Title:
Libertarian Elected to Troy City Council
Author:
Tim O’Brien
Date:
4/4/2000
Year:
2000
Article:
4/4/2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tim O’Brien
(313) 562-5778
DEARBORN. Libertarian Party of Michigan member, Martin Howrylak, was elected to one of two Troy city council seats up for election yesterday. Garnering over two-thirds of the vote in the non-partisan race, Howrylak won by a nearly two to one margin over the next highest vote-getter, 28-year incumbent, Anthony Pallotta.
“The voters have put the council on notice,” said the 25-year-old small business owner and lifetime Troy resident whose upstart campaign rocked Michigan’s 11th largest city.
Howrylak initially campaigned on his opposition to both the special tax treatment given the Delphi Automotive Systems world headquarters and the new municipal complex that had originally been bonded for $18 million but ballooned to a potentially quarter of a billion dollar “Metroplex,” as he dubbed it.
But then the incumbents handed their Libertarian challenger a gold gilded issue on a silver platter. A mere six weeks before the election the part-time city council voted unanimously (without even debate, much less dissent) to give themselves a lifetime pension — to be generously provided by taxpayers.
In his mailing to absentee voters Howrylak made a point of this pocketlining, observing that the pension formula would provide a more than $14,000 annual benefit to Pallotta — should he be reelected.
Meanwhile, a coalition of unhappy Troy taxpayer/residents and Libertarians outside of the Howrylak campaign created and distributed a piece of literature done in the style of an old west “Wanted” poster that featured drawings of the two incumbents, described the pension scheme, and labeled the pair as “Troy’s most UNWANTED.”
Howrylak buried the field in a landslide victory, garnering 3,871 votes. His archrival, Anthony Pallotta finished a way distant second in the race with 2,288, edging out the other challenger (who had no organized campaign) by barely 100 votes. The other incumbent in the race finished last.
