Posted on 10/25/2007 7:51:31 AM PDT by 300magnum
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A politically conservative student armed with a video camera and a Web site is trying to force a Democratic congressional candidate out of his teaching job at Central Michigan University.
Dennis Lennox, a 23-year-old junior, has posted videos on YouTube of himself questioning assistant professor Gary Peters about campaigning for office while holding a prestigious position at the university.
Some say Lennox is persistent. Others accuse him of pandering for attention.
"What I'm doing isn't about getting media attention," said Lennox, a political science major. "I'm speaking for the hundreds of students, alumni, taxpayers and even legislators who have complained because Gary Peters won't pick between Congress and campus."
In one video Lennox posted online, Peters is seen walking to his car while Lennox asks him several questions, including whether he is angry about his campaign not getting "positive press." Peters doesn't respond.
Peters said in an interview this week with The Associated Press that his university position is part-time and privately funded.
"The bottom line is that people who run for public office still need to pay the bills and still need to work," he said. He drives 130 miles from a Detroit suburb to Mount Pleasant to teach class once a week.
Peters, 48, is seeking the Democratic nomination to face Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg in Oakland County, one of the top congressional targets for Democrats nationally in 2008.
"If I was running for Congress in a seat where I had no chance of winning, I probably wouldn't have any attention put on me at all," said Peters, a former state senator who lost a close race for Michigan attorney general in 2002.
He acknowledges it would be difficult to keep his $65,000-a-year job at the university if he gets elected to Congress, but says he will worry about that if he wins. Peters holds the Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government — named for a former Republican U.S. senator and Michigan Supreme Court justice.
Lennox helped start the group Students Against Gary Peters and created a Web site for what he calls "Petersgate." He insists that he isn't targeting Peters because he's a Democrat.
But some see it differently.
"Basically, he's just an extreme partisan. Anybody that's a Democrat, he's going to try to get at," said fellow political science major Eric Schulz.
Lennox's anti-Peters campaign shows no sign of slowing down, though his tactics have generated complaints.
Both Lennox and college Dean Pamela Gates filed police complaints against each other after Lennox requested Peters' e-mails under the Freedom of Information Act. At one point in the brief video, also posted online, Gates it seen gesturing into the camera at close range, and it then goes out of focus, as if it has been struck.
Lennox is heard saying, "Don't touch my camera," suggesting that Peters either touched it or attempted to.
Lennox said he started videotaping Gates after she refused to take the request and ordered him out of her office.
"She accosted, assaulted and battered me," Lennox said. "Whether you're a liberal or conservative, we all have to live and play by the same rules. I seemed to learn something in first grade that you keep your hands to yourself."
No charges have been filed and the university is investigating the incident. But spokesman Steve Smith said that "people get very uncomfortable when a camera is shoved in their face. Employees and students have a reasonable expectation to privacy."
When the school told Lennox he couldn't record employees or students without their permission, he filed a censorship complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is reviewing it.
Peters says requiring permission before filming is reasonable when it involves students' privacy, though he stops short of saying it should apply to public figures such as himself.
"When you run for public office, you've got to have a thick skin," he said.
Peters says somewhat ruefully that he has fulfilled his job description of bringing practical politics to campus.
"Students are definitely seeing what happens when somebody runs for public office in a high-profile race, the types of things they have to confront," he said.
When it is a conservative student...”it’s hounding”....when it is a lib student the press uses a term more sympathetic to the student like “takes on” or “protests”...etc...
nope...no biased there...uh uh...nope...
This kid sounds obnoxious.
someone should hound the student in the exact same way. I wonder how long it would take him before he pushed the camera away.
...
He acknowledges it would be difficult to keep his $65,000-a-year job at the university
$2,167/hour, assuming classes meet 30 weeks per year. Nice. Hey, didn't Michigan just raise taxes?
Very nice to see the tables turned. The rat can give it but he can’t take. Stalk on!
“someone should hound the student in the exact same way.”
Is the student running for public office?
It seems the professor is taking it in stride. It's that crotchety old Dean who flipped out.
Jeez. I went to college with Peters. He was in my fraternity.
What the hell happened that he should want to be a Marxist?
>>Very nice to see the tables turned. The rat can give it but he can’t take. Stalk on!<<
Do we really want to see people forced out of their jobs because they run for office?
Not to mention the kid is 23 and still a junior but he’s got time to spend trying to keep people he doesn’t like from participating in politics?
Something is wrong here.
Endowed Chair monies come from philanthropic foundations (usually). Wish I could get a job that pays $65K for working one day a week, tho.
I didn’t see that he was a “Marxist.” He is a democrat - which may or may not put him on a socialist bent. The other thing to know is that the “Chair” that he holds is in honor of a former Republican state sentator/judge if I recall correctly.
I think the student sounds obnoxious! Here is a guy running for office - you DO have to pay the bills. If you can get a gig where you get 65K a year for one day a week - all the more power to you - and it isn’t on the government tab, but rather a gifted professorship! I likely don’t care for the man’s politics - but he has EVERY right to run for office.
I didn’t see that he was a “Marxist.”
You lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.
http://petersreport.blogspot.com/
go here for dennis lennox blog... here is one of his first entries from August 6... This gives the story a little context...
Peters buys campaign website
August 6 — State Lottery Commissioner and soon-to-be Central Michigan University professor Gary Peters has been preparing his congressional campaign by purchasing websites at a time when students are taking out loans to cover a 21 percent increase in tuition.
Peters, who will resign as lottery commissioner later this week, has been setting up a campaign against Congressman Joe Knollenberg since being named the next Griffin chairman in American government on Good Friday. He will earn $65,000 and taxpayer-funded benefits for teaching once a week.
Peters purchased “petersforcongress.com” after being hired by CMU. The website is registered to his Bloomfield Hills residence.
Students are struggling to pay tuition and CMU is giving Gary Peters a $65,000 campaign donation instead of spending the money on scholarships. This money is being spent on someone who won’t commit to educating and not running for Congress.
Poor kid is in college and he is unable to do research or come up with a valid point.
“And find out who is willing to pony up $65,000/yr. for this “faculty member”. Especially if it’s somebody (or groups) that will benefit greatly if Peters gets elected.”
I can tell what the case probably is without doing any research at all.
The GRIFFIN Endowed Chair would have been endowed by somebody named Griffin or somebody honoring somebody named Griffin. They put up a lump sum of money sufficient to pay $65,000 per year (or whatever amount) in perpetuity. Probably donated somewhere around $1.25 million. The university then names somebody they think deserves it to the chair. I don’t know how long this chair has been around, but Peters could be but one of a line of people who have held it.
It’s not a plot. And the student sounds like an idiot going after somebody paid with private foundation funds.
$65,000-a-year for teaching one class one day a week???????????????????????????
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