In the competitive world of politics, it's never too early to start.
This is the case for LSA first-year student Michael Enright, who recently became the first candidate to announce his intention of running for a spot on the Ann Arbor City Council.
Enright intends to run for a seat in the city's 4th Ward as a member of the Libertarian Party.
Originally from Clinton Township in Macomb County and a graduate of L'Anse Creuse High School, Enright said he has always been interested in politics.
"I've followed local politicians for years," he said. "I hope that I will now be able to participate with them."
Enright said that he became intensely involved with the local Libertarian Party last year. He said he expects to win the party's nomination in the August caucus.
James Hudler, vice chair of the Washtenaw County Libertarian Party, also said he expects Enright to gain the nomination.
"I think his chances are pretty good at this point," Hudler said. "It's probably a long shot that he'll actually win the seat, but I think he'll definitely affect the election."
Enright said he has given much consideration to running for city council. The issue that he said caused him to finalize his decision was his opposition to the potential introduction of a city-wide income tax.
"I think that an income tax would hurt the city," Enright said. "An additional tax would discourage good workers from coming into the city and become an extra incentive for people to look for jobs elsewhere."
Enright said having a University student on city council would be very beneficial to students.
"The University is a big part of the Ann Arbor community and the students have many concerns," he said. "I think that it is important to have someone who would be able to address these problems to the city government directly. I think as a city council member, I would be able to do so."
Ann Arbor's 4th Ward includes South Quad and the University area in the vicinity of Madison and Packard Streets.
Currently, the 4th Ward is represented by Republican Patrick Putnam and Democratic Stephen Hartwell. Hartwell, however, is not up for re-election this year, leaving only one seat open for contention.
Putnam is serving out his first term on council and hasn't decided if he will run for re-election. He is expected to announce his decision by the end of the month.
Enright said he is confident that he has as good a chance as any Libertarian to break into the 4th Ward, even though it has only been represented by Democrats and Republicans in the past.
"Though there aren't a lot of University Libertarians, our numbers are growing," he said. "Actually, the party's influence on the entire community is growing as a whole."
Hudler said Enright's main impact on the election will be to be to split the votes between Democrats and Republicans. He also said he thinks the community will take Enright's canididacy seriously.
"The Libertarian Party has been the only party to run student candidates in the past 20 years, for we think it is very important to have student opinions heard," Hudler said. "For this reason, I think Mike will gain a lot of votes."
Though he declared his candidacy two weeks ago, Enright said that he hasn't heard much reaction yet from either students or city council.
"Some students have offered their support, but I think it's still so early that most people don't even know I'm running," Enright said. "My main reason for announcing my intentions so early was due to the fact that school was ending for the summer. I wanted to get the word out before everyone left."
He said he plans to begin campaigning once classes resume in the fall.
ADDIE SMITH/Daily
LSA first-year student Michael Enright recently became the first person to announce his candidacy for the Ann Arbor City Council.