A new political mantra: Location, location, location

Some public officials eventually forget where they came from. And some wannabe-officials forget where they are.

A guy named Doug Skrzyniarz sent out emails this morning announcing his candidacy for city council. Which city council? 

Well, that’s the problem.

I started reading the message without bothering to download the little logo at the top of the page. It quickly became obvious that Skrzyniarz forgot one basic requirement in his sales pitch – What office are you running for?

Here’s a portion of the peculiar announcement:

“The election is non-partisan with a total of six at-large open seats, meaning I just have to receive the sixth most votes or better.  With a city of over 130,000 people and likely more than 20,000 voters on Election Day, I will need extensive resources to be successful.  My focus over the next 90 days is to acquire the 1,000 petition signatures needed to appear on the ballot and to raise money.  I am confident that with a focus on grassroots organizing combined with strong financial resources, our campaign will be a success.”

Now, if only those receiving this email knew what city to converge upon for this big grassroots organizing effort. To be fair, when I downloaded the logo it included this message in tiny type: “A new voice for Sterling Heights.”  That’s a pretty good hint for the voters. But you don’t want to be subtle in politics, especially when you’re a newcomer.

To be clear: Skrzyniarz (doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?) is running for Sterling Heights City Council. Barring the need for a primary, the election is Nov. 5. He must collect sufficient nominating signatures prior to the May 14 filing deadline.

Toward the end of his short email message, Skrzyniarz  offered this:

“As you know, election campaigns are difficult and challenging.”

Yup. And, based on this initial outing, I suspect this candidate is in for a challenging time.

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UPDATE: Within an hour of this item going up on my blog Skrzyniarz called to say that the "$100 Campaign Kickoff" email was not intended to announce his campaign. He said the email was sent to several hundred people who already know that he's running and it was intended as an initial attempt at raising $100 each from supporters.