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Posted on 06/09/2002 8:49:35 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Gubernatorial candidates plan to vote Monday; some have missed earlier votes
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
6/9/02 11:01 AM
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- School elections usually don't draw too many voters, but all of the candidates running for governor plan to be at the polls or vote absentee on Monday.
That hasn't always been the case for Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, former Gov. James Blanchard and U.S. Rep. David Bonior, the three Democrats in the race.
While the voting records of Republican candidates Dick Posthumus and John Schwarz show neither has missed a school, primary, presidential primary or general election for at least the past 10 years, the records for Granholm, Blanchard and Bonior are more spotty.
John Chamberlin, a University of Michigan public policy professor and chairman of Common Cause of Michigan, said political candidates' voting records aren't a big part of a campaign, but should be taken into account.
"Aspirants to public office are important role models. Showing up at the polls ... shows people that they're willing to do what they expect ordinary citizens to do," he said. "Democratic government works because people take part."
Granholm missed voting in seven school elections since 1994, while Blanchard missed voting in four school elections, four village elections and a special county election from 1998 through 2001. Bonior didn't vote in a school election in February 1993.
That didn't stop Bonior from hiring a town crier Friday to visit the Granholm campaign headquarters in Livonia and the Blanchard headquarters in Detroit to loudly remind them to vote in Monday's school elections.
"How can we teach our children that voting is important if we ourselves don't vote?" Bonior said in a statement. "Being a leader means leading by example -- by deeds, not words."
Bonior's decision to send the town crier didn't impress Granholm campaign spokesman Chris De Witt. "He lives in a glass house on this in as much as he's missed a school vote and he's missed numerous votes while serving in Congress," De Witt said.
Granholm, who has been attorney general since 1999 and lives in Northville Township, failed to vote from 1995 through 1999 in seven elections held in the Plymouth-Canton school district that serves her area.
She voted in school elections in June 2000 and June 2001, about the time her oldest daughter, Kathryn, began attending a Plymouth-Canton public middle school after going to a parochial school for first through fifth grades.
Granholm's other daughter, Cecelia, is a fifth-grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel, a parochial school. Son Jack, 4, attends a private preschool.
The rest of Granholm's record shows that she has voted in all primary and general elections from 1994 to the present. Granholm said Saturday that she should have paid more attention to school elections, commonly held in June.
"It's wrong not to vote. I should have voted," she said. "There's no excuse" for the seven missed school elections. She added she plans to vote Monday.
Blanchard, who served as governor from 1983-1990 and lives in Beverly Hills, didn't vote in four June school elections for the Birmingham school district in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, although he did vote in a September 2001 Oakland County election raising money for special education and vocational education.
Blanchard also failed to vote in four Beverly Hills village elections from 1998 through 2001, and in a June 1995 Oakland County special election on the SMART bus system. The rest of his records show he has voted in all primary, general and statewide special elections from 1992 to the present.
He said Friday that he was frequently out of state for his work as U.S. ambassador to Canada from August 1993 to March 1996 and as a partner in the Washington law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand from 1991-93 and from 1996 to now.
"The dates (I missed voting) ... I was either in Washington or Canada. I should have gotten an absentee ballot, but I didn't," said Blanchard, who has a grown son and no school-age children. He already has voted in Monday's election by absentee ballot.
Other than the one missed school election, Bonior, of Mount Clemens, has voted in all school, city, primary, general and statewide special elections since 1991.
Democrats nominated their presidential candidates in party caucuses in 1996 and 2000, so there was no Democratic presidential primary for any of the Democrats to vote in.
Posthumus, the lieutenant governor from Alto, and Schwarz, a state senator from Battle Creek, share perfect voting records stretching back to at least 1992. Records for Posthumus go back to 1989 and show the same unblemished record from 1989-1991.
Both men voted in GOP presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000.
Lynn Jondahl, executive director of The Michigan Prospect for Renewed Citizenship, a nonpartisan group based in Flint, said missing a few votes doesn't discredit political hopefuls.
But it does raise the question of why they aren't voting and doing their part to increase voter participation, he said. "It's certainly an indication of their engagement in the political process."
I've NEVER missed an election, and will be missing my first election Monday..only because it's uncontested.
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