As we have in every contested election since 1998, AAPAC urges you to go to the polls on November 8th and vote for the candidates we have endorsed. When we began this process 25 years ago, we encountered many skeptics. Not everyone believed at the outset that the Arab American and American Muslim communities could become politically organized and have an impact by forming a voting bloc. Our history has proven the skeptics wrong. From national presidential elections to statewide offices, to local school elections, we have shown that this community can be a deciding factor in the outcome of an election. We have also shown that our community can field many qualified candidates who were either elected or appointed to several offices across our cities and our state.
Unfortunately, our political involvement this year has been marred by blatant attempts to confuse and mislead our community on many levels and regarding more than one issue. The obvious purpose of these attempts by a few individuals is to divide and drive us away from voting for certain candidates, and defeat the state proposals, especially proposal 3. Despite this, AAPAC volunteer members continued to operate as usual, conduct research, screening, and interviews, and endorse the candidates and proposals that best serve the interest of our community, our cities, and our state. The AAPAC process is open, as is membership, and we encourage interested community members to attend meetings, interviews, and other AAPAC events to have an understanding of our process.
AAPAC and its members are far from perfect, but we work hard and we don’t get paid. We expect criticism and we listen if it is constructive and ignore it if it is destructive. We hope you do the same. We urge you to read and be informed about the candidates and the proposals. Keep in mind that this year, Dearborn ballots are available in Arabic and English. Together, and united, we will continue and we will accomplish much more in the years to come.
VOTE ON NOVEMBER 8.