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Flint school board candidate slate will host ‘Meet and Greet’ events throughout August

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FLINT, MI — Five Flint Community Schools Board of Education candidates are hosting nine “Meet and Greet” events throughout the month of August.

The slate of candidates — Dylan Luna, Emily Doerr, Melody Relerford, Terae King Jr. and Michael Clack — are five of 15 registered candidates that will be on the ballot for five open positions in the Nov. 2 election.

Events will take place in all nine Flint wards. A schedule is listed below. Each event goes from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. unless otherwise listed.

Monday, Aug. 8: Clara Hilborn Park in Ward 1

Tuesday, Aug. 9: Windiate Park in Ward 9

Wednesday, Aug. 10: Kearsley Park in Ward 3

Saturday, Aug. 13: Court Street Village Office in Ward 7 (4 p.m. to 6 p.m.)

Tuesday, Aug. 16: Longway Park in Ward 4

Monday, Aug 22: Sarvis Park in Ward 2

Tuesday, Aug. 23: Sarginson Park in Ward 8

Wednesday, Aug. 24: Ballenger Park in Ward 6

Monday, Aug. 29: Dort Park in Ward 5

In total, nine candidates are seeking three six-year term seats, two are seeking a four-year partial term and four are seeking a two-year partial term on the Flint Board of Education.

Only Joyce Ellis-McNeal and Laura McIntyre are not up for reelection.

Read more at The Flint Journal:

Flint’s superintendent wants to ask the Mott Foundation for help. Will the board let him?

Swartz Creek superintendent Ben Mainka leaves for Novi school district

Masks recommended, not required at Flint schools’ first day

Board member walks out as tempers flare at Flint schools meeting

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Zeldin, Republican Candidate for New York Governor, Is Attacked at Campaign Event

Zeldin, Republican Candidate for New York Governor, Is Attacked at Campaign Event

Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of New York, was attacked on Thursday at a campaign event outside Rochester by a man with a pointed weapon who dragged him to the ground before being subdued by several other men, according to officials and videos of the attack. Mr. Zeldin was not injured, a campaign representative said.

The videos show Mr. Zeldin, standing on the bed of a truck, addressing supporters gathered outside a V.F.W. hall in Fairport, N.Y., when a man approaches him slowly from the right, grabs him by the arm and brandishes a weapon. Mr. Zeldin responds by grabbing the man’s wrist and is then joined by several men in containing the attacker.

Mr. Zeldin said in a statement issued after the attack that he, his running mate, Alison Esposito, and members of his campaign staff were safe.

“Someone tried to stab me onstage during this evening’s rally, but fortunately, I was able to grab his wrist and stop him for a few moments until others tackled him,” he said, putting the attack in the context of his tough-on-crime campaign message. “I’m as resolute as ever to do my part to make New York safe again.”

Mr. Zeldin said the man had been taken into custody, but local law enforcement agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Information about the man’s identity and potential motivation was not immediately forthcoming Thursday night.

An onlooker in one video can be heard saying “he’s got a knife,” but another close-up video of the incident published by WHEC-TV in Rochester shows that man is holding what appears to be a pointed self-defense tool shaped like the face of a cartoon cat. Wearing sunglasses and an Iraq war veteran hat, the man can be heard saying “you’re done, you’re done, you’re done,” as he struggles with Mr. Zeldin.

The incident comes at a time when actual and threatened political violence — including threats directed at members of Congress — are on the rise across the United States.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mr. Zeldin’s Democratic opponent, quickly condemned “this violent behavior in the strongest terms possible — it has no place in New York.”

The event in Monroe County was the first stop on a planned weekend “Unite to Fire Hochul” bus tour across upstate New York to informally kick off Mr. Zeldin’s general election campaign.

A 42-year-old fourth-term congressman from Long Island, Army reservist, and ally of former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Zeldin won the Republican nomination for governor handily last month.

He has made crime a centerpiece of his campaign for governor, using apocalyptic terms to paint a dark picture of the state of public safety and to appeal to New Yorkers’ sense of unease. He has specifically pinned blame on rising crime on Democrats and Ms. Hochul, calling on them to reinstate most cash bail and ratchet up policing.

Just hours before the attempted attack, Mr. Zeldin’s campaign had released its first digital advertisement of the general election, a lengthy spot attacking Ms. Hochul for refusing to fire Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, after Mr. Bragg initially filed second-degree murder charges against a bodega clerk who fatally stabbed an attacker. Mr. Bragg dropped the charge on Tuesday, but he and his policies have been a frequent punching bag for the political right.

In his stump speech just before the attack, Mr. Zeldin had been discussing how rising crime and New York’s high cost of living were driving residents out of the state to places like Florida and Texas. “This is our last stand for New York,” he said, referring to his campaign to oust Democrats from Albany, according to video of the speech.

Mr. Zeldin faces an uphill battle as he tries to become the first Republican to win statewide in New York in two decades. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one in New York, and Ms. Hochul enters the race with a huge financial advantage. She hopes both factors will be a bulwark against favorable political conditions for Republicans nationwide.

Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.

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Man attacks New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin at campaign event

Man attacks New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin at campaign event

U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY)

Source: CNBC

A 43-year-old man attacked New York Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin at an upstate campaign event Thursday evening.

Zeldin was not harmed in the incident, which occurred as he was speaking outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Fairport, a village near Rochester, NBC News reported.

Zeldin said he grabbed the attacker’s wrist and stopped him for a few moments before others tackled the man.

The attacker, identified by three senior law enforcement officials as David Jakubonis of Fairport, was subdued by members of the audience after he charged Zeldin, WHEC-TV reported.

That NBC affiliate reported that audience members disarmed the man, and put him in zip-ties that were pulled from campaign posters.

The suspect may have had some sort of bladed instrument, NBC News reported.

Zeldin, who represents a congressional district in Suffolk County, Long Island, is campaigning to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.

Hochul in a tweet wrote: “Relieved to hear that Congressman Zeldin was not injured and that the suspect is in custody.”

“I condemn this violent behavior in the strongest terms possible — it has no place in New York,” Hochul tweeted.

Hochul took office last year after Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace following accusations of sexual harassment by nearly a dozen women.

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Pierre Poilievre draws huge crowds, but which candidate will have the memberships?

Pierre Poilievre





Stephanie Taylor and Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press







Published Saturday, April 9, 2022 6:40AM EDT




With 10 days left for candidates to enter the Conservative party leadership race — and 20 before $300,000 worth in fees are due — what’s capturing the attention of those watching as of late are the crowds.

More specifically, who’s drawing them in and who isn’t.

Pierre Poilievre would fall into the first category, as the longtime Ottawa-area MP has been consistently appearing before massive groups of people at rallies across the country.

“The sort of draw that he has to bring people out is unprecedented,” said Connor Hollingshead, president of the Conservative campus club at Simon Fraser University, who says he’s not endorsing anyone.

Poilievre recently spoke to students in Vancouver at an event co-hosted with Conservatives at the University of British Columbia. Later that Thursday, he addressed a rally crowd that his campaign said swelled to more than 1,000.

Staying late to smile for photos and greet those who waited out long lines to meet him has also been a common occurrence at events — as has selling memberships.

Signing up new members and then doing the followup work to make sure they fill out their ballots correctly and mail everything in on time is what successful leadership campaigns are about. 

As of Saturday, candidates have under two months left to sign up members before the June 3 deadline.

Among the buzz being generated around Poilievre, who was the first to enter the contest, is who is attending his events.

Not only is the Conservative faithful flocking, but also those who don’t typically frequent political events, including the under-40 crowd.

“The Poilievre movement has taken off all across the country, and it’s only the beginning,” tweeted Sen. Leo Housakos, a co-chair on his campaign.

Hollingshead says he saw some of that firsthand. About 150 people, most of them students, came to the campus event. He said that was the largest crowd they have seen in five years, when reality TV star Kevin O’Leary ran for the party’s top job in 2017.

“He is certainly a different breed of politician,” Hollingshead said of Poilievre. “He’s speaking to a lot of the frustrations that young people have in this country.”

Railing against the price of a home is one of his go-to messages. In Vancouver, Poilievre also pledged to uphold free speech at universities, at one point joking that a sudden loud sound was censors coming to get him.

When he promised to defund the CBC — a popular Conservative rallying cry — the crowd cheered. He also peppered his speech with mentions of historical figures like Winston Churchill and John Diefenbaker.

For UBC graduate student Avril Lee, it’s not just what Poilievre says, but how he says it.

“My mom is on Instagram and we both follow Pierre … and we easily watch his videos daily. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re serious. His messaging is very clear and simple.”

Longtime Conservative strategist Melanie Paradis, who is remaining neutral in the race, says Poilievre’s crowds are impressive, comparing them to the support seen around Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

The key will be turning that into memberships, she says.

But Paradis cautioned that photos of the room don’t always tell the full picture of what’s happening on a campaign.

“Andrew Scheer won the 2017 leadership in church basements. Nobody took pictures of his rallies,” she said Friday.

“When you don’t see people out and about, that’s not indicative that nothing is going on. Rather, they’re like a duck: They’re smooth and calm on the surface, but they’re kicking their little feet as fast as they can under the water.”

One candidate who’s been keeping a lower public profile and is known for his hustle in Tory circles is Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who was recently added to the official list of candidates after he submitted his first $50,000 fee and met other party-stipulated thresholds.

“Patrick has attended nearly 200 events in the last three weeks and is excited about the number of memberships that have been sold,” campaign spokesman Jeff Silverstein said Friday.

Michelle Coates Mather, a spokeswoman on Jean Charest’s campaign, says the former Quebec premier has 1,500 volunteers, 400 organizers and was nearing $1 million in campaign fundraising.

“The constant obsession with the status of our campaign on Twitter just confirms for us that some of our opponents are afraid our momentum,” she wrote in an email to The Canadian Press, referring to how some have compared his crowd sizes to those of Poilievre’s.

“At the end of the day tweets are just tweets, photos of crowds are just photos, it’s membership sales that count.”

Paradis says members like to pick winners, and photos of packed rooms can be a motivator for supporters and volunteers.

Leslyn Lewis, who placed third in the party’s 2020 leadership race and is popular with the party’s social conservative wing, recently announced she raised the $300,000 required to be on the ballot.

She too has hit the road, campaigning in communities across the Prairies and most recently in Calgary and Red Deer, Alta., at times drawing hundreds and selling memberships at her events.

“We have been having great attendance at Leslyn’s events and are encouraged to see such high engagement across campaigns,'” campaign manager Steve Outhouse wrote in an email.

“Having multiple strong candidates bringing in new members bodes very well for our party’s fortunes in the next election.”

Candidates are set to appear face-to-face for what will likely be the first time on May 5 in a leadership debate hosted by the Canada Strong and Free Network to kick off its annual conference in Ottawa.

Poilievre, Lewis and Charest have confirmed they will go, as have MP Marc Dalton and independent Ontario MPP Roman Baber.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2022

— By Stephanie Taylor in Ottawa and Brenna Owen in Vancouver