RESOURCES:
Yousef Rabhi for Ann Arbor Mayor
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, and my guest today is Washtenaw County Commissioner, Yousef Rabhi. He's announced that he's running for Mayor of Ann Arbor. Welcome, Yousef!
Yousef Rabhi: Thank you for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: All right, first of all, it came somewhat as a bit of a surprise, but you apparently formed a committee on January 25th to challenge incumbent Mayor Christopher Taylor, and you have a website, voteyousef.com, that was registered on Monday. So, tell me a little bit quickly about yourself and why you are running for Mayor of Ann Arbor.
Yousef Rabhi: Sure. Well, so I am somebody who was born and raised in this community and very proud to be raising my family here now. My family is in town. I got my start in activism and in service to this community at a very young age. Even in preschool, we adopted a segment of a creek on the south side of Ann Arbor. And ever since then, I've really learned stewardship and pride in this community. And everything that I've done since that time through my time in Ann Arbor Public Schools, my time at the University of Michigan, my time as an activist for labor rights, against wars, especially against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I got very organized as a student on campus, and for environmental causes, that sort of springboarded me into running for County Commissioner back in 2010. I won my first election by a single vote--two votes after the recount. And I served as the County Commissioner for six years before running for the State House of Representatives. And in that role, I served for six years until I was term-limited. And during my time in Lansing, I served as the Democratic floor leader in the Michigan House of Representatives for four of the six years. And then, when I was term-limited, I came back to Washtenaw County and am serving now as a County Commissioner once again. So, in all, it's been nine years as a County Commissioner, six years as a State Representative, and, yeah, that's a little bit about me.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. So, tell me about some of the issues that are really important to you--the platform you're running on basically.
Yousef Rabhi: Absolutely! So, I think affordability has to be the number one thing that I mentioned on this call because, and it is really the core of my campaign, Ann Arbor has become completely unaffordable for working class people. And the majority of people that actually work in our community cannot afford to live here. And so, I want to address that crisis head-on. And I want to look for solutions that are community-based, that we're building from a grassroots level. And one of the most important ways to do that is to make public investments in the solutions that we're seeking. And especially one of those that is core and central to what I'm looking at in this campaign is housing, which has, again, become completely unaffordable. And so, I want to make historic investments in publicly owned, permanently affordable housing. And that looks like that can take many forms. And it can take the form of investing in our Housing Commission. It can take the form of building new cooperatives. I am a former cooper. I lived in the Intercooperative Council at U of M when I was a student, and I believe in the cooperative model. I also believe in land trusts. If we can maintain public ownership of the land and create some public investment in land trust, I think there's a way to help folks build equity in their homes, as well through the land trust model. So, I think that there's number of different models that we can use under the umbrella of permanent affordability and public ownership to make sure that we have that long-term affordability for our residents. And then, there's other issues, too, around affordability that I'm really passionate about, including public power. I think we've been robbed by DTE for long enough. They charge us exorbitant rates. They give us terrible service. And they're polluting our environment. They're a massive fossil fuel company. We need to cut our ties with DTE and chart our own course as a community. And I'm a full believer in municipal power. And I think that we can cut costs for residents in doing that. We can increase affordability, and we can reduce our carbon emissions pretty substantially by making that change and, of course, increase our reliability of our grid. So, those are some of the issues around affordability. The other thing I would mention too is there's an urgency in this moment that's driving me to run around what is happening at the national level with the rise of fascism in Washington. I think that it is important to have leadership at the local level that is ready and willing to stand up to the administration and to protect our residents here in our community and to be able to use city resources to do that and to do that effectively. And so, I think that's a really important part of my platform as well. And then, the last thing I'll say there are many things on my platform. The last thing I'll stay is this is a campaign that's also about building people power. I'm always, I've always been a politician and elected official that has believed in the power of the people. And ever since I got elected by a single vote back in 2010, I am a firm believer that every person, every voter, every community member matters in the decision-making process and deserves a seat at the table. And what I've heard time and time again traveling this community is folks just feel like their elected officials are not listening to them in the way that they should be. And I want to center the voices of the people and bring power back to the people, so that we have a city government that works for all of us.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Washtenaw County Commissioner and Democratic Socialist of America member Yousef Rabhi. He's announced his bid for Ann Arbor Mayor and is directly challenging Democratic incumbent Christopher Taylor. Okay. Now as you know, current Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor has been in office in the role somewhat successively. He has been there for several years. Tell me why you think it's time for a change and what makes you the better candidate.
Yousef Rabhi: Well, one of the things I will say is that I have a ton of experience in elected office. It has been an honor to serve both at the local level and at the state level. And I've had the opportunity to manage budgets, hundreds of millions of dollar budgets, organizations that employ thousands of individuals. I served on the State Appropriations Committee. I served, like I said, as Democratic floor leader in the Michigan House. I was chair of the County Board of Commissioners. I was honored to help....well, I was chair of the board, actually, when the county achieved a AAA bond rating and our first four-year balanced budget. And so I have a long history with local government, with municipal government, and with state government. And so, I think I can bring all of those different experiences that I've had at those different levels all together to help make Ann Arbor an even better community, and I think that is really fundamentally what makes me a good candidate in this election.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. Well, thank you. And I just want to quickly touch on with the way politics are going in this country. There's disappointment in the Democratic Party. What would you say can be done about this or to get Democrats to be to have more to offer to the public? Because I think there's a perception of weakness or sort of a tepid response out there to many issues.
Yousef Rabhi: I mean, that is definitely a frustration that I share with many people in the community and across the state. I've talked to so many voters who are feeling disenfranchised by the Democratic Party right now. And I think it's important that candidates run on bold platforms and not shy away from fighting for working-class people, fighting for the people of our state. And I think that there's, unfortunately, within both major political parties, there's been a tendency towards moving towards a more moderate and more corporate positions, and I think the people are fed up with that. I think that they're ready for change. They're reading for advocates who are actually a fight for them and to make are lives better and more affordable. You know, we're in this age where there is a rising oligarchy of these mega billionaires that are accumulating massive amounts of wealth, while the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet. And the voters want to see politicians and elected officials who are going to represent their interests in the face of that growing divide and not just feed into policies that help to further that divide. We need to fight for everyday average Ann Arborites, everyday, average Michiganders, everyday average Americans who can can barely pay their bills. That's what the voters are looking for in a party and a candidate. And so, I share that frustration. I am a lifelong Democrat. Like I said, I was a Democratic floor leader, and I will be the first to be critical of some of the decisions that my party has made and some of the stances that they've been unwilling to take to stand up for everyday people.
Caroline MacGregor: All right. Thank you. Just a quick question. You are a current member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Do you think Ann Arbor is ready for a more leftist mayor?
Yousef Rabhi: I think that Ann Arbor is definitely ready for a more leftist mayor. Like I said, I grew up in this community, and I know what this community is about. I know the heart and soul of this community. And I can tell you that Ann Arbor is not a corporate town. This is not town that wants to be bought and sold to the highest bidder on Wall Street. This is a town that believes in community solutions. This is the town that believes in grassroots organizing. This is a time that believes in social change. And I think a Democratic Socialist can deliver that for them.
Caroline MacGregor: All right. Thank you. I've been speaking today with Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi. He has announced his run for Mayor of Ann Arbor. Thank you for joining me today!
Yousef Rabhi: Thank you!
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