The City Council race should be the most competitive in years with the lineup of candidates who filed petitions to get on the ballot by the deadline Tuesday.Other races took surprise twists, with the list of candidates for mayor shifting right up to the last minute, and with what could have been an interesting contest for city clerk turning into no contest at all.
At the center of the intrigue is Councilman Doug Thomas, who filed petitions to run for both mayor and council. However, Thomas’ mayoral petitions were reportedly invalid, so his run for the executive seat appears to be dead in the water. The same can be said for another challenger, Ziad Abdulhamid Abdulmalik, whose petitions were also not in order.
As it currently stands, Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr. will be challenged by only Michael Prus. The top two vote-getters in the August 4th primary election will advance to the general election ballot November 3rd, so by default it appears to be a fight between O’Reilly and Prus this fall.
Meanwhile, City Clerk Kathy Buda will win her fourth term unopposed, as former clerk John Jay Hubbard withdrew his name from the ballot in that race.
The council race had 25 candidates file by the deadline. Just four years ago, only 15 competed for the seven seats. The field will be reduced to 14 after the primary for the seven seats up for grabs in November.
All incumbent council members are candidates: Tom Tafelski, Nancy Hubbard, Mark Shooshanian, Doug Thomas, Suzanne Sareini, Robert Abraham and George Darany.
Challengers on the ballot are Joseph Agius, David Bazzy, Terry Burke, Khalil Dakhlallah, Patrick Dambrosio, Mark Dawdy, Stephen Dobkowski, Sharon Dulmage, Rabih Hammoud, George Hart, Patrick Kiernan, Scott Marquette, Brian O’Donnell, Ali Sayed, Molly Sharp, Nancy Siwik, Hussein Sobh and Adrenne Wygonik. Today, it was reported that Bradley Hajac, who also hoped to run for a council seat, was eliminated because of problems with his petitions.
More than the sheer numbers, making this year’s council race more competitive than usual are the established names among the challengers, with four former officeholders among them. Bazzy and Dobkowski were elected to the Charter Commission a few years ago, Dulmage is a former longtime school board member and Hart has held the offices of state senator, county commissioner and city councilman. Other politically recognizable names include Wygonik, wife of Judge Richard Wygonik, and Siwik, who finished ninth in the 2005 council election.
The field could’ve been even tougher, but two established names did not file petitions they had taken out: Charter Commissioner Ray Trudeau and Michael Berry, who previous had run for city council and state representative.
Our thanks to Gary Woronchak who compiled and wrote this analysis of Dearborn's upcoming 2009 election exclusively for DearbornNewsOnline.com.
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Hilarious! Old Doug isn't as clever as he thinks he is. I saw Agius scrambling for signatures in the ACO parking lot last weekend. I thought it was some 'No Paid Parking' nonsense, but now it makes sense. Interesting. And Mike Prus? Get ready for a shellacking.
ReplyDeleteThis will be such an exciting election.
ReplyDeleteI agree Donna. This is gonna be a real dogfight. Especially the council race, because I think most people are fed up with the clowns that we have in there now. We'll see!
ReplyDeleteIs our County Commissioner missing his old job as a crack reporter and editor or is he one of the mystery men behind this site all along? Very interesting to see Mr. Woronchak pop his head out at this critical time. He's an astute analyst of Dearborn politics, that's for sure, and I like getting his take on the races.
ReplyDeleteJoe Aguis AND Pat Kiernan running for council??? West Dearborn's bars and restaurants will be very well represented if those two make it on. Should make for some fun council meetings, too.
ReplyDeleteIf they start serving steaks and martinis at council meetings, maybe even I'll show up to those bore-fests!!
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate to say it, I don't see anybody on the list of council contenders with a real shot at beating the incumbents. The name recognition just isn't there for the most part. Maybe Pat Kiernan whose family has been a big part of Dearborn for so long--the rest seem like a bunch of no-names who are going to have an uphill battle prying out the dead wood.
ReplyDeleteDavid Bazzy, Mark Dawdy, Rabih Hammoud, Brian O’Donnell, Are four for starters that deserve your consideration. Lets at least replace Thomas (absent most of the time) Hubbard (absent-minded most of the time) Shooshanian (doesn't conribute anything, unless its deals with Fordson sports) Sareini (just lost and out of touch)
ReplyDeleteIf absentee voters and the Polish-American voting bloc prevail as they have in past Dearborn elections, the non-incumbents who will fare well are George Hart, Steve Dobkowski and Adrenne Wygonik--possibly Nancy Siwik, but she is not exactly a new face...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that Dearborn's Polish voting bloc is as big as you might think. And there's not a new face in your list...George Hart??? His toupee is older than my house.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how big Dearborn's Polish voting bloc is, but it is strong. George Hart is not a new face to Dearborn politics, but is a new face in the city council race, as is Adrenne Wygonik, and Steve Dobkowski. Siwik has run for city council several times...
ReplyDeleteI'll give you Mrs. Wygonik, but there's no amount of tap dancing anybody can do to convince me that names like George Hart (who has run for everything BUT council in the last 40 years) and Steve Dobkowski (isn't he homeless and living out of a shopping bag?) are fresh faces.
ReplyDeleteTo the contrary, George Hart ran for and won a council seat in 1985. He stayed on the council just one year, winning a seat in the state senate in the 1986 election.
ReplyDeleteHart also was a city councilman from 1957 until 1970.
George Hart was also Dearborn's longest serving Sewer Commissioner, serving from 1934-1957.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. It sounds like George has run for everything except dog catcher. Speaking of which, somebody oughta check that thing on his head for fleas...
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact, George Hart did serve as dog catcher in Dearborn, from 1906-1908.
ReplyDeleteYeah, what a jerk George Hart is for 50+ years of public service in making our city and our state a better place to live. Some of you people should be ashamed.
ReplyDeleteHey Hall Monitor, honor him with a statue, not a council seat. People who serve the community best know when to hand off the reigns to the next generation.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd go as far as a statue myself, but I don't think he deserves the personal attacks just because he's running for council. Just my opinion...
ReplyDeleteIf he were sitting quietly on his porch watching the world go by, he wouldn't deserve the attacks. But when you throw yourself into the ring for political office, everything (except family for the most part) is fair game- age, past accomplishments and failures, style, personality, career choice, health. Politicians are made fun of, spoofed, impersonated, parodied all the time. You ever watch the Tonight Show, SNL, Daily Show, etc? Why should Hart be exempt from the ribbing, even if it's just on local blogs??
ReplyDeleteUnderneath all that hair and make-up, George Hart(ounian) is a tough old bird who has survived all-out heavily-financed assaults on his political career by the likes of political neophyte Rhonda Runco, wife of former Judge Bill Runco, and former(?) Dearborn police officer Danny Saab, one of the henchmen of the former city administration, who was convicted of making threats against Mr. Hart. If nothing else, Hart certainly knows where the bodies are buried at city hall, and I imagine the toxic remnants of the former Dearborn political machine will do their best to keep him off the council. It will be interesting to see how they will do it.
ReplyDeleteOne strategy I'd use against Mr. Hart is to stand up and say, "You're 86!"
ReplyDeleteVote Patrick D'Ambrosio!
ReplyDelete