Non-Partisan City Clerk's Race Gaining State Party's Attention

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/23/2024) The Michigan Democratic Party is helping raise money and awareness for a write-in campaign for the non-partisan Southfield City Clerk race in which the Democrats’ pick, Wynett Guy, failed to present enough valid petition signatures to make the ballot, leaving only one candidate, a 2020 Republican congressional candidate, on the ballot.

Guy is a current staff member in the Southfield City Clerk’s office. The current City Clerk, Janet Jackson, was supposed to run for re-election against Gabi Grossbard, who lost to Jackson in 2023. However, Jackson’s campaign finance filings are rife with late filing fees, notices of errors or omissions, failure to file notices and referrals to the Attorney General’s office for violations. Guy’s website says when she reached out to Jackson, she learned that Jackson wasn’t able to run for reelection.

Guy had about two days to collect signatures before the deadline to file as a candidate, and collected more than the required 200, but further review from local clerks and all the way up to the Secretary of State’s office showed that she was short by about 40 valid signatures. This left Grossbard on the ballot unopposed, and Guy running a campaign against him as a write-in.

MIRS was able to consult with Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel and Oakland County Republican Party Chair Vance Patrick on the matter. Patrick said after Grossbard pulled Guy’s signature list and challenged the signatures to the city clerk’s office. The number of signatures invalidated at that point did not disqualify her, but upon appealing to the SOS, Patrick said they disqualified about 40 additional signatures.

While the race is non-partisan, Hertel said the MDP gets involved in all types of non-partisan elections.

“These are races where who actually gets elected matters, and we have people that share our values and people that don’t, and in this case, Wynett Guy shares our values and Gabi Grossbard certainly does not,” Hertel said.

Hertel said in a Facebook video that Grossbard is an “extremist conspiracy theorist” who has spent years “pushing election conspiracy theories.” Guy’s campaign website shows that Grossbard signed onto a lawsuit as a plaintiff in 2020 that challenged Michigan’s results of the presidential election that was later withdrawn.

Hertel also said he has concerns about how Grossbard would handle absentee ballot voting or voter rolls in the city government.

“It concerns us even more in Southfield, which is a majority Black district, where people have fought for the right to vote, and we want to make sure it’s protected. We don’t believe he will protect it, and that’s why we’re here,” Hertel said.

To support Guy’s write-in campaign efforts, the MDP is running a robust campaign and will be watching on Election Day, Hertel said.

Patrick said Guy concerns him as a candidate because she wasn’t able to accurately reach the 200 valid signatures needed to run, and it raises the question for him of what other mistake could be made if she’s elected.

“If she can’t handle getting 200 valid signatures, then is she really qualified for being in that position?” Patrick said. “Now the state party has got to get involved in a stupid little city clerk’s office. They’ve got bigger things to worry about, but no. Their easy win, they lost it because of incompetence.”

Jackson won against Grossbard with 74.46% of the vote to his 23.37% in 2023. Jackson replaced former Southfield City Clerk Sherikia Hawkins, who resigned from her position after entering into a plea agreement with the AG’s office for covering up a mistake made in the 2018 election.

Patrick said between Guy’s lack of valid signatures, Jackson’s disqualification from running and Hawkins’ resignation, the Southfield City Clerk’s office is not in a very reputable place, which is why Grossbard is the better choice.