Ann Arbor council hopefuls to participate in virtual candidate forums

ANN ARBOR, MI — As coronavirus outbreak continues, candidates for Ann Arbor City Council are expected to participate in a pair of virtual candidate forums.

University of Michigan students in former Mayor John Hieftje’s classes at the Ford School of Public Policy have held a candidates’ forum in the spring of every election since 2014, and they will do so again this year — but on the Web this time, with candidates sitting in front of their computers at home.

Hieftje said they were planning an on-campus forum for April 16, but they will now host nearly half of the applicants on Tuesday April 14 and the other half on Thursday April 16.

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As in the past, he said, the questions are developed by his class and the moderators will be graduate students in public policy who are about to graduate.

These are perhaps the most important candidate forums his students have ever organised, he said, noting that candidates cannot go door to door at the moment and are limited in the distribution of their messages. .

The forums will not be broadcast live to the public — only the contestants, the class and the media — but will be recorded by the Community Television Network for later broadcast and should be available for viewing the following day, Hieftje said.

He said he used the BlueJeans video conferencing platform to teach his class and everything was going well, so they plan to use this platform.

Running ?

There are five city council races in Ann Arbor this year – one in each ward.

In the 1st district, Democrat Lisa Disch challenges Democratic incumbent Anne Bannister.

Disch has already filed, but Bannister is still collecting the 100 signatures needed to appear on the ballot, which is proving tricky with the ongoing pandemic, governor’s stay-at-home orders and safety guidelines for avoid close contact with others.

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The city clerk’s office said this week it can produce up to 110 additional petition sheets for each candidate and, rather than getting a bunch of signatures on one sheet, candidates can have one or two signed. people on one sheet and have one of those people also sign as the petitioner. By law, signatures must be witnessed by the circulator.

Bannister, who requested 60 additional petition sheets from the clerk this week, suggested they could be distributed by mail, rather than door-to-door, for added security.

In the 2nd arrondissement, Democrat Linh Song is running for the seat of independent Jane Lumm. Song has filed and no other potential 2nd Ward candidate has yet filed a petition, nor has Lumm said whether she will run again.

Lumm has won as an independent in low-turnout odd-year elections in the past, but now that the city has moved to even-year elections only, it’s harder to get elected without the Democratic Party label due to the large number of straight elections. – ticket voting in larger elections.

Lumm, who was previously a Republican, said in 2017, when she was last re-elected, that her chances of winning as an independent in 2020 would be “zero”, and she said she would not run with a record label. left. she had no intention of running again.

In the 3rd arrondissement, Democrat Travis Radina is running for the seat held by Democrat Zachary Ackerman, who resigns and backs Radina, who filed his case.

Two other potential 3rd Ward candidates — Tony Brown and Evan Redmond — withdrew petitions but did not file.

In the 4th arrondissement, Democrats Jen Eyer and Mozhgan Savabieasfahani filed and are seeking the seat held by Democrat Jack Eaton, who is still collecting signatures.

In the 5th arrondissement, Democrats Erica Briggs and Dan Michniewicz filed and are seeking the seat held by Democrat Chip Smith, who is stepping down.

The primary is August 4.

As for how that might be affected if the deadly virus outbreak persists, City Clerk Jackie Beaudry suggested it’s possible it could be a largely vote-by-mail election, with at least one location still open for same-day registration, mail-in voting and in-person voting on Election Day, but not at all polling stations.

She noted that several counties in the state are trying this for the May special election.

“We’re watching how it works on a smaller scale as we head into August’s statewide elections,” she said, noting that the secretary of state has sent requests for mail-in ballot to all voters participating in the May elections to encourage mail-in voting.

There are no May elections in Washtenaw County.

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