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."