HISTORY REPEATED

One would think that candidates’ campaign committees would be on high alert following the bogus petition fiasco in 2020 that derailed five candidates in the last race for governor, along with three judicial candidates, but evidently not. First, there is the challenge to the validity of the signatures on the petitions to run for office turned in by Democrat Adam Hollier in the 13th District congressional contest that has gotten its fair share of ink and TV air time in recent weeks. U.S. House Representative Shri Thanedar. the Democrat now holding the district that includes a part of Detroit, the Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods, Hamtramck and some downriver locales, successfully challenged petitions turned in to get Hollier on the ballot. Thanedar has labeled the petition filing as an example of “blatant incompetence”  with pages of the petitions that obviously contained supposed voter signatures that have a strong appearance of being created by the same person. At first, attorneys for Hollier claimed that Thanedar was just trying to suppress voters as Hollier, who is Black, tries to right what many consider to be a tragedy of a majority-Black city having no Black representation for the first time in 70 years. Now Hollier’s campaign is talking about turning the matter over to the county prosecutor, calling out petition circulator Londell Thomas for the bogus petitions. Ironically, Thomas’ name has also surfaced as the likely complainant behind a challenge to the petitions for Democrat Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, who is running for the U.S. Senate. But the list of challenges of other petitions is also growing. Add to the list the petitions turned in by the campaign for Oakland Democrat Anil Kumar, currently on the board of Wayne State University, as he tries to get on the ballot to take on Republican 10th District Congressman John James, now in his first term. The petitions on behalf Rhonda Powell, another Democrat seeking to challenge James, have also been challenged. Then there is Oakland County Circuit Court candidate Nadine Hattan, whose petitions have been called into question. Meanwhile, the Michigan Democratic Party has called on election officials to investigate all of the petitions that have been turned in by the campaigns of Republican hopefuls for the U.S. Senate seat. All of the formal challenges will be heard on May 31 by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers.