“All three candidates are focusing attention on Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), a method of counting votes that ensures that the winner must have a majority of the votes, and which allows people to rank their choices, enabling voters to vote their conscience while eliminating runoff votes and ending the spoiler issue (see www.fairvote.org for more details of IRV). Ann Arbor once had IRV, in the 1975 mayoral race that elected Al Wheeler. In addition, the candidates are variously raising development, affordable housing, water and transportation issues.”

> From the Green Party’s Ann Arbor city council candidates’ press release.

I just sent a questionnaire to the candidates for city council. The deadline for responses is Wednesday at 8:00 PM, and I’ll post them here sometime Wednesday night. Here are the questions:

1.In your view, what are the most important issues facing the city?

2.What is your position on the mayor’s Greenbelt proposal?

3.Do you consider students to be residents of the city of Ann Arbor in the same sense that you are, or are they something else?

4.Are the interests of students adequately represented in Ann Arbor city government? What would you do as a member of city council to increase the levels of communication and involvement of students in city government?

5.What would you do as a member of city council, if anything, to make Ann Arbor a more pedestrian-friendly city?

6.How would you have voted (or to incumbents, did vote) on the resolution regarding the Patriot Act passed last summer? Would you vote for resolutions about issues the city is only tangentially connected to – such as the Patriot Act, or policies of other branches of government?

7.How should the city handle parking downtown? What do you think about the Downtown Development Authority?

8.What would you do make living in Ann Arbor more affordable? Are rents too high? If so, what should be done about it?

9.Would you support the re-districting of the city wards that would create one or more majority-student wards? Would you support changing the way the city council is selected?

Here’s a list of the candidates and their email addresses. (I’ve inserted spaces in the addresses to foil spammers - delete them to use) The only candidate I wasn’t able to find either an email address or working telephone number for was Donna Rose - if anyone can help me contact her, please email me at rob @ goodspeedupdate.com

# 1st Ward:
Incumbent Bob Johnson Democrat - rjohnson@ ci.ann-arbor.mi.us
Rob Haug, Green Party - rhaug@ umich.edu, rob@ hvgreens.org
Rick Lax, Independent - rlax@ umich.edu

# 2nd Ward:
Incumbent Mike Reid, Republican - MReid@ ci.ann-arbor.mi.us
Amy Seetoo, Democrat - adseetoo@ umich.edu

# 3rd Ward
Leigh Greden, Democrat - lgreden@ dykema.com
Rich Birkett, Libertarian - vicechair@ lpwash.org
Donna Rose, Independent

# 4th Ward
Incumbent Marcia Higgins, Republican - MHiggins@ ci.ann-arbor.mi.us
Dan Sheill, Libertarian - dsheill@ umich.edu
Scott Trudeau, Green Party - strudeau@ umich.edu, scott@ mutiny.net.
Jon Kinsey, Independent - kinseyforcouncil@ yahoo.com

# 5th Ward:
Incumbent Wendy Woods, Democrat - wwoods@ ci.ann-arbor.mi.us
Jason Kantz, Libertarian - kantz@ linato.pair.com, jason@ kantz.com
Adrianna Buonarroti Green Party - abuonaro@ umich.edu, junes_tears @yahoo.com

Party websites:
> Huron Valley Greens
> Washtenaw County Libertarian Party
> Ann Arbor Democratic Party
> Washtenaw County Republican Party

The Ann Arbor News gives the impression that supporters of the Greenbelt proposal are rolling in cash, although they do note many paragraphs into the story that “The reports indicate that thus far, the greenbelt opponents have vastly outspent supporters, with the majority for cable television ads.” If one group raises more than their opponents in one filing cycle simply because the timing of some of their large donations, but the opponent has “vastly outspent” them, is it ethical and accurate to choose the headline “B friends raise most funds”? I think that what’s news is that hundreds of thousands of dollars of money from a few corporate homebuilders has filled TV and radio with propaganda and paid for anonymous, harassing phone calls, and the supporters of B are struggling to keep up.

The News also found it necessary to re-write a press release about the creation of a new, pro-sprawl group, even though they don’t plan to spend more than $1,000. If I start a group with no members and no budget, do you think they’ll write about me? See AANews: “New PAC set up to fight Proposal B”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has arrested 245 suspected illegal immigrants in 21 states employed as cleaners at Walmart in something the federal government is calling “Operation Rollback.” The Associated Press has reported that investigators have found evidence Walmart knowingly employed the illegal immigrants.

What I found interesting was the list of countries where the immigrants were citizens. Although I haven’t read much about it, this summer I found many people working seasonal jobs in both Maine and North Carolina (and I assume across the U.S.) were from the former Soviet states and eastern Europe. Here’s the list: Mexico 90, Czech Republic 35, Mongolia 22, Brazil 20, Uzbekistan 14 , Poland 13, Russia 12, Georgia 11, Lithuania 11, Slovakia 4, Bulgaria 3, Hungary 3, Ukraine 2, Argentina 1, El Salvador 1, Guatemala 1, Honduras 1, Tajikistan 1.

> See “Wal-Mart plans review of all 1 million U.S. workers after raids”

“Bruce Madej chuckles at the suggestion that his “publicity machine” at the University of Michigan won the Heisman Trophy for Charles Woodson in 1997.

“The player with the best chance plays for a top-10 team, plays on television, plays well late in the season and plays a skill position,” said Dennis Dodd, a Heisman voter who reports on college football for CBS SportsLine.com. “That’s the formula.” …

> From NYTimes: “In Heisman Competition, Fitting Into the Formula Helps”

“A strike continues to be imminent,” says UFCW Local 876, the union which represents the employees of Ann Arbor’s downtown Borders. The union announced today on their blog that Borders Inc. has agreed to settle charges of unfair labor practices filed under the National Labor Relations Board. According to the union, the charges include:

“- unlawfully suspending and discharging a union supporter;
- unlawfully interrogating employees about the union organizing drive;
- unlawfully threatening employees with discipline if they discuss discipline with other employees;
- unlawfully instituting more onerous working conditions.”

Members of the Michigan Student Assembly and the Residence Hall Association clashed yesterday about revising the access guidelines to the Residence Halls, so that anyone with an M-Card could access the dorms between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM. Lest we forget: until February 2002, the Residence Halls were open to anybody 8-5. Brimming under the surface of this article is the issue of MSA campaigning: with the elections coming up, I can only assume that members of MSA would like to see access made more lenient to facilitate campaigning.

However, the conflict is something of an irrelevant charade: RHA has even less formal political authority to change policies than MSA, and as the article says “MSA will need the consent of RHA in order for the University’s Housing Board to consider making changes to the current access policies.” Yes, that’s right: they’re fighting over a suggestion. Even if RHA and MSA were in agreement in this one I doubt the policy would change: the University seems happy to react to parent fear by creating a false (because it’s still easy to get in) security culture in the residence halls with locked doors, cameras, and surveillance.