Soturday, June 5, 1976
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
Sheriff and prosecutor races: Crowded
By LANI JORDAN
As the August 3 primary election
approaches, the races for two Washte-
naw County offices, county sheriff and
county prosecutor, are shaping into
msore complex contests than originally
predicted.
Fleven candidates nave filed for the
office of Washtenaw County sheriff in-
cluding Democratic incumbent Frederick
Postill. Also bidding for the office are
four other Democrats, four Republicans,
ascadidate from the Socialist Human
Rights Party (SHRP), and one from the
Libertarian Party.
POSTILL, making his first try for re-
elecion, credits himself with fulfilling
ma of his 1972 campaign promises.
1)uring his term he has increased patrol
peronnel from 33 officers to 75, tripled
arrests in felony cases, and instituted
iiprovements in county jail conditions.
opposing Postill on the Democratic
ie are Charles Broderick, an auto
Purr-sonal preference
Te E iBuai Employment tlpportunity
Comission has launched an investiga-
tion of a charge by a day laborer that
he w:s fired from his job because he
ae cat food. The employe said that his
disx i sal was a case of religious dis-
cimlnation, claiming that consuming the
cat food was part of his religion. Ray
11c Pherson, operator of a Miami temp-
oxxa employment agency, said that he
fired the unnamed employe because of
his habit of stopping work whenever
he got hungry, opening up a can of
cat food, and eating a few spoonfuls.
"I've never smelled anything so bad,"
Mc Pherson wailed. "This guy would
stink up the whole place in minutes.
I wouldn't even feed it to a cat."
Peek-a-boo
A Burbank, California woman called
aplanser, complaining of a clogged
ifet. Wen the woman followed the
pl nber's advice and fushed the toilet
repeatedly, the cause of the problem
became clear. The startled woman found
herself "eyeball to eyeball" with an 18-
inch snake which had been flushed to
the surface.
N
Happenings . .
The People's Bicentennial Commis-
sion and the Young People's Matinees
are presenting an afternoon of Looney
Tunes, Saturday at 1:00, 2:30, and 4:00
at Aud, 3 MLB ... At 1:30 Saturday, the
Outing Club will sponsor an afternoon
of hiking and swimming. Meet at the
north entrance of the Rackham Bldg.
" Sunday there will be a panel discus-
sion at 8:00 entitled "Can Feminism and
Religion Stand Together Against Social
Injusice?" at the Ecumenical Campus
Center at 921 Church ... Monday at 8:00
at the Public Library there will be a
free slide show ... and finally, the Ses-
and Chance will present Sonic's Rendez-
vous Band Monday night.
Weather or not
bIan the picnics and bring out the
beach balls because we're going to have
afltastic weekend. Saturday will bet
clear and sunny with highs in the mid
'and lows in the low 50's. Sunday
Wit bring more of the same as temp-
eranures should reach the low 80's. So,
enjoy yourselft
service center manager and sheriff's
deputy, Dorothy Hunawill, Dexter vil-
lage president, Richard Horn, and Lushin
Salyer.
Hunawill, a 60-year-old grandmother,
said, "The sheriff is only a keeper of the
jail, a server of papers, I can be. an
administrator too. I've proved it in
Dexter."
"PERHAPS THERE'S been too much
professionalism," she added. "I promise
that the people wil know all about it
(county affairs) and what's going on."
The two major GOP candidates both
have law enforcement experience. Fay
Johnson is a retired state police officer
and former commander of the Ypsilanti
State Police post, while Thomas Minick
is currently a captain on the Ann Arbor
police force. Other candidates are James
Taylor and Frealin Craft.
Also running for the office are SltRP
candidate Eric Jackson and Beth Stire-
man from the Libertarian Party.
THE RACE for Washtenaw County
Prosecuting Attorney offers a much
smaller field of candidates, two Demo-
crats and an unopposed Republican, in-
cumbent William Delhey.
Democrats seeking the office are Ann
Arbor attorney Ronald Keys and Assist-
ant Genesee County Prosecuting Attor-
ney George Steeh.
Steeh, who heads that county's con-
sumer Protection Division, contends that
the primary function of a county prose-
cutor should include "setting policy, as-
signing assistants to court cases, and
developing projects and grant proposals
to attack criminal activity more effi-
ciently."
Steeh also advocates the use of Ui-
versity law students in a clinical pro-
grans to handle lesser District Court
cases and appeals.
DELIIEY CITED his 20 years of ex-
perience in the prosecutor's office, in-
cluding 13 as prosecutor, as favorable
to hi sre-election.
"We (Ann Arbor and surrounding
areas) are not a community that does
not have violent crime," said Delhey,
"We are experiencing 25 homicides a
yeir."
"Our office is taking a strict enforce-
ment policy on crimes against people
(murder, rape, and kidnapping)," he
continued. "We are meeting the chal-
lenge of increased crime by really crack-
ing down."
It's Howdy Doody Time
After a 16-year layoff, Buffalo Bob Smith, and the rest of the gang are back in television producing a new series of i's
Howdy Doody Time shows.
Ferency attacks new state election law
By PHILLIP BOKOVOY
Zolton Ferency, former Democratic
gubernatorial candidate, last night at-
tacked a new state law that limits the
number of minority parties that can
appear on the ballot in the November
general election.
Appearing with Ferency, at a Marxist
Forum, were state Rep. Perry Bullard
(D-Ann Arbor) and Michigan Communist
Party chairman Tommy Dennis.
FERENCY CHARGED the state legis-
lature with, "disenfranchisement of the
worst kind" and added, "we (residents
of the state) have an obligation to fight
this bill."
The bill was introduced in the State
Senate last spring by Patrick McCollough
(D-Dearborn) because there wre thought
to be about 13 parties that could qualify
to get on the ballot by the existing pro-
visions.
The rationale behind McCollough's
move was to sreamline the electoral
process-there is room for only nine po-
litical parties on the voting machines
the state uses.
THE OLD provisions required a new
party to acquire an amount of signatures
equal to not less than one per cent but
not more than four per cent of the total
votes cast for the successful candidate
for secretary of state in the last election.
The new law continues that provision,
but has a catch that disqualifies a party
that did not receive at least one per cent
of the secretary of state vote. The party
no longer has a space on the ballot and
must gather signatures again.
That alone doesn't qualify a party to
get on the ballot. In the August primary
the name of the party is put on the ballot
and if they do not receive three-tenths of
one per cent of the total votes cast for
the last secretary of state then they
can't be on the ballot in November,
IN ADDITION, if more than nine
parties qualify, then only the top nine
vote-getters will be placed on the ballot.
Ferency, a candidate for the state Su-
preme Court, has filed a lawsuit on be-
half of the minority parties in Michigan
because he says it is essential to have
these parties as they have been the ones
that have historically proposed social
programs before the two major parties
have.
His party, the Human Rights Party
has already met the new requirements
and will be on the ballot in November.
DENNIS CHARGED the intent of law
was not to limit the size of the ballot but
it was a "law designed to keep minor
parties off the ballot in November."
He added, "This law is adding to the
already too many restrictions on your
vote."
He said the primary reason he is fight-
ing the bill in the courts is "people are
looking for some kind of alternative (to
the country's problems)," and they
should not be deprived of that right.
BULLARD defended the right of minor-
ity parties to be on the ballot because
the Democrats and the Republican par-
ties do not raise many of the issues that
should be brought to the public's atten-
tion.
The major problem of the two party
system, according to Bullard, is, "Unless
an idea somehow breaks through the
commercial state of our society, it goes
nowhere."
He also said many of the candidates
are "bereft of ideas" and that this was
"the tragedy of American politics."
HE CHARGED the news media with
being just entertainment and said the
case of Morris Udall was a fine exam-
ple. He said Udall had been emphasiz-
ing issues throughout his entire cam-
paign and got very little coverage in the
press, but when Udall played basketball
with two University stars, he received a
tremendous amount of publicity.
Bullard added that the people who con-
trol the media in this country "don't
want to discuss issues."
He said he thought there was no rea-
son why all the parties shouldn't be on
the ballot even if that resulted in the
use of paper ballots. "The majority of
the legislature want (voting) machines
to control politics."