Grassroots efforts DO work!
I’ll give the background first. Sorry for the length, but it’s necessary. I live in Plymouth Township, Michigan, a comfy suburb halfway between Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Our township government has for the last few years run the place like their personal fiefdom.
It all starts with Ron Edwards, our treasurer. He has a God complex and a volcanic temper. The township park has become his monument to himself. It used to be a lovely, quiet park. Now he’s wasted millions on a huge warming station for a tiny sled hill, then chopped down tons of healthy, mature shade trees to expand the parking lot (without first doing an environmental impact study. It’s polluting the watershed) that didn’t need expanding. He hosts fireworks there every year. The proles watch from the park, and his VIPs dish out 3 grand minimum to his war chest to watch from the adjoining golf course in luxury, complete with catering and booze.
The township has quietly paid millions to the women he has sexually harassed. He shouts people down at meetings, called 911 when he couldn’t exit the park after the fireworks quickly enough to suit him, slammed his car into a landscaper’s truck in his haste to stop and scream at someone, so that the police had to be called out, challenged a citizen to a fight in a bar after said citizen deigned to criticize Edwards leadership at a township meeting held shortly before the incident, and closed a fire station in a fit of pique. I might add that was cutting off his nose to spite his face, since he lives in the subdivision that fire station served. Oh, and the feds are investigating him for potential misuse of federal $$.
Then there’s Shannon Price, the township supervisor, and Edwards creature. A carpetbagger who is heavily connected with the Michigan Republican Party. Edwards brought him in specifically for his connections, and party operatives (who are not Plymouth residents) are frequently seen at meetings.
Nancy Conzelman is the township clerk. She is in lockstep with Edwards and Price.
These three have run roughshod over the citizens and the four trustees (all good folks) for years. A recall effort was attempted but failed.
That left us with last week’s primary. It was a long, messy, dirty campaign. The dirtiest I’ve ever seen in politics, and I’ve been around a few decades. Absolutely awash in millions of dark money from mysterious, untraceable Republican PACs.
Two of the men running against these less-than-stellar members made a tiny omission on their application forms, and weren’t told about it by the clerk. Nancy Conzelman, the aforementioned incumbent clerk whose job is to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, submitted the forms uncorrected, then a creature who is beholden to supervisor Price challenged the candidates and got them kicked off the ballot, forcing them to run a write-in campaign.
The incumbents published enough literature filled with lies to fell a forest. They put up illegal signs, all the time demanding the opponents obey the sign laws (which they did), and many, many opponent signs were stolen in dead of night. Pickup trucks with huge signs attached driving all over town. Robo calls were nonstop. Facebook posts with fake names, lying about the challengers flooded the net. It was exhausting.
Meanwhile, the grassroots effort was underway. There was a massive door-to-door campaign, leaflets, articles in the local papers, and question-and-answer sessions at EG Nick’s. Totally old-school campaigning.
Well, finally last Tuesday was the primary. I voted, but didn’t hold out a lot of hope. We were up against a huge political machine. Then something fishy happened. After the polls closed, Price and Conzelman were seen in the clerk’s office (see photo), where the votes are counted. It was worrying.
Know what? We won! All the incumbents are out. Edwards lost by such a huge margin he was forced to concede early in the night, Price lost to a write-in candidate and Conzelman is gone too. A clean sweep!
Our township government has for the last few years run the place like their personal fiefdom.
It all starts with Ron Edwards, our treasurer. He has a God complex and a volcanic temper. The township park has become his monument to himself. It used to be a lovely, quiet park. Now he’s wasted millions on a huge warming station for a tiny sled hill, then chopped down tons of healthy, mature shade trees to expand the parking lot (without first doing an environmental impact study. It’s polluting the watershed) that didn’t need expanding. He hosts fireworks there every year. The proles watch from the park, and his VIPs dish out 3 grand minimum to his war chest to watch from the adjoining golf course in luxury, complete with catering and booze.
The township has quietly paid millions to the women he has sexually harassed. He shouts people down at meetings, called 911 when he couldn’t exit the park after the fireworks quickly enough to suit him, slammed his car into a landscaper’s truck in his haste to stop and scream at someone, so that the police had to be called out, challenged a citizen to a fight in a bar after said citizen deigned to criticize Edwards leadership at a township meeting held shortly before the incident, and closed a fire station in a fit of pique. I might add that was cutting off his nose to spite his face, since he lives in the subdivision that fire station served. Oh, and the feds are investigating him for potential misuse of federal $$.
Then there’s Shannon Price, the township supervisor, and Edwards creature. A carpetbagger who is heavily connected with the Michigan Republican Party. Edwards brought him in specifically for his connections, and party operatives (who are not Plymouth residents) are frequently seen at meetings.
Nancy Conzelman is the township clerk. She is in lockstep with Edwards and Price.
These three have run roughshod over the citizens and the four trustees (all good folks) for years. A recall effort was attempted but failed.
That left us with last week’s primary. It was a long, messy, dirty campaign. The dirtiest I’ve ever seen in politics, and I’ve been around a few decades. Absolutely awash in millions of dark money from mysterious, untraceable Republican PACs.
Two of the men running against these less-than-stellar members made a tiny omission on their application forms, and weren’t told about it by the clerk. Nancy Conzelman, the aforementioned incumbent clerk whose job is to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, submitted the forms uncorrected, then a creature who is beholden to supervisor Price challenged the candidates and got them kicked off the ballot, forcing them to run a write-in campaign.
The incumbents published enough literature filled with lies to fell a forest. They put up illegal signs, all the time demanding the opponents obey the sign laws (which they did), and many, many opponent signs were stolen in dead of night. Pickup trucks with huge signs attached driving all over town. Robo calls were nonstop. Facebook posts with fake names, lying about the challengers flooded the net. It was exhausting.
Meanwhile, the grassroots effort was underway. There was a massive door-to-door campaign, leaflets, articles in the local papers, and question-and-answer sessions at EG Nick’s. Totally old-school campaigning.
Well, finally last Tuesday was the primary. I voted, but didn’t hold out a lot of hope. We were up against a huge political machine. Then something fishy happened. After the polls closed, Price and Conzelman were seen in the clerk’s office (see photo), where the votes are counted. It was worrying.
Know what? We won! All the incumbents are out. Edwards lost by such a huge margin he was forced to concede early in the night, Price lost to a write-in candidate and Conzelman is gone too. A clean sweep!
We need to do that at a national level.
And thanks for the book recommendation.