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The Michigan Socialist | News |
Michigan
News
Michigan Socialists run for
Congress, statewide office
By L. MEYERS
The Michigan Socialist
AFTER THE FAILURE of the Socialist Party of
Michigan to achieve ballot status, many members were wondering what
kind of options working people in this state would have on November
2.
Thankfully, in the weeks and months following the
end of the petition drive, we were successful in putting together a
slate of candidates that present a real alternative to the parties
and politics of the status quo.
Three members of the SPMI will be standing in the
upcoming election as part of the slate presented by the Green Party,
for U.S. Congress, statewide and local office.
In addition, there are several more socialists
running in the upcoming election, seeking to offer a similar
alternative.
Heading the slate is
Lisa Weltman,
candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 14th
Congressional District (covering western Detroit and some Downriver
communities), challenging 20-term incumbent John Conyers Jr.
Weltman, 40, is a part-time instructor at Mott
Community College and a member of the Michigan Education
Association, one of the two main teachers’ unions in the state. She
is also a longtime political activist, labor organizer and is
currently the Local Secretary for the Detroit Socialist Party.
“I am running for Congress to give working people
in my District a real option and alternative,” says Weltman, “a
candidate who understands what it is like to have to work hard to
survive, and what it means to really own nothing but one’s ability
to work.”
SPMI member
Ben Burgis is a candidate for Michigan State University Board of
Trustees. Burgis, 24, is a graduate student and teaching assistant
at Western Michigan University, and also a longtime political
activist in the greater Lansing area.
“I don’t believe that fundamental change for the
better in our society can come from the maneuverings of elected
officials,” writes Burgis in his declaration of candidacy.
“Rather, it must come from the actions of ordinary
working people rising up to take control of their own workplaces and
communities, abolishing the political, economic institutions of the
existing society and replacing them with something qualitatively
better and more democratic.”
In Bay County, Lloyd Clarke, a longtime peace and
justice activist in the Tri-Cities area, is running for County
Commission in the Second District.
At the time of this writing, Clarke could not be
reached for comment.
BUT THE THREE SPMI members running on the Green
Party are not the only socialist candidates running for office in
Michigan. There are also a handful of independent and affiliated
socialists also seeking to present an alternative to the two
capitalist parties.
In Wayne County,
Tom Lavigne
is an independent socialist running for the U.S. House in the 13th
Congressional District (the district that covers eastern Detroit and
the rest of the Downriver area), challenging longtime Congresswoman
Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick.
His wife,
Andrea Lavigne,
is running for Michigan State House of Representatives in the First
District, challenging Republican State Representative Ed Gaffney.
Both Tom and Andrea Lavigne have been working with
Weltman’s Congressional campaign, in order to present a more unified
face to voters this November.
Margaret Guttshall, a member of the Detroit Greens
and the revolutionary socialist collective, “Truth,”
is running for Wayne State University Board of Governors.
Guttshall, a longtime labor and political activist
in the Detroit area, has teamed together with Burgis to write
statements on how broader national and international issues affect
state universities in Michigan.
In Michigan’s 15th Congressional District, home to
the one of the longest serving members of the U.S. House, Democrat
John Dingell, Jerry White is running an independent campaign to
unseat him.
White, 44, has been a socialist activist for 25
years and is a leading member of the
Socialist Equality Party, a Trotskyist organization based in Oak
Park, Mich. White was the SEP’s presidential candidate in 1996.
Taken together, these seven candidates are
offering the voters of Michigan a real alternative to the policies
and practices of the two main capitalist parties.
In addition, there are other campaigns that are
worthy of consideration by working people.
In Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District,
Jason
Seagraves, a former Democrat who was forced out of the party and
joined the Greens during the primary season, is seeking to replace
Republican Congressman Nick Smith, who is stepping down because of a
self-imposed term limit.
Pete Ponzetti
III, a former member of the SPMI in Kalamazoo, is running for
Michigan Board of Education for the Green Party. Even though he is
no longer a member, Ponzetti’s views on education are generally in
line with those of the SPMI. |
