Democratic race for governor roiled by petition challenges, eligibility questions

LANSING — Two Democratic candidates for governor — Shri Thanedar and Abdul El-Sayed — on Tuesday challenged each other's eligibility to run for governor.

Thanedar wants the state to determine whether El-Sayed meets eligibility requirements that call for a candidate to be a registered voter in the state for at least four years before an election. El-Sayed claims that Thanedar's petitions are riddled with errors that will disqualify him from the ballot.

Thanedar picked up on reports that have questioned El-Sayed’s eligibility because he was registered to vote in both New York and Michigan while he lived in New York through 2015.

“I believe it is important that this situation be resolved — not only to determine the eligibility of my opponent Mr. Abdul El-Sayed, but also to maintain the integrity of the Michigan Democratic Party's statewide primary ballot,” Thanedar said in a statement.

Three other people – Michigan voters Pamela Nelson of Dewitt, Courtney Guillebeaux of Detroit and Jennifer Johnson of Redford Township – also have filed challenges to El-Sayed’s eligibility.

Meanwhile, El-Sayed questioned the validity of the signatures of the petition circulators who were paid to gather signatures for Thanedar. While most of the problems he cited dealt with the circulators, including some whom he suspects signed the petitions for other circulators, he also submitted pages of signatures that had missing information from voters who signed the petitions.

"For the purpose of determining the validity of the signatures, the undersigned respectfully requests that the Board of State Canvassers conduct an investigation," El-Sayed said in his letter to the state challenging Thanedar's petitions.

The campaign said there were problems with the names of voters who signed the petitions not matching up with the addresses listed on the state voter files. And a page of petition signatures for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sandy Pensler also was included in Thanedar's filing, although it is not uncommon for a circulator to be collecting signatures for more than one candidate.

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Sitting on the sidelines was the other Democratic candidate, former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, who said she just wanted to focus on the issues facing Michigan's voters.

"Gretchen has been proud to share a debate stage with Abdul and believes this race should be decided by the voters of Michigan," said her campaign spokesman Zack Pohl. "Gretchen thinks this campaign should be focused on getting things done for the people of Michigan, like fixing the damn roads and making health care more affordable for families."

El-Sayed, the former director of the Detroit health department, gave up his Michigan driver’s license for a New York license when he lived in New York while he was going to school and teaching at Columbia University from 2013-2015. Because of that change, the Michigan Secretary of State put his voter registration on a challenged status and if he had attempted to vote in the state, his ballot would have been challenged.

While he didn't vote in Michigan between 2013 and 2016, he never lost his voter's registration, said Fred Woodhams, spokesman for the Secretary of State. And El-Sayed said he maintained an apartment in Michigan the entire time he lived in New York.

"As we’ve long held, Abdul is 100% eligible to be governor," said Adam Joseph, spokesman for the El-Sayed campaign. "But that won’t stop candidates from futile attempts at using this manufactured controversy as a smokescreen."

According to the state's Constitution, a candidate for governor must be a registered voter for at least four years before the election when seeking office.

El-Sayed tried to get the state Court of Claims to clear up the issue, filing a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, but the SOS replied that it was premature to file a lawsuit because no one had filed a challenge to his candidacy.

The challenge from Thanedar and the other three voters changes that.

Thanedar said his challenge wasn’t personal, but he did say he would like to win the support of people who have been polled and said they were supporters of El-Sayed.

"It’s going to be a highly competitive race. I can’t lose any support," Thanedar said. "I’d like the 5% to 6% support (in polls) that El-Sayed has right now."

In his challenge letter to the Secretary of State, Thanedar said, “I believe a candidate with standing in this race must step up and challenge Mr. El-Sayed’s eligibility to resolve this issue once and for all.”

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He did take a swipe at Whitmer, whose campaign spokesman said last week that they hoped that Nelson would drop the challenge, so the candidates could focus on the issues.

“Such political pressure and interference is worrisome,” Thanedar said.

And he also aimed some ire at Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican candidate for governor, for “playing politics with this issue in an attempt to disrupt Democratic Party politics in Michigan … and keep a potentially ineligible Democratic candidate on the ballot as a political tactic that assists his campaign.”

But Schuette said that while his office is representing the Secretary of State, he has put a firewall between himself and the assistant attorney general dealing with the case.

"They are not informing the attorney general of the work they are doing or the strategies they are using," said Andrea Bitely, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

This is not the first time the Democratic candidates have criticized each other. El-Sayed has repeatedly said that Thanedar is trying to buy the governor’s seat because he’s bankrolling his own campaign with at least $6 million. Both Thanedar and El-Sayed have criticized Whitmer for taking money from political action committees.

And on the Republican side, both Schuette and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley have been trading barbs over who is the better supporter of President Donald Trump. Both candidates supported someone else in the early days of the 2016 presidential primary — Schuette worked for Jeb Bush while Calley was a supporter of Ohio Gov. John Kasich — but once Trump won the nomination, Schuette jumped on the Trump train, while Calley didn’t endorse before the election. Calley has since said he voted for Trump and now supports his presidency.

They’ve also criticized each other for their job performance, including Schuette hitting Calley for his role in getting the Michigan Business Tax passed while he was a state representative. And Calley has counterpunched, saying Schuette has politicized the Flint water crisis.

With more than four months before the Aug. 7 primary election, the attacks are only expected to escalate.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal