1st District Unity Breakfast Nets 3 Of 11 Candidates
(MIRS News)
A declared unity breakfast held in the 1st House District this weekend didn't yield the results Democratic nominee Tenisha YANCEY may have hoped.
In a field of 11 Democratic state House candidates, only Yancey and two others managed to make it to the Grosse Pointe Big Boy at 8 a.m. Sunday, even though the former Wayne County assistant prosecutor called or emailed each of her former opponents with an invite.
Among the absent was fellow attorney Pamela SOSSI, the second-place finisher by 198 votes, who was up in Ubly for personal reasons. Four other candidates told Yancey they had other plans, but Sossi, fourth-place finisher Justin JOHNSON and a couple others never called back, Yancey said.
"I understand people have other plans, but I'm disappointed in that some people didn't respond," Yancey said. "I was hoping we could put our differences aside because we all do care about our community and we could all have started off with a new slate."
The three-candidate unity breakfast follows what participants called a particularly nasty campaign (See "From Convictions To Attack Mailers, Race For the 1st District Heats Up," 8/2/17). Sossi's team openly speculated that Yancey worked with eventual third-place finisher, Sandra BUCCIERO, to suck votes away from Sossi considering Sossi and Bucciero have similar personal profiles -- white, female attorneys from the essentially the same part of the district.
Sossi, in turn, was accused of being a Republican or operating with Republican money.
But in Bucciero's opinion, the negative campaigning all came in one direction -- Sossi. That's why Bucciero, also an attorney, wasn't surprised when Sossi didn't show up at Big Boy with herself, Yancey and Gowana MANCILL, Jr.
"This race has been very nasty," Bucciero said. "And all of the negativity came from (Sossi's) direction. Tenisha was never negative toward me, nor was any of the other candidates. It's why descent people don't run for office. Descent people get attacked."
Buccerio's campaign manager, Colton DALE posted on Facebook after the election that he wanted to make sure the 1st House District didn't go toward ". . . that nasty, mudslinging undercover Republican." Dale went on to say Sossi "takes money from whomever, pays for endorsements, anti-union and anti-vaxxer."
Sossi campaign manager Mike NORRIS noted that if only two other candidates outside of Yancey showed up, "it wasn't much of a unity, was it? Norris called former Rep. Brian BANKS the puppet master who orchestrated Sossi's loss after Sossi came 500 votes away of beating him in 2016.
Norris also noted that Banks contributed to both Yancey and Buccerio. As further proof for his theory that Buccerio was only a pawn for chessmaster Banks. Norris noted that Dale wrote, "Though my candidate did not win, I can sleep tonight knowing that we won enough votes to keep Pamela Sossi out of the state House."
"Brian Banks is as crooked as a politician's spine, but he is damn good at manipulating people, which is a shame for the District," Norris said.
Asked if she was a plant, Buccerio vehemently denied it.
"I was not a plant. I ran a legitimate campaign. I ran to win it," she said. "I didn't run to take votes from Sossi. I ran to win votes. Pamela Sossi has nobody to blame for her losing than herself. Her vote count from 2016 went down 600 votes. In less than a year since her last election, she lost votes from her base when her job was to expand her base."
Buccerio said she voted in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, as other Democrats did, so she could help pick Barack OBAMA's future opponent. However, she's done campaign work for former U.S. Rep. John DINGELL and John EDWARDS, among other Democrats.
Buccerio has been working with the local Democrats for years and said she's never seen Sossi be active until she started running for office.
Yes, Banks gave Buccerio $100 on-line, but she never knew Banks until well after she filed, she claimed. Why did Banks give when he was support Yancey with greater of a financial contribution? Buccerio said it's clear Banks was trying to get into Sossi's head and it clearly worked.
Buccerio said she went to Yancey's unity breakfast because she cares about her constituents and wants to work with likely the next state House member from the district.
"She took notes on the issues that are important to me and the people I spoke to. She was very receptive and that's what is important to me," Buccerio said. "We don't run for a title, we run to make our communities a better place."