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HE Ml Ml'M1AN DAILY

Sunday, April 1, 1§73



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(Continued from Page 5)
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A Private Educational Organization
207 Michigan Theatre Bldg.
Cor Liberty, above Marilyn Shop)
662-5575

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Join Inter-Cooperative Council

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4

A

MESSAGE
BER1

FROM

I


I

rC

On

What's

At

Stake

in

Monday 's

Election

I first rai for mayor in the winter of
1968-9, campaigning for liberal values and
against the conservative wing of the Ann
Arbor Republican Party. I championed tax
reform, the construction of public housing,
the model cities program, strong anti-dis-
crimination laws, and a strengthened hous-
ing. code. More than any other issue, I
stressed the need to create a real city bus
system. I indicated I was a member of
the American Civil-Liberties Union and the
NAACP.
I won that election, as did several other
liberal Democrats like myself, and we set
to work carrying out our campaign prom-
ises. We were opposed on City Council by the
current Republican candidate for mayor
and by the two other conservative Repub-
lican councilmen whom he led. We were
opposed off Council by Jack Garris and the
Concerned Citizens, who sought to have us
recalled from office, because we hired a
young, outside, civil liberties attorney to be
City Attorney -- Jerry Lax. And because we
refused to follow the advice of the three
conservative Republicans on Council, who
had called a special meeting of City Council
to vote on their proposal that we outlaw all
electronic rock music from all city parks
forever. And because we appointed the Ad
Hoc Police Community Relations Commit-
tee - which the conservative Republican
trio on Council opposed. And because we
wouldn't pass the unconstitutional ordin-
ance the Republican trio on Council were
urging on us as a means of outlawing al-
leged pornography -- including the local
underground newspaper.
No one who following Ann Arbor poli-
ties in 1969-70 or in 1970-71 has any doubts
or illusions about the distance between
the conservative wing of the Ann Arbor
Republican Party and the liberalism of
the Ann Arbor Democratic Party.
EMERGENCE OF HRP-
But today the political picture is more
complex. For there were two new develop-
ments on the local scene after the election
of 1971. The first was a great increasedin
the number of young voters enfranchised-
the result of 18 year old vote; the court suit
allowing college students to vote in the col-
lege towns; and increased registration activ-.
ity by the City Clerk and his deputies.
The second was the emergence of a new
political party, creating three party politics
in Ann Arbor.
Three-party politics had its first test in
the City Council election of April 1972. Re-
publicans got about 40 per cent of the
vote; Democrats got 36 per cent; HRP got
24 per cent. In the First and Second Wards
HRP was victorious, but in the Third,
Fourth, and Fifth Wards, HRP's presence
simply snatched victory from a liberal
Democrat and handed it to a conservative
Republican. In each of those races the con-
servative finished first, the liberal finished
a close second, and the radical a distant
third. In each case the total of liberal and

The new party's next outing was the
entry of three candidates into the School
Board race last June. None of the radicals
won, but they split the vote sufficiently so
that two of the three seats went to con-
servatives.
HiRP RE McGOVERN
The new party's most recent effort was
last November. They were hurt by the fact
that they refused to support George Mc-
Govern since, in their judgment, there was
no significant difference between George
McGovern and Richard Nixon. This time
HRP's share of the vote declined. They elect-
ed no one of their own. And, fortunately,
this time they avoided electing any con-
servatives. They had the good sense to stay
out of the Sheriff's race, which the liberal
then won reasonably easily.
HRP 1973 STRATEGY
After these three experiences, one would
have expected HRP to run serious races in
only Wards One and Two this spring, run-
ning "education-only" campaigns in the
other wards and in the mayor's contest.
This was seriously urged by some HRP lead-
ers. But it is in the nature of third parties
to set more ambitious goals for themselves,
regardless of the risks to the total commun-
ity. And HRP proved no exception. They are
currently trying to woo votes from Demo-
crats to their candidate for mayor the
traditional three party situation.
The mathematics are pretty clear. If
last April is any guide, the conservative
mayoral candidate will get 40 per cent
of the vote. If the radical candidate gets
under 20 per cent, the liberal wins. If the
radical gets over 40 per cent, she wins.
And if she gets between 20 per cent and
40 per cent, the conservative wins.
It is too late to persuade the radical can-
didate or the HRP Steering Committee
against this course of action. The only re-
maining hope is to explain to voters who
are undecided between the radical and lib-
eral candidates why the radical has no
chance of garnering the 40 per cent of the
vote needed to beat the conservative.
The answer lies in two words-- PLAT-
FORM and DISCIPLINE.
PLATFORM
HRP is trying to win votes for its mayoral
candidate by keeping away from the aver-
age Ann Arbor voter the HRP platform,
since the platform is far too radical for
most of the people their mayoral candidate
must persuade. Her literature --on posters,
in the Ann Arbor News, elsewhere--seeks to
give the impression she has nothing to do
with the HRP issue positions that appeared
in past HRP platforms or in the Council
speeches of Nancy Wechsler and Jerry De-
Grieck.
But it is inevitable that her opponents will
convince people of the fact that she is the
candidate of the Human Rights Party, which
takes these positions and inscribes them
ill its platform; and they will reveal that
she is the candidate of the only political

The liberal and the conservative can vote
their own conscience on Cuncil; if elected,
either would depart occasionally from the
platforms of his party. But HRP elected of-
ficials cannot do so; it is a matter of prin-
ciple within that political party that any
elected officials, including a mayor, must
follow the platform, come what may. When
this loyalty to party platform is coupled
with the specific content of the HRP plat-
form, the idea of an HRP candidate for
mayor garnering 40 per cent of the vote
becomes untenable. The party can try to
hide from Ann Arbor News readers the link
between candidate and platform, and can
try to suppress the content of the current
plaform, but these things Just won't stay
suppressed.
DISCIPLINE
The second flaw in the third party's hope
of gathering 40 per cent of the citywide vote
concerns party discipline. All HRP elected
officials, including the mayor --- if HRP
were ever to elect a mayor - are under
party discipline and must vote on instruc-
tion of the Steering Committee of HRP on
issues where the caucus gives the Steering
Committee this control.
An ilustration came at the climactic Coun-
cil meeting of March 12, when we were about
to adopt a budget agreed upon earlier by
HRP and the Democrats. Councilman De-
Grieck had indicated to me the previous
Saturday that the proposed budget was
satisfactory to him, but he had to check
with "his people." He told me Monday after-
noon he had checked with "his people" and
it was all right with them: both HRP Coun-
cilmembers would vote for that budget.
Councilwoman Wechsler later told me she
was out of town al that time and no one
had checked with her, but "that was all
right": the Steering Committee was not
obliged to check with her. The Steering
Committee had the power to decide. It
decided the two HRP elected officials should
vote for the budget; it informed her how
she should vote when she arrived back in
Ann Arbor, just before the start of the
Council mleeting; anld this was how things
should be, according to Ms.Wechsler. Later
that evening the Steering Committee hud-
dled again during an intermission in the
Council meeting, changed its mind, and in-
structed Ms. Wechsler and Mr. DeGrieck
they should vote the other way - against
the previously approved budget. That is real
party discipline.
I can't believe 40 per cent of Ann Arbor
will support a mayoral candidate, regard-
less of his or her personal credentials, who
is sworn to accept this kind of disciplined
leadership from an anonymous Steering
Committee never elected by the voters of
Ann Arbor.
No one even knows the names of the
Steering Committee. We do not know if
they are men or women. We don't know how
long their terms of office are. We don't
know anything about their backgrounds,
their experience, tlieir judgment, or their

to a committee that serves as group ven-
triloquist is utterly. astounding to most
Ann Arborites.
What kind of vigorous, consistent, lead-
ership can a mayor provide a troubled city
if the mayor never knows how she will vote,
whom she will appoint, or even whether
she will veto legislation until the committee
meets and decides and tells her. what she
thinks today?
THE REAL CONTROVERSY
Because of the HRP platform and because
of the HRP party discipline over elected of-
ficials, there is no conceivable way the HRP
candidate is going to get more votes than
the conservative candidate in this election.
So it becomes a race between the liberal
Democrat and the conservative Republican.
In that race my sympathies, of course,
lie with the liberal Democrat, Franz Mogdis.
I say this not just as a partisan, but ag a
citizen who cares for Ann Arbor. Most of
what I have tried to do for the last four
years, over conservative opposition, is on
the line:
* Will be expand our public transporta-
tion system or not?
9 Will we eventually expand out public
housing program, which is finally getting
the funds to puts its houses in order?
* Will we continue to fight against
shopping centers the Planning Commis-
sion opposes, such as Packard-Platt Plaza
and Stadium Row?
* Will we try to increase child care
facilities? health facilities? special re-
creation facilities? drug control facilities?
9 WIl we resist encroachments on our
civil liberties?
*Will we retain the tenants' rights
provisions in our housing code?
* Will we continue to find ways to ac-
commodate the youth counterculture in
this university city?
* Will we continue to seek to decrimnin-
alize marijuana?
* Will we continue the model cities
program?
* Will we move Lansky's junkyard out
of central Ann Arbor?
I think the city would be wise to continue
the course I, and people like me, have tried
to steer for the past four years. I urge Ann
Arbor to continue this course and not allow,
three party fragmentation to hand the city
over to reactionaries.
Liberalism - as distinct from radicalism
can attract enough voters in Ann Arbor
to capture the mayor's office and a majority
of council. It can continue that control long
enough to make significant changes. This
was not true when I was first elected; my
brand of liberalism was too far left for the
then Ann Arbor electorate, as proved by the

tract and hold a majority of voters. It could
follow through on programs in ways that
I and my colleagues never had a chance to
do.
It could meet the needs of disadvantaged
people without the hopeless polarization of
the city that would be inevitable if either
radicals or conservatives tried to run Ann
Arbor.
One thing of which I am sure is that three
party politics has to go. Even if HRP dis-
covered coalition manners, and even if HRP
kept its voting agreements, coalition govern-
ment must inevitable be weak government.
No one in his right mind would undertake
any bold, complex, long-lasting political
fight as the leader of a coalition consisting
of several HRPs and several Dems.
Who, by choice, would try to hire a City
Administrator, replace a department
head, rebuild a department with so fragile
a coalition as his political base?
One need only compare the boldness and
effectiveness with which the Democratic
Council majority acted in 1969-70 with the
way Democrats and HRP have acted this
past year to see the difference between a
liberal Council majority, all from the same
party, and a Council which lacks a majority
from any party and tries to patch together
ad hoc liberal-radical coalitions for each
piece of legislation and each budget.
Three party politics is bad for Ann Ar-
bor. It is only good for conservatives, who
otherwise would have no chance of con-
trolling Ann Arbor and returning to the
policies of Cecil Creal.
HRP cannot .cut the three-party knot by
demolishing the Democratic Party utterly:
Democratic loyalties on the local, county,
state and national levels are too deep. And,
as indicated, any city wide HRP candidate
is handicapped by the platform - to which
the candidate is pledged - and by the fact
that the candidate is honorbound to vote as
an anonymous Steering Committee in-
structs.
It is as true today as it was in the winter
of 1968-9 that Ann Arbor should take the
path of liberalism, rather than reaction.
But whereas in those days there were not
enough Ann Arborites to provide liberalism
with a real political base for a long enough
time to make a difference in our commun-
ity, today the electorate's expansion makes
that possible. The only obstacle to a liberal
mayor and a liberal Council majority really
solving some of this city's problems is the
present three-party system which divides
the non-conservative vote.
We need a two-party system to avoid
handing the city to the reactionaries. We
need a two-party system to avoid hope-
less polarization of our community, with
the left becoming ever more radical and
the right becoming ever more conserva-
tive. And we need a two-party system so

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