How R. Warren drove away a supporter: in his own words
        For this final installment (?) in Arblogger’s series on Rebekah Warren’s campaign for 53rd District State Represenative,  Arblogger presents a statement from Travis Radina about why he decided to stop working for Rebekah Warren and work for her opponent instead.
        (Bear in mind that this is only one opinion, of course; and also note that Radina is a Greden campaign volunteer, albeit an unpaid one. (Of course, the Greden campaign in no way asked him to make the below statement, or to post it, etc.)       Â
        Still, it makes for compelling reading:)
        “I have decided to work for the Greden campaign for a number of reasons. Leigh is extremely qualified to represent Ann Arbor in Lansing. He has experience working with budgets, he has a solid record of protecting the environment, a woman’s right to choose, the LGBT community, affirmative action, public schools, and he is dedicated to solving the problems that are facing our state.
        Leigh is honest and respectable. When I first met with him, one of the first things he said to me was that no matter what happened, neither he…nor any of his supporters were allowed to go negative or on the attack. Leigh respects Ann Arbor residents enough to give them a principled platform, instead of a game of petty politics.
        As you know, I started working with the Warren campaign, before I met with Leigh. I was happy that she was dedicated to progressive values and that she was willing to involve students in her campaign (both things that Leigh was also very dedicated to). However, I am also a person that hates when political primaries get dirty. I see it a disgrace when politicians wish to serve themselves before serving their party and their constituents.
        While working with Rebekah, she started to plan a ‘Couch In’ on the UM Diag. It was aimed to ‘reveal Councilmember Greden’s attempts to ban couches.’ However, having enough respect for Leigh to investigate the issue, I discovered that it was actually Leigh who tabled the motion. He had met with students from MSA, listened to their concerns and took their advice. I voiced my original concerns about the Couch In to the Warren Campaign and was met criticism from fellow student volunteers. Finally I contacted Rebekah directly, telling her that I didn’t think that we should go negative. While she eventually cancelled the event, I was extremely disappointed that she turned out to be one of the self-serving politicians who are out to win a political primary by stepping all over their fellow Democrats.
        I was extremely impressed with Leigh Greden, because he was unwilling to go negative. He was genuinely concerned with all progressive issues, rather than just being concerned with expanding abortion rights, and more importantly he has respect for Ann Arbor as a whole, knowing how to delicately balance student concerns with community concerns. He realizes that both students and the surrounding community provide a unique atmosphere for all sorts of ideas and he knows exactly how to debate the merits on both sides…and provide real solutions for all of Ann Arbor.
        I know that whomever is elected, he/she will do his/her best to serve Ann Arbor well, but I am certain that if Leigh Greden is elected he will remain in contact with his constituents, he will continue to respect Ann Arbor residents and students alike, and he will work tirelessly to bring positive results back to Ann Arbor, and he will never disrespect voters by putting politics above principles. I know that Leigh will continue to serve Ann Arbor, no matter what the results on the 8th. That is exactly why I think he deserves to win, because no matter what, he will never abandon Ann Arbor.”
Travis A. Radina
Education Coordinator, University of Michigan College Democrats
Co-Chair, Michigan Student Assembly Campus Safety Commission
Public Relations Director, Students for Granholm/Stabenow
Major in Political Science, University of Michigan.”
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        Something to think about at the polls tomorrow, perhaps. (Looks like Warren may not necessarily get the “student tidal wave” of support she seemed to hope for…) Thank you, Travis, for that very interesting insider account.
        Coming up on Arblogger: some voting recommendations, of a sort…
        (P.S. Don’t forget to scroll down the page and look at my other three recent articles on Warren, if you haven’t seen them; enjoy!)
August 8th, 2006 at 2:44 am
I am a member of the Old Fourth Ward Neighborhood Association, from which the couch ban was born. One of the original and strongest couch ban proponents was Tony Ramirez. Tony is my neighbor and a good guy. But Tony and I have some differences politically. Tony really doesn’t like couches on porches and I believe that the government does not have a right to tell us how to decorate our porches. Although, I personally would not put a couch on my porch. The last time I lived in a house that was a student rental, there was a couch on the porch and we’d find homeless people sleeping there in the morning (coffee anyone?). Anyhow, what I recall is that Leigh Greden told Tony - any voting on couches should occur when the students are out of town. Oh, that’s Tony Ramirez in the photo with Leigh in the middle of one of his campaign fliers. Draw your own conclusions. Maybe this act was out of character for Leigh and he normally behaves better. I don’t really know him, so this is for others to judge or perhaps just be little less judgemental about everything, like Rebekah’s photos being on a UM server.
August 8th, 2006 at 7:42 am
I personally don’t believe that Leigh would have told anyone that a vote should occur to disenfranchise students.
…and in either case…the facts remain:
After speaking with student leaders Greden tabled the motion.
The motion was not voted down…because Leigh didn’t bring it to a vote.
Rebekah tried to smear Leigh with student voters by misleading his record.
LEIGH GREDEN WILL PROVIDE US WITH PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP!
Vote Leigh Greden Today!!!
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