Four recommendations for Dorr Township races:

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

“You’re running with a bad crowd.” — My fishing buddy Jim Wasserman, upon catching a trout in a chub-infested stream in 1978

 

My biggest takeway from the Dorr Township candidate forum was the revelation that a second right-wing coup is being attempted here.

I suppose not everybody remembers the nasty, personal and failed recall election of 2011 over the sewer and the fallout of local officials. The list of the fallen included Supervisor Tammy VanHaitsma, Clerk Valerie Brummel, Trustees Paul Davis and Larry Dolegowski and Treasurer Janice Saunders.

John Tuinstra and Patty Senneker, with orchestration from local gadfly Bernie Schumaker, were elected trustees on the board in 2012, VanHaitsma and Saunders resigned and Dolegowski and Davis were defeated in the election. Brian Boot, who also was identified with the Contras, won the clerk’s seat to succeed Brummel and Jeff Miling, early on identified as a supporter of Schumaker’s positions, was appointed supervisor.

At one time, it appeared that the Contras had successfully overthrown the local government and enjoyed a 4-3 advantage in voting.

But Boot and Miling turned away from the Contras and began to side with holdover Trustees Dan Weber and Josh Otto. When Saunders resigned, Jim Martin was chosen to replace her and since then has been regarded as a swing vote, but he most often goes against Schumaker’s Contras.

What followed was a long series of 5-2 votes, with Tuinstra and Senneker providing an obstructionist bloc. It appeared that the coup finally had failed when nearly all incumbents won their primaries, except Boot, who lost to a determined Debbie Sewers, a pal of Senneker’s.

It also appeared that the influence of Tuinstra and Senneker was waning because both challenged the turncoat Miling in the 2014 primary and were trounced. Senneker tried again this year in the primary and again was crushed in the vote totals.

But like the Phoenix arising from the ashes, there came a new crop of challengers with the No Party Affiliation tag for next Tuesday’s general election. This new crop included Terry Rios, who won the Republican primary for Senneker’s trustee seat; Barbara Herbert, who came out of nowhere to run as an NPA for trustee with the blessing of Tuinstra, and Arianne Taylor, who is an NPA opposing incumbent Treasurer Martin.

The consistent wild card here is Christina Schwartz, running on the U.S. Taxpayers Party ticket, to whom some want to sing the Dan Hicks song, “How Can We Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?” Ms. Schwartz ran for trustee in 2012, became deputy clerk later that year, was fired, applied for the supervisor’s job won by Miling and was turned away from the Parks Board after serving as chairwoman. Schwartz also was asked not to seek a second term on the Hopkins Board of Education 20 years ago.

The forum did have its bright side: The return to public life of longtime Planning Commissioner Gordon Lieffers. I strongly urge his election as a trustee, along with Weber and Otto. For the other seat, pick your poison.

My evidence for an attempted second coup in township essentially is guilt by association. Wherever I see a sign for Tuinstra or Sewers, I also see signs for Taylor and Schwartz. Rios filed for trustee last spring with help from Sewers. And Herbert has received a very public blessing from Tuinstra.

I hear tell that Senneker, despite now being out of public office, showed up at the candidate forum of Oct. 24 and talked extensively on her smart phone, giving a play-by-play to her partner in crime — Schumaker.

If Dorr voters decide against voting straight Republican, this group has a chance to change the makeup of the township. But what they really will get is chaos like they had four years ago. The township has stabilized over the last several years, mostly through that voting bloc of five that held the line against the Contras.

So vote Martin for treasurer and Otto, Weber and Lieffers for trustee if you want your local government to continue its climb out of the cesspool.

PHOTOS: Gordon Lieffers   Dan Weber

Josh Otto   Jim Martin