination and election of Mayor and Councilmen will continue to be on a partisan basis.

Multi-Party Ann Arbor

Elsie Deeren, who analyzed the 1953 charter commission’s work, offered this explanation for the commission’s recommendation to retain partisan elections:

The support of both political parties had many implications in a town that is predominately Republican, because support by one party only might have made the issue a partisan one rather than a common non-partisan aim for “good government.” Here too it might be said that abandonment of the aim for non-partisan elections was probably very helpful in gaining the support of the Republican party, since, as the controlling party, it would naturally look at any change with a view to the political dominance in town, and non-partisanship would perhaps be regarded as a Democratic device to get more members in office.

To say in 1955 that Ann Arbor was “predominately Republican” was a bit of an understatement. That dominance began with the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In Ann Arbor, Dwight D. Eisenhower beat Adlai Stevenson by more than two to one. John F. Kennedy did barely better against Richard Nixon. Along the way, several Democrats were elected as mayors. And in 1913 a member of the Progressive Party was elected as an alderman. But Republicans remained firmly in control of the city council until 1969.

Buoyed by a drive to register students, in 1969 law professor Robert Harris was elected mayor along with a Democratic slate of councilmembers. The Democrats gained an eight-to-three majority on the council. Registering students was not an easy task because of a state law that created a presumption that a student’s home town was the place of residency for voting purposes. Students wishing to register in Ann Arbor had to answer questions that would determine whether they still had ties to their home towns. But that changed in 1972 when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the law that created the home town presumption was unconstitutional.

In 1971, the 26th amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted. It guarantees the right to vote for citizens over 18 years of age. It overrode the 21 year minimum voting age in the Michigan Constitution and made thousands of additional students eligible to vote in Ann Arbor. Given the propensity of the students to vote Democratic, it looked like the Democrats had a lock on control of the city council. But student activism had moved to the left of the Democratic party.

In 1972, the Human Rights Party (HRP) elected two members to city council seats and pushed a radical agenda. Ann Arbor became a three-party town. In 1973, the HRP nominated a candidate for mayor. That resulted in a split of the progressive vote between the HRP and the Democrats; so Republican James Stephenson won the mayor’s seat, despite getting just 47% of the vote.

To avoid that situation in future elections, the HRP succeeded in pushing a charter amendment for preferential voting – a variant of instant-runoff voting (IRV). Under that system, voters could designate first and second choices on the ballot. If a voter’s first choice did not win, the second choice would be counted to reach the total. In 1975, James Stephenson got the most first place votes, but when the second choices were added, Democrat Albert Wheeler was declared the winner. The election was challenged in court, but the Home Rule Act specifically authorizes preferential voting, and the election of Wheeler was upheld.

The last year the HRP managed to elect an Ann Arbor city councilmember was 1974. In 1976, voters approved a charter amendment repealing preferential voting, and the HRP faded from the scene. In the following 19 years, city council control bounced back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans. That bouncing was ended by a 1992 charter amendment, which changed election dates. [.pdf of current Ann Arbor city charter]

Moving Election Dates

The original 1851 charter called for city elections to be held on the first Monday in April. That definition of election day persisted for 131 years, until an amendment of the current charter in 1992 moved the election to November.

The amendment moved the city primary election from February to August and the city general election from April to November. Proponents of the amendment contended it would result in city council contests being decided at an election with the largest voter turnout. Eventually, however, the result was the opposite. The Republican Party virtually disappeared from Ann Arbor politics. No Republican has been elected to city council since 2003.

Ann Arbor city council contests are now functionally decided among Democrats in the August primary when the lowest voter turnout can be expected. Ann Arbor is once again a one-party town.

Other Cities with Partisan Elections

Ann Arbor is one of only three Michigan cities that still have partisan voting in local elections. The other two are Ypsilanti and Ionia. [Ypsilanti convened a charter commission last year that submitted to the state attorney general a draft charter that would change Ypsilanti's local elections to be non-partisan. But up to now the attorney general's office has not completed its review of the new language.]

In 1985, a Chamber of Commerce-based group held a petition drive for a charter amendment that would have made the Ann Arbor local elections non-partisan. It appeared that enough signatures had been obtained to put the matter on the ballot. However, one of the circulators filled out the petitions improperly. That flaw proved fatal for getting the matter on the ballot.

But the 2011 Ann Arbor city council elections revealed a small chink in the partisan armor that the charter commissioners drafted for the 1956 charter, and that was ratified by voters. The charter makes it possible only for potential nominees of a political party to participate in the August primary election. However, language that was probably inadvertent allows a person to become a nominee in the November election without a party designation.

In 2011, Jane Lumm – who had served on council as a Republican from 1993-98 – chose that approach in the Ward 2 city council election, and proved that city voters are willing to vote for a candidate who does not have a D or an R printed on the ballot next to their name.

The Ann Arbor city council now consists of 10 Democrats and one independent.

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Mike Smith

With three Republicans already in the race, Lambertville Democrat Mike Smith has announced he’s seeking the Democratic nomination for the 55th District seat in the state House of Representatives – a district that includes Pittsfield, Saline and York townships in Washtenaw County, along with parts of Monroe County.

A member of the Bedford Public Schools Board of Education, the 36-year-old Smith had been considering a run for the seat now held by state Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, for some time.

Already elected to three two-year terms, Angerer is unable to run under the state’s term limits law. Smith announced his decision Friday.

Employed as the AFL-CIO community services liaison to the United Way of Monroe County, Smith is so far the only Democrat seeking to represent the district.

Saline Township resident Rick Olson, former Monroe County commissioner Mary Kay Thayer, and York Township supervisor Joe Zurawski are competing to be the Republican nominee.

Republicans held the seat until Angerer first won election in 2004.

A Michigan native, Smith and his wife, Kristi, have a daughter who attends Bedford Public Schools. Smith says his campaign will emphasize education as the key to success, not only for future generations, but also for workers displaced by the current economic downturn. [Link to campaign website]

He is a long-time member of the United Steelworkers Local 2511 District 2 AFL-CIO and has served as chief steward, trustee and president of the local. He now represents Local 2511 as a delegate to the Monroe/Lenawee County AFL-CIO Central Labor Council.

For additional Chronicle coverage of the 2010 state races, see “State Races in Districts 54, 55 Take Shape” and “More Candidates Vie for State House, Senate.”

About the writer: Judy McGovern lives in Ann Arbor. She has worked as a journalist here, and in Ohio, New York and several other states.

The capitol building in Lansing. (Photo by Mary Morgan, taken back when the weather was warmer.)

Local candidates for the Michigan legislature are jumping into races for both the state House and Senate, making for a potentially crowded primary season next summer – and creating openings in elected offices closer to home.

Most notably, as many as four Washtenaw County commissioners could leave the 11-member board to seek state office in 2010.

In this report, we’ll give an update on the 18th District state Senate race, as well as House races in the 52nd, 53rd, 54th and 55th districts. You’ll find out who’s running as the “hot dog man,” which political rumor is described by an elected official as “funny,” how many candidates have Facebook groups, and who expects to spend more than $65,000 on his campaign.

All of this and more, after the jump.

Washtenaw County Commissioners

Ypsilanti Township Democrat Rolland Sizemore Jr., current chairman of the county board, says he may enter the Democratic primary election to succeed veteran local lawmaker Alma Wheeler Smith as the 54th District representative in the state House of Representatives.

“I’ll decide by the first of the year,” says Sizemore, who was first elected as commissioner in 2000. “I have name recognition and feel I’ve done a pretty good job.”

Should he run, Sizemore would join an exodus that now includes county commissioners Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) and Mark Ouimet (R-Scio Township). Irwin is running for the 53rd District House seat; Ouimet for the 52nd District seat.

A fourth commissioner, Ken Schwartz (D-Scio Township), expects to run in the 52nd District as well. “I won’t have a final decision and formal announcement until after the first of the year, but it would be a surprise if I wasn’t running for the state Legislature,” he says.

Assuming he enters the race, Schwartz will face a primary – Democrat and Scio Township trustee Christine Green has already declared her candidacy. Irwin is also running in a primary that will almost certainly decide who represents the heavily Democratic 53rd District, which includes most of Ann Arbor.

State Senate: 18th District

There are no incumbents in any of the local races for state office: most current representatives are ineligible to run under the state’s term-limits law. State Rep. Rebekah Warren, representing the 53rd District, isn’t term-limited, but she’s running for the 18th District state Senate seat now held by state Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor), who’s ineligible to seek re-election. (Enacted in 1992, Michigan’s term-limits law caps service in the House to three two-year terms and service in the Senate and executive branch to two, four-year terms.)

While the House races are interesting because of the numerous people queuing up, the 18th Senate District is notable for the absence – thus far – of state Rep. Pam Byrnes, who represents the 52nd District.

A Democrat from Lyndon Township, Byrnes is term-limited and has been expected to run for Brater’s seat. However, Byrnes opted to stand pat when Warren entered the race in September, saying only that she was giving a Senate campaign serious consideration and would decide by the end of the year.

That’s fueled speculation that she might be a candidate for lieutenant governor if House Speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township runs for governor. Speaker pro tempore of the House, Byrnes is a member of Dillon’s leadership team and has served as chairwoman of the committee examining Dillon’s controversial proposal for reorganizing public employee health care.

Byrnes says she’s aware of the rumor. “I think it’s funny. Andy has not said a thing to me. As far as I know, he hasn’t made up his mind about running.”

If Dillon enters the race, he would challenge Lt. Gov. John Cherry in the Democratic primary. Term-limited out of the House and the Senate, Washtenaw County’s Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, representing the 54th District, is also campaigning for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Byrnes’ fundraising power would likely help her overcome any delay in launching a primary campaign. In the last election cycle, she had a six-figure war chest that included $15,900 in contributions from various political action committees. Warren’s 2008 contributions similarly included some $14,500 in gifts from PACs.

Byrnes continues to hold fundraisers. She, Warren and other candidates seeking offices with larger geographic areas than those they now hold can transfer existing funds to new campaigns.

Former state Rep. Ruth Ann Jamnick, an Ypsilanti Township Democrat, is also a potential candidate for the senate seat. The 18th District takes in the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti and the townships of Ann Arbor, Augusta, Dexter, Freedom, Lima, Lyndon, Northfield, Salem, Scio, Sharon, Superior, Sylvan, Webster and Ypsilanti.

State House: 53rd District

After a soft launch last month via the Facebook group “Jeff Irwin for State Representative,” county commissioner Irwin held a formal campaign kickoff in his bid to represent the 53rd District Tuesday evening at Arbor Brewing Company.

His primary opponent, Ann Arbor resident Ned Staebler, launched his campaign in October and has begun holding fundraisers. A recent Staebler gathering at the home of philanthropist Judy Dow Rumelhart and her husband, Don, was hosted by a group that included University of Michigan regents Kathy White and Julia Donovan Darlow, IT pioneer Herb Amster, philanthropist Peter Heydon, former Clinton administration economic adviser Paul Dimond and other community members able to lend financial and political support.

“That was my dad’s generation,” says Staebler, 36, a vice president at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. His father, lawyer Michael Staebler, was also among the hosts.

Smaller events, again at friends’ homes, are in the works, says Staebler, who’s also holding bi-weekly coffee hours Saturday mornings at Sweetwaters on Washington Street. The holidays may interrupt the alternating Saturday schedule, he says. The Ohio State game will not. The 9 a.m.-noon gathering is on. Game time is at noon.

Like Irwin, Staebler has a Facebook presence. The website nedstaebler.com is a bit behind schedule, he says.

Irwin’s supporters include several of his fellow county commissioners and Ann Arbor city councilmembers, plus the current state rep in that district, Rebekah Warren, whose husband, Conan Smith, is a colleague of Irwin’s on the county board of commissioners. Warren’s support is an especially big deal, says Irwin. Elected officials don’t necessarily take sides in primaries. “I’m very happy to have the endorsement of the sitting representative,” he says.

Other elected officials who’ve signed on to the Irwin campaign include fellow Ann Arbor representatives to the county board of commissioners Leah Gunn and Barbara Bergman, as well as Smith.

State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, Conan Smith’s mother and Warren’s mother-in-law, is also backing Irwin, a 32-year-old who worked in nonprofit environmental advocacy for eight years before turning his attention to the county board full time.

His supporters also include past and present Ann Arbor Democratic party officials like Susan Greenberg and Tim Colenback, along with community volunteers like Jennifer Santi Hall, Rene Greff, Nick Roumel and Martin Contreras.

In the last primary election for the seat, back in 2006, Warren spent some $62,000 in defeating her opponent Leigh Greden, who at that time served on the Ann Arbor city council. (Warren ran unopposed in the 2008 Democratic primary.) Staebler says he expects his budget to top $65,000.

Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, who’d been a potential candidate for the House seat or the 18th Senate District, says he won’t seek either.

State House: 54th District

In addition to county commissioner Rolland Sizemore Jr., there are other new names in the race for the 54th House District, which includes the eastern Washtenaw County communities of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township, and Augusta, Salem and Superior townships.

Activist Bill Riney of Ypsilanti Township says he’ll be a candidate in the Democratic primary in August. And political newcomer Michael Mashif White of Ypsilanti says he’s ready to file with the Secretary of State’s office to create a campaign committee.

A trainer for AT&T, White talks about applying his experience as a single parent and member of a family that struggled financially. He promises more information as his campaign gets under way.

A much more familiar figure, Riney battled Ypsilanti Township officials over a waste incinerator and has previously been a candidate for the county board of commissioners, the Washtenaw Community College board of trustees, and the 54th District seat.

Recently the subject of news stories for perching in a tree in a failed attempt to prevent utility company contractors from cutting it down, Riney campaigns as “the hot dog man,” pulling a trailer of free franks and soft drinks through neighborhoods. It was free carnations on Mother’s Day, says Riney, who runs a landscape business. He says his primary issue will be job creation.

There are other potential candidates, too: Ypsilanti resident Allen Francois, a former staffer for Wheeler Smith and U.S. Rep. John Dingell; Ypsilanti Township trustee Mike Martin; and Superior Township resident David Rutledge, a member of the WCC board of trustees and the Washtenaw County Road Commission, and twice a candidate in the 54th.

Current Wheeler Smith aide Lonnie Scott is also committed to running. A 2005 Central Michigan grad who grew up in the Lincoln Consolidated School District, Scott recently launched an education challenge to raise money for scholarships for each the 54th’s three school districts – Lincoln, Willow Run and Ypsilanti.

“I’ve gotten some response but haven’t pushed it too hard,” he says. That will change this week when he returns to Lincoln High School to play a role in the high school musical.

“I’m playing the Grinch,” he says. A table set up in the lobby area will ask for support on the scholarship effort and ask patrons to tell Lansing officials not to “be a Grinch” on education funding.

State House: 55th District

There are likewise some new entries into the race to succeed term-limited state Rep. Kathy Angerer in the district that takes in Pittsfield, Saline and York townships in Washtenaw County, along with communities in Monroe County.

Saline Township resident Rick Olson and former Monroe County commissioner Mary Kay Thayer, both Republicans, say they want to be their party’s nominee.

York Township supervisor Joe Zurawski, also a Republican, had previous announced his candidacy.

Raised in the Upper Peninsula, Olson worked in state government in Washington State in the 1980s and returned to Michigan in 1989. He’s worked in the private sector and had been the business manager for Adrian and Harper Woods public schools. He now works in mortgage banking.

A member of the Monroe Community College board of trustees, Thayer served two terms on the county board of commissioners and, previously, on the Lambertville Township board. “I have a record,” she says. “And I’ve never lost an election.”

Thayer left the county board when her multiple sclerosis limited her mobility. But, she says, she’s rebounded, feels well and has ample energy. She and her husband Jack have two adult daughters. They run an engineering consulting firm. Her campaign website is still being developed.

While the Republicans face a primary, prospective Democratic candidate Michael J. Smith, a Temperance resident and member of the Bedford board of education, is still weighing his decision. Smith, who works as the Monroe County United Way’s AFL-CIO community services liaison, says an announcement will come shortly.

State House: 52nd District

Back in the 52nd District, county commissioner Mark Ouimet got his campaign started earlier than expected. His website launched ahead of the timeline Ouimet had originally set for announcing whether or not he’d run.

“The idea was to avoid any distractions before we passed the county budget,” he says. “I was sincere about that and don’t think it created a problem when the website went up.”

Thus far, Ouimet – whose campaign also has a Facebook presence – is the only Republican in the race.

Whatever Democrat appears on the November ballot is likely to be primary-tested. While county commissioner Ken Schwartz is in the “probably” category, Scio Township trustee Christine Green is a full-fledged candidate.

For now, that’s meant balancing a law practice and township responsibilities with opportunities to meet 52nd District residents, Green says. “I see a lot of people in the course of regular business, too, and I’m getting good feedback.”

Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell is also a potential candidate for that district, which includes northeast Ann Arbor, the cities of Chelsea and Saline, and the townships of Ann Arbor, Bridgewater, Dexter, Freedom, Lima, Lodi, Lyndon, Manchester, Northfield, Pittsfield, Scio, Sharon, Sylvan and Webster.

[Previous Chronicle coverage: "State Legislative Candidates Lining Up" and "State Races in Districts 54, 55 Take Shape"]

About the writer: Judy McGovern lives in Ann Arbor. She has worked as a journalist here, and in Ohio, New York and several other states.