B. Corman

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 6:59 p.m.

Fergus1mom, The only reason these posters are so nasty is so you will think that there is a big dramatic episode happening, and by your post above, you are possibly believing the political spin. Don't let them fool you. Vote who you know will represent you the best and who will do the best job. In my opinion that is Greden. The other two don't come close in accomplishments or competency.

fergus1mom

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 6:24 p.m.

Good Lord, has this gotten nasty. Some comments are thoughtful, but some are downright vitriolic--and I fully admit I let myself get sucked into the sniping as well. Leigh Greden's inappropriate use of council meeting time and his city-owned laptop, and his less-than-positive remarks about his constituents has been documented independently; done deal. But the rancor it has generated seems to be growing, not resolving, and it's starting to look like a mini version of the Kwame Kilpatrick mess all over again. Question: given the really difficult issues Council is going to face in the coming year, can we really afford to elect a councilman who has generated this level of divisiveness before the term even starts?

UMGrad1234

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 5:36 p.m.

Re:Owen23's comment about Greden and Dingell. Just got home to a doorhanger from Leigh Greden and there is no endorsement from John Dingell on itother endorsers, but not John Dingell. Looks like maybe Congressman John Dingell did withdraw his endorsement of Leigh Greden.

Owen23

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 4:24 p.m.

Also, I'm confused, Sotto. I thought the point of electing people who would vote intelligently and in ways we agreed with. So you're saying you agree with how he votes on Environmental issues? Then what's your complaint? He doesn't support environmental causes with enough passion? Maybe he doesn't say "Yea" loudly enough when he makes smart votes on environmental issues. That's funny... Sotto Voce... I'd expect you'd want him to vote softly. :)

Owen23

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 4:19 p.m.

Sotto: Lol. Dunno if he has a bike. But I've seen him on the bus in the mornings. When I lived in NYC I voted for Bloomberg for the same reason: I saw him take the 6 to work in the mornings. I like politicians that get the work the same way I do. I don't bike to work. I sweat to easily.

sottovoce

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 4:11 p.m.

Owen: about his "carbon offsets"...the City Council always votes unanimously. It's nice that Greden votes with the flock, but I don't count "follow the leader" as offsetting anything. We should have someone who leads on environmental issues, not just follows. We need someone who bikes to work. That person will have a better perspective on the non-motorized plan. That's the kind of action I want, not a vote. Voting is easy.

Owen23

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:57 p.m.

Sotto: I actually think the making it seem like the Ann Arbor news endorsed you when they didn't is a bigger deal. Smacks of straight out lying. I once had a letter published in Rolling Stone. Maybe I should put "4 Stars From Rolling Stone magazine" on the next CD I release. ALSO, if there's a fire and the firetrucks miss the hydrant because it's hidden behind a sign, that's sort of a big deal too. I don't know if any fliers were on recycled paper by any of the candidates. Don't care. That's a pretty thin thread to pull on. I'm sure Greden could point to 15 or so votes/resolutions/etc. that were environmentally important to the city. Those would be some important "actions" right there to offset the carbon cost. BTW, this post was written using NON-recycled pixels and bytes.

sottovoce

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:40 p.m.

Owen: Isn't it strange to call oneself an environmentalist and then purchase reams of supplies that aren't environmentally-friendly? Actions speak louder than words. Corman: Sometimes fresh ideas are needed. Things are a little stale at Council, and we need someone to shake things up. Also, I don't want someone to use Council as a step-up to the MI House. Amalie et al: Don't know about the online version, but Thursday's physical paper had a broadsheet with 100% letters of support for Greden and Anglin (if the 1/2 size version of the "paper" qualifies as a broadsheet). The side-bar said it was representative of the letters it received. Somehow I doubt that.

Isabelle Noah

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:29 p.m.

Otto23, I am referring to the behavior of the signs in the right of way with my previous post.

Owen23

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:27 p.m.

And by the way, in regards to the various comments speculating on Dingle. Pick up the phone and call the office. If there's one thing I personally know about the man, it's that he's a Leigh Greden fan.

Owen23

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:23 p.m.

Lorie: Except they're not "quoting media." They're quoting lines from letters to the editor and then claiming those as endorsements FROM the AANews. Come on, anyone can see that's a bit deceptive.

Owen23

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:21 p.m.

SottoVoice: I'm far more concerned about the signs LuAnn has up on packard in the right of ways and medians than I am about recycled paper. Isn't that illegal? The one on the corner of Platt and Packard is in front of a fire hydrant.

B. Corman

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 3:05 p.m.

Patricia-obviously by your comments you are in panic mode that your chosen candidate just did herself in. I have faith that my fellow 3rd warders will see the truth that Greden is the best candidate, even if he has some flaws; he has character, something a hypocrite such as Bullington does not. (as Isabelle stated above) No one is perfect, but true character is very telling. Greden has the character to do an exceptional job at representing the third ward. Everyone would agree regardless of what they think of the email situation. Greden truly is the BEST candidate for the job without question. He represents me and my ward better than Bullington ever could or Kunselman ever did. Remember folks, Kunselman does have a record, even if he does not talk about it; probably because he is not proud of it and has nothing to show for it.

Alan Goldsmith

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:37 p.m.

Pat, I hope you are right. I have total faith in the voters of Ward 3 and don't think this story is going to sway the election one way or another. But having said that, it's bad journalism to not provide background and doing a story on possible violation Campaign Law two weeks after an election, if that happens at all, is just journalism people can do without. In contrast to the Detroit Free Press, its second string. I guess someone might have picked up the phone and called John Dingell to see if his endorcement of Greden was still valid would have been a nice first step, but apparently, that didn't happen.

Patricia Lesko

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:26 p.m.

Alan, When people visit Bullington's site, they'll see what she's about. Someone in this thread wrote that Ann Arbor voters are sophisticated. The reporter wrote what he wrote (and I think he did a pretty good job of representing what's on Bullington's site), and it's up to readers/voters to figure out what's going on with Greden's accusations. Like I said earlier, (well, the Observer's Eve Silberman did) Greden's taking a beating in the press over some of the issues you mention. I'm not prepared to assume that AnnArbor.com won't write about the Council emails in which Greden and Chris Easthope worked on materials for Easthope's campaign for judge, or any of the other issues revealed by the Ann Arbor News related to the FOIAed Council emails. It takes time to investigate.

GreenShades

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:23 p.m.

AG: are you saying with good reporting, informed people can make good decisions...and deciding who we should allow to govern us is an important decision? Nonsense...I want a flyer and an anonymous bulletin board to tell me everything I need to know. However, we have no good journalists left in this town, so please allow this anonymous post to suffice....Greden recuses himself from every McKinnley site plan. Like Mckinnley Place and the building on Liberty that used to be the National City Bank (next to MichTheatre). I want my representative to have a vote in major downtown projects. Don't vote for Greden. He's not good for AA.

GraceJean

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:21 p.m.

Patricia, I graciously stand corrected. If you read the third post from the top (from sottovoce), you will see that this poster (along with myself, and possibly many others) only saw the numerous gushing articles posted by AnnArbor.com STAFF supporting Greden and Anglin. Somehow we missed the articles posted about the challengers. I wonder how this happened. Anyway, thanks again for the correction.

Isabelle Noah

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:14 p.m.

How does one spell hypocriteL-U-A-N-N-E. Do you actually think the public is so stupid to believe that Ms. Bullington did not know what she was doing? She purposely spun the quotes knowing exactly how people would read and interpret them. Most people would chuck this up to political spin if not for the high and mighty, self-righteous attitude of Ms. Bullington and her supporters. You cannot base your campaign on integrity, transparency and values and then pull a stunt like this. It actually shows the true character of Ms. Bullington. I am outraged that she can get a way with this. And now that annarbor.com is trying to correct the situation where Ms. Bullington is hijacking their name, they are being attacked by Ms. Bullingtons supporters. Did it ever occur to many of you that the reason that there were no letters for Kunselman and Bullington in the annarbor.com print edition is because nobody sent one in support of either of these candidates? Neither has a following because neither is the best candidate.

Alan Goldsmith

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:05 p.m.

Pat- Printing baseless charges and allowing Mr. Greden to do so the day before the election, without any insight or backgroud to the election process, is lame journalism. I'm more worried about bad journalism than I am about Leigh Greden.

Patricia Lesko

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 1:56 p.m.

Grace, Here are some links to some articles about all of the candidates, including the challengers. http://www.bullingtonforcouncil.com/News.html AnnArbor.com printed several letters in support of both Rosencrans and Bullington. Let's give AnnArbor.com a chance to settle into an editorial stride.

Alan Goldsmith

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 1:54 p.m.

Thanks to the A2.com for their armchair, lazy reporting on this issue the day before the election. "On her campaign Web site, 3rd Ward hopeful LuAnne Bullington has a quote supporting her candidacy that could be confused as an endoresement from AnnArbor.com." Is the author injecting his opinion or did Mr. Greden say this? At best this is just an error. At worse, you, the reporter are making a value judgement on the webpage quote. Are you being a reporter? Is this an opinion piece? Is THIS the only thing A2.com could come up with on the eve of the election? It's almost comical, how Leigh Greden can work on the campaign for a local judge during a council meeting, trading dozens of emails with now-judge-then-council member Chris Easthope, using city owned computers while ignoring speakers at a council meeting and THIS is the story. We could debate Leigh Greden's shortcomings all day. But if this is any indication of the quality of reporting to expect in the future from the A2.com, then hopefully some other local media outlet will pick up the ball. You are even making the late Ann Arbor seem like Pulitzer level work.

GraceJean

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 1:50 p.m.

Seriously folks, here are the titles of the articles that are posted on Greden and Anglin from AnnArbor.com STAFF. And yet we get not a single post from AnnArbor.com STAFF on any of the challengers???!!! * Anglin a caring representative * Anglin displays courage * Greden a person of integrity * Anglin able to make tough choices * Fortunate to have Greden on council * Anglin committed to community * Residents give Greden an A+ grade * Greden works for neighborhoods * Greden listens to voters * Anglin hears people's concerns * 3rd Ward needs Greden's help * Mike Anglin stands up for everyone * Leigh Greden the best choice Can we trust AnnArbor.com to be an unbiased voice for the community?

Patricia Lesko

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 12:59 p.m.

Greden wants us to believe that using unbiased media sources is DECEPTIVE? I suppose if you've spent your political career making up stuff or, say, have been (like he has) caught by the Ann Arbor News being deceptive, it would be terrifying to run against an opponent who uses factual material from actual unbiased media sources to document her campaign platform and support. Leigh Greden is a terrified man. John Dingell has been under tremendous pressure from Ann Arbor constituents to withdraw his endorsement of Greden (an endorsement asked for in FEBRUARY 2009). We should note that Dingell gave no quote for Greden's web site. Note, as well, that the Mayor left town until AFTER the election. There will no John Hieftje stumping for Greden, either. Quoting media is not deceptive. President Obama quoted media in his literature, and on his web site when he ran. It's a grown-up way of running a political campaign. It's using an unbiased source to represent the documented views of a candidate. The media are more credible than, say, the middle school student council campaign strategy of getting endorsements from your mother, friends and pals (whom, YOU, of course, endorse when THEY run). In actuality, Leigh Greden is running a campaign designed for people whom he believes are a bunch of potato headswith the political sophistication of middle schoolers. Greden is using his political friends' "endorsements" and hoping to heaven that the voters don't look behind the curtain at his actual political record. Is it anyone's fault but his own that the Ann Arbor News caught him TWICE with his political pants down? Now he's pointing at LuAnne Bullington hoping everyone will look away from the ugly sight that is his pimpled political fanny hanging out in public for everyone to see. This is some awesome FREE publicity for a very credible candidate for the Third Ward City Council seat. Go to her web site (AnnArbor.com kindly linked to it in the article), and read through her materials. She's talking issues.

pseudo

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 12:50 p.m.

funny thing, I have now 4 (two adults live here) campaign post cards fro Leigh and they make some pretty bad claims to: he claims to attend my cooperative board meetings "regularly" - only true if once a year is regular. Also claims a bunch of stuff I know other people worked on more than he did. So, I guess I'm having trouble with this whole thing - I actually think Kunselmann and his urban planning experience are really needed on counsel. I don't want a chess player or someone who horses around on email or any of that. Give me someone who has some expertise to give.

sottovoce

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 12:31 p.m.

What's misleading is the fourteen letters to the editor printed in Thursday's "paper". Seven were pro-Greden. Seven were pro-Anglin. Or what's insulting is Greden's claim to be an environmentalist when he sends out a mass-mailer which was printed on non-recylced paper. How many tons of CO2 did Greden produce to buy the election again?

rollingrock

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 12:06 p.m.

Ann Arbor voters are sophisticated. They understand that these are difficult times, and that "progressive" programs must include appropriate development, budget wisdom, development of new, effective cost-cutting approaches, and team-building within Council. It is a shame to witness the negative campaigns that are being waged by the two challengers in the 3rd Ward. It would be nice to see them reflect some trust in the voters by staying with the issues instead of slinging innuendos like "cabal." The voters have elected a strong team in Council. Such terms are an insult to the voters.