Ms Garrett is the County Clerk of Wayne County Michigan. Wayne County is Detroit along with other Downriver areas like Dearborn and Redford.
Here is some unrelated video so you can get a sense of her.
She is about to burst on the national scene. She just ruled that Rep John Conyers, 25 term member of the US House botched the paperwork for running in the primary of his own seat.
The reason is the people who circulated the positions to gather the 1000 signatures were not themselves registered voters.
Those damn white Republicans are at it again suppressing voters!
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/13/rep-john-conyers-doesnt-qualify-for-primary-ballot-official-says/
According to the Fox News report, Ms. Garrett is a supporter of John Conyers. But as can be seen from the video she’s a stickler for the law. Fox reports that Conyers is over 400 signatures short of the 1000 required because so many of the petitioners were not registered voters. Meanwhile, Federal courts and the ACLU are supposedly going to step in and overturn the Michigan law that requires petitioners to be registered because it violates the U.S. Constitution.
The Constitution is an unusual document. There must be widely different versions in use because the copy I have never seems to support the decisions made by the activist judges.
The guy running against Conyers is a preacher who was arrested in February for domestic violence
Would it be discriminatory for the press to ask that age-old famous question , “Have you stopped beating your wife?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question
How about – “how often do you visit your wife in prison?”
I think Conyers has been in office 50 years probably because he is viewed by Republicans as not very smart and ineffective. There is just no way Detroit is voting Republican, even if Clarence Thomas was running.
Was the preacher arrested for domestic violence actually found guilty, was it dirty politics, or what?
Don’t know – was going to look into that and got distracted. I’ll look into it now
His name is Horace Sheffield
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/24780309/detroit-pastor-to-seek-us-rep-conyers-seat
The arrest involved a tussle over a cell phone a month earlier – they are getting divorced and his wife wanted to call 911. They have a daughter on the Detroit City Council and he is the son of a labor and civil rights activist
http://www.freep.com/article/20140213/NEWS01/302130111/Horace-Sheffield-domestic-violence-arraignment
He’s also involved in a lawsuit accusing him of saying things to the Detroit police chief
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/detroit-businessman-to-sue-horace-sheffield-for-defamation-in-connection-with-detroit-city-council-vote-scheme/25376186
The story gets stranger.
Since it took Sheffield’s wife a month to realize she had been “assaulted” – only after he announced he was running, I don’t put much credibility in her story.
The curious little detail is the “consultant” for Conyers who “screwed up” the petitions is the brother of the campaign manager of Sheffield! His response when that slips out is a quick “It’s not against the law!”. You can never go wrong in Detroit by lowballing your expectations.
This video of a local Fox TV interview program is beyond words. Every sentence or so there is another fact and/or nuance, more so if you know a bit about Detroit.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/25546934/let-it-rip-weekend-conyers-election-ejection
Start with the question – why are two black Democratic consultants on a Fox TV interview show being interviewed together by these folks “out to get them”?
Conyers has always been a bit of a problem for the Democrats. He has 50 years of seniority, but the Democrats don’t want him to be the face of their party or have real power as the House Speaker – but also don’t want to alienate black voters by letting the cat out of the bag that they are just using black people for their own purposes. Barack Obama’s mentors seem to be clearing the deck of all future black leaders – my vote is on the side of this being deliberate with they hope Conyers decides to retire and quietyly end the “problem” for the Democratic Party.
To get some of the context, because Michigan lost so much population, they lost a seat in the House. Democrats hoped to squeeze Conyers out by kicking him out of his old district and forcing him to run in a primary with 30% white voters. He won in 2012 with 60% of the vote. Bert Johnson (the consultant on the left) ran against Conyers and got 12% of the vote, and is now Conyers’ new campaign consultant
The last minute or so (which I hadn’t seen when I wrote the above) just confirms that my thinking is right. If you’re not a student of the history, Adam Clayton Powell Jr was in the same situation as Conyers is now. He was the representative from Harlem forever. He had significant ethical issues but his constituents continued to reelect him – the Democrats voted to not seat him in 1969, but the Supreme Court ruled the seat was his. The next election in 1970, a young man named Charlie Rangel defeated him after Powell failed in his petition drive. This is all a very bitter chapter that people in the Communisty don’t talk about when white folk is present, but everyone knows exactly what is being said if they were old enough to remember the 1960s.
Here is a more complete synopsis of Conyers and his problems
http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_take/2014/05/john_conyers_last_chance_to_get_back_on_primary_ballot.html
It will be interesting to see how/if Conyers fights this.
Thaddeus McCotter lacked the 1000 genuine signatures and that kept him for running, again. Two men purposefully submitted forged petitions in order to keep McCotter off the ballot and, thereby, denied him the opportunity to appear on the August 2012 Republican Primary ballot.
We will see if Michigan treats all candidates the same…
Back in my time in Michigan, it would be inconceivable Conyers could lose. His district was the east half of the city of Detroit and part of the west side. He worked closely with Mayor Coleman Young and the Democratic Party establishment.
A couple things have changed, however. His wife is in jail for taking bribes, for one thing. More importantly, because Detroit city lost so much population, the districts had to be drawn to include some of the western suburbs which are not black Democrat monolithic voting blocks. His district is now about 30% white – it must make for some interesting campaign appearances where he can’t just say what he’s doing for “our people”.
in the November election, he has an opponent – the man’s name is Jeff Gorman. Jeff lives outside the city of Detroit and is a retired military and commercial pilot. His platform primarily consists of saying that he will defend the Constitution and that people should carry around pocket constitutions. Conyers won in 2012 with 82% of the vote.
A federal judge will decide – the primary force coming to Conyers’ aid is the ACLU.
http://www.freep.com/article/20140515/NEWS06/305150134/Conyers-lawsuit-primary-ballot
The law in question is not new, to the best of my knowledge. If you read the text, the purpose seems to be to prevent “outsiders” from coming into Michigan to get people on the ballot. The circulators have to establish that they are responsible and can be found in the event they didn’t do the petition process correctly (and be charged criminally if they just made up names)
Even without the issue, the signatures were pretty low quality. About 1/3 were thrown out because the signers didn’t live in his district, aren’t registered to vote or the addresses didn’t match.
The ACLU’s tactic is to frame this as a free speech issue – that everyone has the right to get people to sign petitions. If that’s true, why even bother with petitions in the first place? Let anyone who pays the filing fee and is otherwise eligible be on the primary ballot.
Another issue swirling around Detroit and the state of Michigan is the Ambassador Bridge’s future. Since trade with Canada has increased sharply post NAFTA, cross border crossings are important to the City and the country. There are three ways (that I know of) to get from Detroit to/from Windsor (and on to Toronto). First, there is a railroad tunnel for freight traffic. (Canada owns the former Grand Trunk RR that runs to Chicago). The second way is to use the car tunnel – the entrance is right by the Renaissance Towers in Downtown Detroit that currently house General Motors.
The third way, and the way trucks use is the Ambassador Bridge, which is about a mile South of the tunnel. The really curious thing is the bridge is privately owned by an individual, not the government or quasi government toll authority. The bridge owner has been spreading around money in Lansing to block any attempt to build another modern higher capacity bridge.
A little clarification – the Detroit Railroad tunnel was built by the Michigan Central RR (affiliated with the NY Central). It is now owned by the Canadian Pacific RR. The tunnel between Port Huron MI and Sarnia Ontario is the Grand Trunk RR tunnel.
The reason Canadians own US railroads (including the former Soo and Wisconsin Central) is the harsh winter north of Lake Superior makes it too difficult and expensive to run transcontinental freight across Canada North of the Great Lakes. The Sarnia tunnel was replaced with a tunnel that can handle double stack containers – discussion is underway to do the same in Detroit.
The Grand Trunk RR reminds me of our
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8MYsii4DZY Captain:
Ever notice the opening guitar riff is identical to this other hit song? Bet you didn’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUzs5dlLrm0
Very close riffs indeed. Interesting comparison though – I am leaning toward the Monkees.
The Michigan Secretary of State confirmed Cathy Garrett’s ruling. Today, a Federal judge will decide if the ACLU lawsuit has merit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Frederick_Leitman
The judge is a young appointee who was placed in the position last year by President Obama. I would bet he uses against Conyers this afternoon.
Judge ruled to put him on the ballot
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-rep-conyers-loses-appeal-ballot-23845096
Here is Michigan ballot access last year with a ruling against ballot access
http://www.examiner.com/article/judges-rule-against-libertarians-ballot-access-case