Emu Throws Weight Behind Favorite Son Candidate Patronage As Usual
Eastem Michigan University (EMU) pulled out all the stops this past summer to help Kirk Profit (D) in his quest to succeed outgoing Speaker Gary Owen as the 22nd District state representative. Owen, whose patronage has flowed to EMU over the sixteen years that he has served in the Michigan House, first as a member of the Appropriations Committee and later as speaker, backed his aide Profit. Owen has directed state money to EMU 's Corporate Education Center, the Gary Owen College of Business and many other EMU brick and mortar projects.
Kirk Profit, who was convicted of drunk driving in the 70s and was arrested for the same offense and refusing a breath test last December, ran as the anti-drug, law and order candidate. Profit ran against former Owen aide. Superior Township Supervisor David Rutledge.
Profit is an EMU graduate who holds a law degree from the University of Detroit. He was deputy sheriff under the GOP administration of former Washtenaw County Sheriff Thomas Minick (the Detroit Tigers' current security chief). Profit's ther, Lewis Profit, was the EMU vice president for Business and Finance in the late 60s and early 70s.
Kirk Profit's campaign chairs were Washtenaw County Commissioner Ronnie Peterson and EMU Vice President for University Relations Roy Wilbanks. (AGENDA readers may recall Wilbanks's role as the university's apologist for the ill fated association between EMU's golf course and South African professional golfer Gary Player.) Both Peterson and Wilbanks have long been active in the Ypsilanti Township political circles from which Owen rose.
The first inklings of EMU institutional support for Profit carne during the Frog Island Tent Jazz Festival, a popular event co-sponsored by the Depot Town Association and EMU's radio station, WEMU. WEMU is part of the University Relations department, and thus answers to Roy Wilbanks. In past years, the Depot Town Association has put together the official program, which includes advertising as well as the schedule of events. (see PATRONAGE, page 10)
PATRONAGE (from page 1)
This year University Relations handled the job. Kirk Profit and a number of Ypsilanti Township candidates had ads in the program. Also included were a number of township businesses and professionals, notably ones which have contracts with the township. Rutledge and less well-connected candidates were not approached and thus not given the opportunity to advertise in that forum. Also excluded from participation in the program were all businesses in Depot Town.
As election day drew closer, Profit held a number of very successful fundraising events. One of these, directed at the EMU faculty, administration and staff, was held at the home of Roy Wilbanks.
Facility members got invitations to this event on stationary bearing the EMU logo. The invitations listed Wilbanks and several other Eastern administrators and staff as sponsors of the event.
The invitations had every appearance of being printed on EMU's regular stationery. However, sources with the Profit campaign denied that EMU provided the stationery when questioned.
EMU officials admitted, however, that the invitations were printed by the University. Wilbanks said that EMU routinely accepts outside printing jobs, and that Profït's campaign would be billed. On the other hand, EMU spokesperson Kathleen Tinney contradicted Wilbanks's statement by saying that, "University employees are always eligible to use the (see PATRONAGE, next page) PATRONAGE (from page 10) university printing facilities at cost...We offer to university employees the opportunity to use EMU printing facilities. They pay cash for the service and are charged a sales tax" (The Ann Arbor News, 72088). Kirk Profit has never been an employee of EMU.
Meanwhile, as part of a non-partisan effort to increase student participation in the August primary, EMU student government sought a list of the summer addresses of dormitory students who are registered to vote in Ypsilanti. The plan was to send absentee ballot applications to these 200 to 300 voters. EMU Student Body President Jerry Raymond made this request in the spring, shortly after the end of the winter semester. He was told that the list would be forthcoming, and later that it had been prepared by the university. Yet despite many requests, the list was never given to the student government. The absentee ballot applications were not sent out. Student participation in the primary was amazingly low, even by usual poor standards of student voter turnout.
As it turned out, Profit lost the City of Ypsilanti by a small margin, trounced Rutledge in Ypsilanti Township, and carried the district by around one thousand votes.
EMU's institutional support for the Kirk Profit campaign has continued beyond the primary election. Doris Komblevitz, the University's liason with the state government, made calis from her EMU office during working hours to solicit volunteers for the Profit campaign, according to Raymond. Raymond, who also chairs the Ypsilanti Democratic Party, was the recipiënt of such solicitations. While not disputing anybody's right to work for a political candidate, Raymond characterized the use of university offices for partisan campaigning "improper."
As a result of EMU's partisan tilt toward Profit, the public is starting to wonder about the extent of political patronage at EMU. There is also an increased willingness on the part of faculty and student leaders to openly discuss it. Previously, many who privately deplored EMU's patronage games nevertheless recognized that Gary Owen did bring a lot of money to EMU.
Since Owen announced that he would not seek re-election, EMU's budget appropriations have been smaller than in recent years.
With the prospect of a rookie state representative taking Owen's place, it appears that the pork barrel is about to shrink to the point where it will no longer be worth it to let the old practices go unchallenged.