Candidates in several local nonpartisan positions are racking up support from the Democratic Party, potentially compromising the integrity of those races and their adherence to the city’s founding documents.
All elected positions within City Hall are designated as nonpartisan by the City Charter, a document which acts as the city’s local Constitution. This means that the city’s elected politicians are dissuaded from supporting or aligning with any particular political party or ideology.
Partisan endorsements, usually from the Kent County Democratic Party, are commonplace in local elections. This is due in part to voters who in 2020 approved a proposal moving city elections from odd years to even ones and aligned them with the presidential election cycle.
Proponents of that measure claimed at the time that odd year elections amounted to voter suppression. Former Commissioner Ruth Kelly was among those who argued at the time that moving the elections would effectively open the door to politicizing the nonpartisan legislative body.
“We have become uber partisan in the United States, terribly partisan,” Kelly told WGVU at the time. “And I know that even in non-partisan situations as an elected, you can get pressured from one party or another. And there will be a temptation for the parties to want to advance candidates, use the city commission as a stepping stone and then move onto the state right away. When you really need people to stay focused on the city, to get those policy objectives taken care of.”
Several city race candidates prior to the 2020 vote do not appear to have listed partisan endorsements, according to analysis by The Grand Rapids Herald. Elected officials such as former Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, former Commissioner Joe Jones, former Commissioner Kurt Reppart, former Commissioner Senita Lenear and others did not appear to list partisan endorsements on their campaign websites or in interviews with local media.
This is no longer the case in local elections.
Lindsey Perez-Plescher, who is currently running to represent the First Ward on the City Commission, boasts via her campaign website of the endorsements of both the Kent County Democratic Party and Young Democrats of Michigan. She also includes the endorsement of state Rep. Stephen Wooden, an elected Democrat, and several Democratic Kent County Commissioners.
Perez-Plescher’s donation site is run through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s primary crowdfunding tool. That site also mentions that Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand, a former elected state Democrat, was scheduled to be in attendance at her campaign kickoff.
Bryan Cody, who is running for City Commission in the Second Ward, lists Young Democrats of Michigan as one of his endorsers. Kent County Dems also appear to have promoted Cody’s campaign kickoff event, which listed a “suggested donation” amount of $50.
Lisa Knight, who is running to continue representing the Second Ward for another term, wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday she would not accept endorsements or donations from partisan PACs.
Knight’s campaign, however, promoted an event on the Kent County Dems website in May, which included a link to her campaign donation site. She also appears to have spoken at Kent County Democratic Party events in the past.
Knight issued an endorsement for Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and spoke at his rally in Grand Rapids ahead of the primaries. She also received an endorsement from Abbie Groff-Blazak, now a Democratic nominee for state Senate.
Dave Bulkowski, who is running for comptroller and was formerly an elected county Democrat, lists an endorsement from the Kent County Democratic Party on his website. He too is endorsed by several current and former Democratic members of the Kent County Commission, including Melissa LaGrand, wife of David LaGrand.
Also among Bulkowski’s endorsers is Brandon Dillon, who formerly served as Michigan Democratic Party chair and was an elected Democrat.
The Kent County Democrats did not respond to a request for comment.
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