Trump’s fake ads are the latest twist in the debate over Ann Arbor ballot proposals

ANN ARBOR, MI — The debate is over Props C and D in Ann Arbor took a different turn as city voters received fake Donald Trump ads in favor of the proposals.

“It’s time for Ann Arbor to change the way voting works. We need conservative and Republican voices at the City Council table!” state mail that arrived in residents’ mailboxes showing a large photo of Trump with a raised fist.

On the back is a photo of Trump giving a thumbs up and reiterating the two proposals would help elect Republicans in Ann Arbor, where only Democrats currently win elections.

The emails from Lansing-based Make Michigan Great PAC caused a stir, with supporters of the election reform proposals calling the ads false and misleading because Trump and the Republican Party didn’t actually take a position. And in such a heavily Democratic city, the suggestion of any ties to Trump and Republicans only hurts the proposals’ chances.

The mailmen are “pretending to be Trumpers” but are actually from a labor group that supports Democrats, including Mayor Christopher Taylor and his council allies who oppose the ballot proposals, said Ann Arbor resident Peter Eckstein, a supporter of the proposed reforms. .

Proposals on the Nov. 5 ballot seek to establish nonpartisan elections and public campaign financing in Ann Arbor.

“The post office is completely fraudulent,” Eckstein said, noting the same PAC sent an email in 2022 calling a Democratic candidate for Washtenaw County commissioner “the pro-Trump MAGA choice” and urging voters to elect “a real Republican Trump.”

“This is the same fraudulent ploy as in the new ploy claiming to support C and D from a Trumpian perspective,” Eckstein said.

The tactic may have worked. Some residents posted on social media that they would definitely vote no after seeing Trump’s ads in favor of the proposals, though others said it was a hoax.

Eckstein and others point out that the PAC behind the mailing received more than $165,000 in funding from the Michigan Laborers Political League, a group that also made thousands of dollars in donations to Taylor and his council allies. The group gave Taylor $10,000 in the last mayoral election.

Council members, including Taylor, deny any involvement with the fake Trump emails. There was no coordination with any elected officials or anyone in the vote no campaign, said Council Member Jen Eyer, D-4th Ward, saying the PAC workers happen to share their opposition.

Taylor, who is campaigning against both ballot proposals, said he considers himself the “nice Midwest” and “our campaign is the nice Midwest.” While the labor union chose a different path, he said, that doesn’t change the fact that Propositions C and D are misleading, poorly drafted and would empower anti-housing conservatives and Republicans to unite to oppose progressive change in Ann Tree.

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The two proposals have divided local Democrats along factional lines that existed on the council before Taylor and his allies won control of all 11 seats in recent elections. Supporters of the proposals, including former council members who lost their seats, say the reforms would help level the playing field for candidates without big PAC money and allow more people to run in municipal elections.

The proposals seek to drop party labels for mayoral and council races, eliminate the city’s August mayoral primary, which is currently the deciding election in Ann Arbor, and establish a campaign finance fund, using city taxpayer dollars, to match small donations to mayor and council candidates at 9. -to-1 ratio.

Debate over the proposals continued at the City Council meeting on Monday night, October 21, as supporters spoke and council members responded.

Anne Bannister, former co-chair of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party and one of the former council members behind the proposals, has said too many times that the influence of big money in local elections undermines residents’ voices.

“It’s time to put the power of our elections back into the hands of the entire community,” she said.

Council Member Linh Song, D-2nd Ward, dismissed what she called lies about dark money supporting local politics, while Council Member Travis Radina, D-3rd Ward, argued that what was proposed could invite more much black money in city elections with a donation of $50. limit for the small donor matching program.

“Because when some of the same out-of-town landlords who fund these proposals want to fund their favorite anti-housing candidate, they’re not going to give $50 and call a day,” he said. “They will form a PAC with dark money and continue to fund our elections.”

Proposition C is also misleading because it doesn’t say on the ballot that the August primaries will go away, Radina said.

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The Coalition for Ann Arbor’s Future, the group behind the proposals, pointed to support for its cause from Katie Fahey, founder of Voters Not Politicians, who led a citizen-led campaign to end gerrymandering in Michigan.

Voters Not Politicians released a statement clarifying that it had not taken a position on the proposals and said Fahey had no longer been associated with the group since 2019.

While ads suggesting Trump wants Ann Arbor voters to vote yes have generated discussion, so has the Coalition for Ann Arbor’s Future campaign literature with quotes from Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

“We need to empower everyday people through a low-dollar crowdfunding system that gives candidates an incentive to spend more time courting working people rather than just big donors,” Warren is quoted as saying.

“It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account, that drives our democracy,” Obama is quoted as saying.

“Our democracy is strongest when everyone participates and weakest when people are left out,” Harris is quoted as saying.

“Campaign finance reform is the most important issue we face today because it impacts everything else,” Sanders is quoted as saying.

Critics say this suggests these politicians support what is being proposed in Ann Arbor, when they might not if they knew some of the details.

For example, with the proposed matching program for small donors, there is no set threshold that candidates must meet to demonstrate they have community support before they can start earning taxpayer dollars for their campaigns, Eyer said. Other cities around the country with such programs require candidates to receive a certain number of small local donations, in some cases 100 or 250 or more, before they qualify for access to matching public funds.

John Godfrey, spokesman for the Coalition for the Future of Ann Arbor, said the City Council would have the ability to provide for bonds, qualification thresholds and other administrative criteria under city ordinance if the proposal is approved.

“The Board will be able to consult with policy experts and reference the large number of ordinances for similar small donor matching systems that have been implemented in cities large and small across the U.S. to design a fair and equitable system that benefit Ann Arbor residents. he said.

Eyer said she’s not sure the board would have the legal ability to institute criteria that aren’t in the ballot proposal. Several legal experts have advised that the proposed change to the city charter would implement itself and the council would not have the ability to pass a clarification ordinance, she said.

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