Nov. 9, 2005 — Earlier this year, Michael Sessions lost his bid for student body vice president at Hillsdale High School, but the high school senior has made quite a comeback.
Today he is the mayor-elect of Hillsdale, Mich.
"I ran because I thought I could bring a difference to the city of Hillsdale," Sessions told ABC News.
Sessions successfully mounted a rare write-in campaign for the office of mayor, narrowly defeating the 51-year-old incumbent, Douglas Ingles, on Tuesday. Sessions (whose name could not be included on the regular ballot because he had not turned 18 by the May filing deadline) ran his campaign using the $700 he made from his summer job, according to The Associated Press.
Sessions won the election 732-668, according to unofficial results published by the Hillsdale Daily News. About 1,400 of the town's 8,400 residents voted. He will be sworn in as mayor on Nov. 21, but his first official meeting as mayor will be at a community goals strategy session on Nov. 14.
Pretty gutsy for an eighteen year old. Even if I could've matched the potential money in a local race in Chapel Hill, I definitely wouldn't have been knowledgeable enough about the town's issues to be an effective mayor.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
And if our transcendental "if" should find a final floor Then man will know the death of God where wonder was before
Originally posted by ges7184It has to be a blow to the former mayor's pride to lose as an incumbent to an eighteen year old write-in candidate.
My question is how many people were running. I've read through the articles, but they only mention the kid and the former mayor. They also say only 1400 people voted with the two getting about 1400 of the votes, so I have to assume that the mayor was running unopposed.
I don't know if the townsfolk will accept this election, or basically demand he step down and re-run. There's no way 7000 people would have stayed at home if they knew an 18 year old could win (Although I'm in shock that 1400 would vote with only one person running. There HAD to be other issues people were going out to vote on)
I know there might not be much legally they can do, but they can certainly make his life difficult if he wouldn't step down.
I think the kid will do fine as mayor. Having lived in small towns most of my life, I know that running such towns isn't rocket science. Most of the time the towns pretty much run themselves, and the mayor only has to show up once a month for a <10 minute council meeting. When a town is less than 10,000 people strong, issues of importance just don't come up very often. (I know the mayor really does more than I'm saying, but given the people I've seen elected mayor and then given the fact the towns did just fine, it just can't be that big of a deal)
The Bored are already here. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. And no... we won't kill dolphins. But koalas are fair game.
Originally posted by ges7184I think the kid will do fine as mayor. Having lived in small towns most of my life, I know that running such towns isn't rocket science. Most of the time the towns pretty much run themselves, and the mayor only has to show up once a month for a <10 minute council meeting. When a town is less than 10,000 people strong, issues of importance just don't come up very often. (I know the mayor really does more than I'm saying, but given the people I've seen elected mayor and then given the fact the towns did just fine, it just can't be that big of a deal)
I agree and maybe he wont be so set in his ways or afraid to do something different. Sometimes when you don't know you can't, you can accomplish things people think impossible. More power to him and the people who voted for him and are willing to take a chance.
Pretty gutsy for an eighteen year old. Even if I could've matched the potential money in a local race in Chapel Hill, I definitely wouldn't have been knowledgeable enough about the town's issues to be an effective mayor.
Granted, but I think it'd be easy to know the issues of that small a town. Kind of like a small University.
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http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/ Public/Articles/000/000/003/378fmxyz.asp Interesting read. Alleged involvement from 1990 to 2003 just prior the start of the Iraq War.