Warren, a Detroit suburb of over 100,000 and the third largest in Michican, is embroiled in a political scandal dealing with age–and whether the Mayor lied about his.
According to a report in the Macomb Daily, two Warren residents submitted documents to police that indicate conflicting birth years for Mayor James Fouts. Both official documents–one says he was born in 1942 and the other says he was born in 1944.
At first glance, the issue of two years seems not to be such a big deal–except when your in the local spotlight and you have political opponents gunning for you.
Under Michigan election law, making a false statement on the candidate identity affidavits is perjury, punishable by up to four years in prison upon conviction and a fine up to $1,000.
On the affidavit filed by Fouts in May in asking voters to keep him in the city’s top elected office for a second, four-year term, he left the birth date line blank. That sparked a political firestorm, including a lawsuit filed by three of the five other mayoral candidates against the Warren Election Commission, questioning whether Fouts should be on the ballot for the Aug. 2 primary election.”
Fouts is blaming the charges on his chief critic and Mayoral opponent, Councilwoman Kathy Vogt, but others are claiming this isn’t the case:
Pasternak, 32, is a council candidate in District 5. He insisted politics is not a factor in providing documents to police and claimed he had reservations about joining Bania in pressing the issue.
“I didn’t want that political spin put on it. I’m approaching it as a citizen –- and not someone running for office,” he said.’
From a campaign perspective, what do you think? Is lying about your age serious with voters, and how would you use such an allegation to your advantage if you were Fout’s opponent?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
About the Author Walksheet is a blog dedicated to local campaigning. We hope to be your guide through the political campaign process, and even more so, before you begin the political campaign process! Email us at contact@walksheet.com! Read more from this author
[...] wrote about Fouts a little while back, when he was accused of lying about his age, and then refusing to disclose it altogether. We didn’t get to write about the $500 reward he offered to find the person who stole one [...]
[...] Michigan Mayor Jim Fouts, has a new negative story about him. Previously, we ran a story about him potentially lying about his age, and recently a story about him offering $5,000 for information on who sent anonymous hit pieces [...]
[...] three interesting posts about the campaign of Warren, Michigan Mayor Jim Fouts (here, here & here), so even though this isn’t “officially” a campaign ad, it still deserved [...]