Comeback trail?

Leeman sees hope In 8th run in 8 yea

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To clear up any confusion, Harold Leeman Jr. jotted down on a folded-up piece of blue paper all the times he´s appeared on a ballot since his maiden defeat to Patrick Lindemann in a 1987 First Ward race.

When it comes to experience on a local ballot, nobody has more of it in the last eight years than Leeman, whose latest bid for one of two Lansing City Council seats is his eighth since 15 votes ended his 12-year run on the City Council in 2007.

The way the 58-year-old retired east-sider looks at it, when Vincent Delgado opted not to run for the seat he was appointed to earlier this year, Leeman saw an opportunity.

Leeman was one of the 29 applicants looking to fill out Derrick Quinney´s Council term when Quinney became the county´s register of deeds. None of the other 28 filed to run for the at-large seat. Leeman has experience on the Council, so …

"Why not?" Leeman asked.

Leeman’s trip on the comeback trail requires him to get one of four nominations in the Aug. 4 primary election for the two atlarge seats that will be on the General Election ballot in November. His opponents are incumbent Carol Wood and challengers Emily Dievendorf, Mary Ann Prince and Patricia Spitzley.

Admittedly, the defeats bother him. Yet, a man whose political career took off in 1995 when he beat now-Lansing Clerk Chris Swope in the First Ward is not deterred.

He wheeled his ´76 Toronado through Lansing´s Fourth of July parade. He´s not expecting endorsements from organized labor or the business community or Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero or the Fourth Ward Progressives or any other group that readily comes to mind.

Leeman isn´t known as a prolific fundraiser or the city´s most aggressive door knocker. (Asked if we could get a photo of him door-knocking over the weekend, Leeman, said, “No. Too hot. No one will come to the door.") He´ll pop a few yard signs around the city. Otherwise, he is counting on his name ID to carry some weight .

However, name ID hasn´t been Leeman´s friend in his last seven races. Last year, he finished third behind stay-at-home dad and "starving artist" Larry Hutchinson in the Democratic state Senate primary.

Several political observers interviewed this week see Leeman edging out Prince, a City Council “regular,” to advance through the primary. But they don´t see much success for him in the General.

One source put it this way, "Harold never raises money, doesn´t work doors or have a structure. I like him a lot, but I doubt he gets any traction. Even if it gets ugly and there´s a window, he most likely won´t have the money to take advantage of it."

Leeman raised $3,129 for his 2013 mayoral run, which he admitted to doing just in case something happened to incumbent Mayor Virg Bernero. He didn´t want to see the city put in a position of choosing among a trio of political novices.

He raised less than a $1,000 for last year´s run and his 2012 run for the open state representative seat, where he finished sixth in a seven-candidate Democratic Party primary field.

For that race, Leeman said he realized the eventual successor to term-limited Rep. Joan Bauer, Andy Schor, was a "good guy," but the way he saw it, "I´m a good guy, too."

Will this time be different? Leeman may have better name ID now, but that´s expected to change by November, with the Bernero-backed Spitzley, who works to redevelop old General Motors properties for "Racer Trust," and Dievendorf, the darling of the progressives who was with Equality Michigan, expected to run aggressive campaigns.

"I have a record of moving the city forward," Leeman said. "It´d be nice if some of the support groups come around … but what I´m telling people is if I´m not your first choice, I´m hoping to be your second choice. I just have to get my name out there."

Sadly, things are a little different for Leeman this go around. His elder father, Harold Leeman Sr., the recipient of a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his action in World War II, died last November. Leeman Jr. had taken care of his father for years and is now taking care of the estate.

Asked if he was going to do anything different this campaign than last, Leeman said, "I have to." That could include mailers, although he said an issue with the post office in 2007 prevented a large mailing from going out before the election. He still wonders if that could have made the difference in that 15-vote loss to Eric Hewitt.

History shows, however, Leeman´s political history hasn´t been the same since. An Ingham County Commission loss to Brian Mc- Grain during the 2008 Democratic primary. Incumbent City Council members Kathie Dunbar and Brian Jeffries beat out Leeman and Rina Risper in 2009.

He took 2010 off, but ran in 2011 for this First Ward seat. He didn´t make it out of the primary, so he tried state representative in 2012. He made it out of the primary in 2013 with 17 percent of the vote (Bernero had 66 percent) and lost 71-28 percent in the General.

Then there was last year, a declared protest run against now-state Sen. Curtis Hertel, even though he considers himself a friend, because he thought Bauer, with whom Leeman served on the Council, deserved the nomination. (Bauer dropped out after Hertel announced his candidacy.) He´s looking past that effort.

"I´ve had success," Leeman said. "We´ll see what happens."

See next week’s City Pulse for more on the Aug. 4 primary election.

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