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Printer-Friendly ModeHillsdale 18-year-old mayor election a joke
November 14, 2005 —
The SVSU football team defeated Hillsdale 24-3 on Sept. 24. The day before, newly elected Hillsdale mayor, Michael Sessions, declared himself a write-in candidate. The day before that, Sessions turned 18.
To say this situation is ridiculous would be an understatement. A town of over 8,000 people now has a mayor who was barely old enough to vote for himself. But when the ballots were tallied, Sessions had defeated the incumbent, 51-year-old Douglas Ingles, 732 to 668.
Sessions is yet another political publicity stunt in a country known for its ridiculous voting habits. To make matters ironically worse, Sessions lost his student council election. And though this is probably not the first time the mayor of a city lost a high school student council election, it probably is the first time the elections happened in the same year.
The new mayor claims he ran because he was tired of hearing citizens complain that the city's elected leaders kept winning because no one would oppose them. So Sessions threw his name into the running, spent his summer job money making signs and somehow convinced 732 people that they wanted their city to be the punch line of this country's running monologue.
And a punch line is exactly what the city has become. David Letterman's Top Ten List Thursday was, "Good Things about being an 18-year-old Mayor." The list was read by none other than Sessions himself, whose mother had to call him in sick to school so he could fly to New York to do the show. Perhaps it is encouraging then that the Sessions family can do one thing associated with politicians: lie.
There is no conceivable way that Sessions could be prepared for this position. And while some say the City Council and city manager have the real power, the mayor presides over the Council, meaning Sessions is technically in charge.
Most likely, nothing outrageous will happen during his time in office. But that does not justify his election. If the city was unhappy with its current elected officials, they should have found a suitable replacement rather than voting for the first new name they saw on the ballot.
Then again, this is the same country that elected the Terminator as governor of California, so perhaps logic is too much to ask for.