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. [Full Story]