School board candidate, local Republicans take aim at Howell library

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I don’t think many dreamed our county’s libraries would become a point of political contention with anyone, but it seems libraries in general — and the Howell Carnegie District Library in particular — are coming under fire from some Livingston County Republicans and at least one Howell school board candidate.

In the interest of complete transparency, I am the vice president of the Howell Carnegie District Library Board. Our four-year terms on the board are capped at two; I am at the start of my second term. Some library boards in Michigan are elected, and some are appointed; Howell’s members are appointed by the Howell City Council and the Howell Public Schools Board of Education (a fact that becomes important later).

I am an appointee of the Howell Public Schools, and, as such, the board members give me thumbs up or down; just as it did four years ago, the HPS board re-appointed me this summer in a unanimous vote. It’s an appointment of which I am proud. The Howell Carnegie District Library is this community’s heart and soul, and I appreciate the opportunity to be even a small part of it.

The Howell library is a well-loved, well-used and well-supported institution that loves the community right back, opening its doors to serve us all well, be we Republicans, Democrats or anything in between or beyond. The library cares not about our political affiliation. What it does care about is serving us all.

In addition to the traditional stuff you’d expect, Howell’s library serves as a hub for the community, including its celebrations: It’s where the Fantasy of Lights Parade has its reviewing stand. It’s where you get your melon ice cream during the Melon Festival. And, back in the day, it was a big part of the gobsmackingly amazing Harry Potter parties downtown that drew thousands.

There are interesting art displays, inside and out. The library hosts hundreds of programs each year, from reading groups for little kids to cooking demonstrations to yoga classes to historic presentations and just about anything else you can imagine. If you don’t have a computer or internet access, you can head to the library to do homework, search for a job, and  email resumes. You can do all kinds of research at the library, even using its archives to work on your family tree. When I was working at the local paper years ago — in the days before Google — the reference librarians were an invaluable source of information for me. The library is where kids hang out after class, and its grounds are where people meet up, or stop to relax.

And who doesn’t love the statue of Duane Zemper, decked out above for Howell’s recent homecoming. (Those of you new to the community or otherwise not familiar with Zemp and his legacy, click here for his amazing story.)

I know that Howell loves its historic, vibrant, eclectic library deeply, which makes me question why someone running for the Howell Public Schools Board of Education and someone from the Livingston County Republican Party are unhappy with this beloved institution.

During my 30-plus years in Howell, the library has had just two directors: Kathleen Zaenger, who was the director when I first came to Howell in 1990, and Holly Ward Lamb, the current director, who succeeded Zaenger when she retired. That these directors serve long and well says a lot about the quality of leaders hired, the stability of the library’s staff and finances, and the support and commitment of the library board and the community to it all.

I’ve been in this “everyone-loves-our-amazing-library” bubble the whole time I’ve lived here; discovering there was any hint of political animosity toward the library took me quite by surprise. I learned of it only when someone recently forwarded me a couple Facebook posts and comments about the library by Livingston County Republicans that opened my eyes.

To understand why this story is important, you need to remember that school board races have always been non-partisan. Local political parties have steered clear up until this election cycle, when the Livingston County GOP decided to jump in to recruit and train candidates to run, and make endorsements.

It’s a first, folks.

And in all my years covering politics in Livingston County, I’ve never heard of a school board candidate holding a state-office worthy political fund-raiser; that’s not to say it’s never happened, just that it’s something of which I’ve not been aware.

Until now.

You might ask whether the local Republicans are the only ones putting their big, fat fingers on the school board election scale. I know I did, so I reached out to Judy Daubenmier, chair of the Livingston County Democrats, to see if they had done any recruiting and/or training of candidates this cycle.

“Knowing that the Republicans were going to endorse, we let school board candidates who aligned with our values know that we were willing to endorse them publicly,” said Daubenmier. “They preferred to stick with the spirit of nonpartisanship intended for school boards under Michigan law.”

In the race for the Howell school board, the candidate making the most noise this cycle is Jason Bedford, who is running hard — really, really, really hard. He’s also running with fellow first-time candidate Meg Marhofer, also endorsed by the Livingston County Republicans.

Bedford’s been working as if the local GOP hadn’t endorsed him and supported his campaign financially: he’s been knocking doors (including mine); he’s got huge (and expensive) signs up in all the traditional Republican corners; and on social media he’s acting like he’s already won. And in another first in my memory, Bedford held a fundraiser of which the Livingston Republican Party was a sponsor.

Here’s a Facebook post comment by Bedford that was passed along to me. I assume, based on these two comments taken together, that they were made in response to some sort of Facebook grumble-fest over libraries (and I suspect it may also be part of the interesting thread from an official county Republican Facebook page that I will talk about in a bit):

I want to know what Bedford meant by “we will see more of this.”

More of what, Mr. Bedford?

Would the Howell City Council and the HPS board of education appoint different people if they were packed with folks sharing the local GOP’s “traditional values”? Which of the people on the library board, each of whom has served this community honorably and well in a wide variety of capacities, has not demonstrated “leadership with traditional values”? What decisions has the library board made that don’t serve the community well? What nits are you picking with the library board?

I have so many questions, and I don’t like to assume meaning or motive, and I don’t know Bedford, and I don’t know when he posted that comment or in response to what, and since context is important, I reached out. On the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 2, I sent a message to Bedford via both his campaign website and Facebook Messenger. I asked what he meant; he didn’t respond to either message.

I really and truly want to know what Bedford meant by “we will see more of this.”

Now, I am unsure what Bedford considers “traditional values,” or what Jennifer SmithRad means by saying the Brighton Library Board has been “liberalized”; if you think about it, though, Jennifer SmithRad is absolutely right.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Libraries ARE “liberal.” Libraries are liberal in the absolute best sense of the word.

Libraries are, in fact, both traditional and liberal — not liberal as in “own the libs” (which is what I think Jennifer SmithRad meant), but liberal as in wide open to an endless array of thoughts and ideas. Libraries are repositories of history and knowledge, presented by all sorts of materials that reach across all genres and eras and media and schools of thought.

This is a good thing, a healthy thing, a necessary thing in a well-functioning democracy, and something this community has voted to support for nearly 150 years.

And yet some, like Bedford and some in the Livingston Republican Party, find fault.

Someone also recently forwarded me this May 2021 Facebook post by someone named Ricky Blozon, along with the subsequent comments that out me on the private Livingston County Republican Party Facebook page as a member of the Howell Carnegie District Library Board, and imply that I am part of a shadow cabal of wild-eyed, book-loving Socialists secretly ruling Livingston County.

The truth is actually a lot less conspiracy theory-sexy than that: I suspect there may be more people who identify as Republicans than Democrats on the board, but I can’t say for sure because IT’S A NON-PARTISAN BOARD. THE PEOPLE SERVING ON IT DO SO BECAUSE THEY LOVE THE LIBRARY, AND THEY WANT TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY, AND THAT’S THE BASIS FROM WHICH THEY MAKE THEIR DECISIONS. AND I RESPECT AND ENJOY WORKING WITH EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS.

Whew! I am glad I got that off my chest!

That a person named Ricky Blozon posted this as the Livingston County Republican Party means he has/had administrative access to the page, but I’ve never heard of him; his profile picture — even though fuzzy when magnified — looks like he’s happy to be running the private Livingston County Republican page, so there’s that.
I searched Facebook and couldn’t find anyone named Ricky Blozon; a Google search shows nothing as well. So I turned to the one person I am sure knows every single active Republican in Livingston County: Meghan Reckling, chair of the local GOP.

Though she commented on his post, Reckling said she doesn’t know who Ricky Blozon is, and she added that this thread is from an older Livingston County Republican Party page.

But all that’s beside the point, which is that on one of the official Livingston County Republican Party Facebook pages in May 2021, some dude with administrative privileges who calls himself Ricky Blozon complained about the make up of the Howell Library board because he was upset with “anti-white propaganda training.”

I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I can’t find him to ask for clarification.

But I was able to reach out to Bedford, who isn’t talking, at least not to me and Howell’s voters.

So, in addition to the local GOP going all in on non-partisan school board races, some apparently fake guy running the Livingston County Republican Party private Facebook page took aim at the Howell library, and a candidate the local GOP is funding and is pushing hard for the Howell school board is complaining that the members of the Howell library board don’t have the kind of “traditional values” he thinks we all should have.

Tell me, Messrs. Bedford and Blozon (whoever you may be): What is more traditional — and wholly American — than freedom of speech, thought, and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness? You can’t shake your angry finger at someone else’s freedom unless you want them coming after yours when the political clime changes.

Folks, there is no more uniquely traditional-values American institution than a library.

Libraries spread knowledge. Libraries chronicle our past and make us think about the future. Libraries embrace different schools of thought, celebrate ideas, teach us stuff, connect us, and welcome us, every one. Libraries help us think about the world; they broaden our horizons, feed our imaginations, and give all of us — young and old — things about which to dream big.

That some in the local Republican Party and a serious candidate for Howell school board appear to not support that should give us all pause; and it’s something we should all remember when we vote.

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Maria Stuart worked at The Livingston County Press/ Livingston County Daily Press & Argus as a reporter, editor and managing editor. These days, she runs The Livingston Post.

3 Comments

  1. this article is pure garbage and nothing but a smear campaign. journalist…really? I think not.

  2. Thank you for sharing your experience– and research into how this sort of thing builds– Dog whistle’s, “fake news” and ghosting. Because of course– why have open, honest dialogue between actual people( you know, LIKE AN ADULT), when you can run in circles, scream and shout instead.

  3. Oh, wow! Excellent write! These fascist bullies should be stopped cold. You really called them out. They’re also running for the
    Cromaine Library Board and voters should choose carefully.

Comments are closed.