Citizens launch last-minute, write-in campaign for Councilman Purdham
By Randy Arrington
STANLEY, Sept. 12 — On Thursday morning, a previously uncontested race on the fall ballot in the Town of Stanley officially became a real race, as a “letter of intent” was submitted to the county voter registrar eight days before early voting begins on behalf of Councilman Doug Purdham to run a write-in campaign for mayor.
“If people want to campaign for me, I can’t stop them,” Purdham said on Thursday. “If I really wanted to go after it, I would have filed to run.”
According to several sources, including the now write-in candidate, a number of citizens began approaching Purdham back in January to run for the Town’s top office. However, the mid-June deadline for candidates to file came and went without anyone filing an official candidacy to challenge two-term mayor Michael Knight. However, about 10 minutes after the voter registrar’s office opened this morning, Christie Baker submitted the “letter of intent” with Purdham’s signature of endorsement. Baker stated in an interview earlier today, that she wasn’t the only person behind this movement.
“Me, along with a lot of others,” Baker told PVN on Thursday. “I didn’t feel like our Town was going in the right direction…there has been some issues that came up, and I feel like we needed some new leadership. I went to Doug and told him a lot of people were expressing some concerns about where the Town was headed… I love our little Town…my dad was on council for 30 years… when you see things that are not being done correctly, you need to take a stand. I think Doug would be a better leader for the Town.”
The “letter of intent” simply alerts Electoral Board officials that a “serious candidate” intends to launch a write-in candidacy, according to Page County Voter Registrar Carol Gaunt. Purdham will not appear on the ballot. If successful at the polls, he will still have to complete the candidate forms required of those appearing on the ballot. The notification of the registrar’s office followed the launching of a Facebook page on Wednesday evening about an hour after the adjournment of the Stanley Council’s September meeting. The social media page is titled “Doug Purdham, Write-In for Mayor of Stanley.”
“We, as citizens and friends of the Town of Stanley, are launching a campaign to have Doug Purdham as a write-in candidate for the position of Mayor for the Town of Stanley,” the Facebook page states. “Doug Purdham previously served as the Mayor of the Town of Stanley for 20 years. Through that experience, Mr. Purdham has knowledge of how the Town government should conduct itself. Mr. Purdham currently sits on the Town Council and has a front row seat to see the areas of deficiency with the current administration. When elected, Mr. Purdham’s focus will be on ACCOUNTABILITY of the Town government to its citizens, COMMUNICATION between the Town government and its citizens and VISIBILITY of Town government in the community.”
Purdham was appointed to serve on the Stanley Planning Commission for about four years in the mid-1980s, for which he served as chairman. He was first elected to the Town Council in 1988, and in 1992 he began a 24-and-a-half-year tenure as mayor. The “half year” came from Stanley’s shift from spring to fall elections about a decade ago.
In 2012, Purdham approached Knight about being his successor as mayor, but then-Councilman Knight was not interested in giving up his seat.
“I told him I wasn’t ready to give up my vote yet,” Mayor Knight told PVN earlier today about that 2012 conversation — noting that the mayor conducts meetings and represents the Town at events, but does not cast a vote on issues before the Council.
In 2016, Purdham again approached Knight about being his successor as mayor. This time Knight threw his hat in the ring and won a two-way race against Mike Uram, with 61 percent of the vote. After passing the torch, Purdham said he made a decision to “never run against Mike.”
“Well that’s been my sentiment all along,” Purdham said. However, he adds, the current movement is being driven by citizens and not him.
“It was completely the request of a pretty good group of people,” Councilman Purdham said on Thursday. “I have a deep love for the Town of Stanley… I was ready to step down, I had done my time…but I went back [to the Council] because I care, and if enough people want me to serve, I will.”
When former Councilman Richard Durrough passed away a few years ago, the former mayor stepped up to fill the slot by appointment. At the end of that term, he wanted to step away from local politics again, but was pulled back in when no one stepped forward to run for the open seat. Once again, he says he’s being pulled back in by the citizens.
“The reason it’s happening is because people approached me about it…nothing directed at Mike…I did not initiate this, I want to make that clear,” Purdham said.
Purdham and Knight spoke over the phone this morning to discuss the announcement.
“I wanted to assure him that I did not initiate this,” Purdham said. “This is not an attack on MIke… it might be by the people who are asking me to run, but it’s not by me.”
However, Knight, who is seeking his third, four-year term as mayor, was caught off guard.
“I was a bit surprised,” the mayor said on Thursday. “I was not aware that there were any issues…my door has been open, as it always is…if anyone had any issues, they didn’t come and talk to me. If Doug was going to run, I wish he would have signed up in June.”
Purdham claims he has no intention of buying yard signs or actively campaigning for the position, but if voters put him in office, he will serve. Some have speculated that Purdham held off from filing his candidacy because of concerns over his health, which he denies.
“I don’t think I have anymore health issues than any other 73 year old,” he said. “I held off because I told Mike that I wouldn’t run against him.”
Purdham grew up in Stanley and now lives adjacent to the home he was raised in on East Main Street. He worked for 40 years at the (now) Masonite plant. First being hired in 1973 as a foreman trainee for Walled Lake Door, he would later serve in several management roles — accounting, plant supervisor, sales and customer service — at the manufacturing plant near the old Stanley landfill.
Now that he’s been pulled into the mayor’s race, Purdham says that citizens have told him that the Town is “not open enough” and that it needs more accountability and communication with citizens. On Wednesday night, the Council discussed the need for an “alert system” or way to get out notifications about anything from the recent water advisory to the dates of upcoming events. Purdham also raised the issue of potentially implementing time clocks for Town employees again, rather than the current hand-written reports from department heads.
“Our time-keeping system is a nightmare,” he said. “It’s an auditor’s nightmare.”
The former mayor and current councilman is now going along with a grass-roots push to put him back in the mayor’s seat because of his “love of the Town” and a desire to serve others.
“If people want to campaign for me, I can’t stop them.”
Early voting begins Friday, Sept. 20.
For more information on the Town of Stanley,
visit https://www.townofstanley.com/
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