John Reuther Vs Marvin Esch Will Ford Get Repub For Congress?

John Reuther vs Marvin Esch

Will Ford Get Repub For Congress?

John Reuther has youth, beauty and the United Autoworkers on his side, but it may not be enough to win Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti/Livonia's Second Congressional District.

   This is a great shame, because if ever a monkey clung to the back of a constituency it is incumbent Republican Marvin Esch.

   The Second is a heterogeneous district, and Esch a master of the hedged bet. The district stretches from the smoky industrial towns downriver from Detroit out to two college towns and white-collar Livonia; Esch politics are calculated with little else in mind besides how to hold onto it.

   His tendency to avoid key votes is remarkable enough to merit mention in Ralph Nader's Congress 'Report. Esch also regularly mouths liberal slogans some time after having voted differently and swings to the progressive position just before election time.

   In typical Esch style is his recent and sudden proposal for $12 billion in public works employment. The amount is twice as much as even Democrats have suggested, and is in marked contrast to previous votes against similar measures in the past.

   Esch's attempt to picture himself as a dove is another case in point. While he has made the dramatic proposal to withdraw all U.S. troops from Europe, his rating by the National Security Index is actually quite high-77% in 1970 and 60% in 1972-as compared to Sen. Hart's rating of 0.

   Although he's the best we've got at this point, the Democratic candidate may represent another kind of duplicity.   

   The 30 year-old Reuther is nephew to the UAW's Walter and has the look of a man born with a golden spoon in his mouth. He carne to live in the Second so he could run here; UAW coffers fïnanced his handsome primary campaign; but in spite of the razzle dazzle he beat Ann Arbor's homespun Ed Pierce by only a few votes.

   Picking a candidate with the right credentials, finding a slot and dropping him into place just isn't enough, and Reuther's campaign shows it.

   A poll taken by his own organization in September gave Escli a 48% to 28% lead over him. Although some of the poll was taken before the Nixon pardon and Reuther is presumably picking up points, there's not much sign he is making an impression on the voters.       "When we write him some stuff with wallop he won't use it," said a staffer at the McGovern rally early in October, one in a series of appearances by major Democratic politicians on Reuther's behalf. There was applause at the obvious places, but no inspiration in Reuther's approach. "He's very calm, very McGovernesque," observed the staffer.

   The approach has made him easy prey for Esch, who identified strongly with Richard Nixon's Campaign to Re-Elect the President in 1972 and now minimizes the differences between himself and Reuther.

   Reuther likes to talk about inflation, campaign finance and tax reform and a national health care system. So does Esch, this year anyway.

   Reuther has won our hearts for one thing, though, and that is his sudden turn-around on the amnesty issue, from conditional to unconditional, before a meeting of the Ann Arbor Veterans of Foreign Wars.

   Although like Esch he refuses to endorse the legalization of marijuana, unlike Esch he does advocate stern trustbusting and a publicly-owned Corporation to explore new oil lands.      Two small party candidates are also running. University of Michigan student Marty Petit is campaigning on the standard Socialist Workers Party platform of worker's control. This is the first time the SWP has run in a local election.

   The HRP has mounted an educational campaign with Ann Arbor's Phil Carroll. Carroll is advocating disarmament, free medical care, public ownership of corporations in key areas, and an end to all surveillance of citizens.