ANN ARBOR, MI — For the last several years, Jane Lumm has been the only non-Democrat on Ann Arbor’s City Council.

She served on council as a Republican in the 1990s and ran for mayor as a Republican in 2004.

Since 2011, she has identified as an independent, winning her 2nd Ward council seat in four odd-year elections.

Now she’s running as a Democrat for the first time, facing Democratic challenger Linh Song in the Aug. 4 primary.

After she was cleared to go on the ballot Tuesday, April 21, Lumm issued a statement explaining her decision.

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The city has switched to holding only even-year elections in which it’s now harder for anyone without the Democratic label to compete, given the amount of straight-ticket Democratic voting that happens in those bigger, state and federal elections.

“We are one of only three cities in Michigan that still conduct their local elections on a partisan basis,” Lumm said. “Last year, I proposed letting the voters consider a charter amendment to move us to non-partisan local elections, since good government at the local level is rarely a partisan issue. A majority of the Democrats on the council supported my proposal, but it was vetoed, so it never went to the voters for their decision.”

Realistically, Lumm said, this now means all city elections are decided in the Democratic primary.

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“I’m running again because I want to ensure that the 2nd Ward continues to have neighborhood-friendly, service-oriented representation,” she said, adding she’s not committed to vote in lockstep with any other council members.

Lumm said she’s been “very comfortable these past two years” working closely — though not always in full agreement — with the majority of Democrats on council. They picked her in 2018 to serve as mayor pro-tem.

“Over the past few months, six of the other nine ward representatives on the council — all Democrats — have urged me to run for re-election this year,” she said. “They tell me that they need to be able to draw on my long institutional memory about how Ann Arbor government works and my many hours of poring over the agenda for each council meeting.”

Washtenaw County Commissioner Andy LaBarre, D-Ann Arbor, is supporting Song and, in a Facebook post, took aim at Lumm for filing as a Democrat. LaBarre said Lumm has always been civil to him and he doesn’t wish her ill will, but he doesn’t think she should be running as a Democrat.

LaBarre argues “she chose to share a party with Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole and George W. Bush,” didn’t endorse Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012, and didn’t endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016. Now, after deciding not to actively support Democrats in years past, she’s running as one, he said.

Lumm has supported other Democratic candidates for City Council in the past and supported Democrat Jack Eaton’s campaign for mayor in 2018.

She said she’s also a supporter of state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and walked in last year’s Fourth of July Parade with Dingell’s team. Lumm also is supporting Arianne Slay, a Democratic county prosecutor candidate.

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Eaton, a 4th Ward council member, defended Lumm’s decision to run as a Democrat, saying he’s been trying to convince her to become a Democrat for years.

“Jane is what we used to call a Milliken Republican,” Eaton said, referring to the label given to those who aligned with former Michigan Gov. William Milliken, a moderate Republican.

“She’s very socially liberal — on guns, on gay rights, on choice and reproductive freedom, all of the things that are important to someone like me,” Eaton said.

“She does pay close attention to how we spend our tax revenue and that makes her too conservative for some people, but really she is your typical Ann Arbor Republican who is socially liberal and financially responsible.”

It’s been well over a decade since anyone has been elected in Ann Arbor as a Republican and Lumm isn’t the first to change parties as the city has become more Democratic.

As an independent, Lumm was elected to council in 2011 by defeating Democratic incumbent Stephen Rapundalo, who previously ran for mayor as a Republican in 2000.

Marcia Higgins, another former Republican council member, switched parties in 2005, becoming a Democrat, the same year Rapundalo was elected to council as a Democrat.

Lumm said she’s an independent thinker concerned about social and environmental issues, but hard-headed in looking at specific proposals to advance those causes.

“This is especially important in the current crisis, which is placing new financial pressures on city government and on residents,” she said. “I have many years of experience in dealing with the complexities of the city budget, which is where we set our priorities each year. As always, we can’t do everything we would like, but now the choices are becoming even more difficult.”

She said many constituents have thanked her for her willingness over the years to speak out on their priorities and problems at city hall and pursue commonsense policies.

“I’ve been honored and pleased at how many residents have welcomed my decision to run again, and I look forward to continuing to represent the 2nd Ward on the Ann Arbor City Council,” she said.

Song, who announced her campaign in February, said she welcomes Lumm to the Democratic Party and looks forward to seeing her fully embrace the values that make the party diverse and progressive. Song is president of the Ann Arbor District Library board and cites building more affordable housing as one of the issues she hopes to tackle.

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