DETROIT: Conyers vs Conyers? Great nephew Ian is running, but John endorsed his FUCKBOY son

[Hotlantan]

Ian Conyers, Great Nephew of John Conyers, Announces Campaign to Take Great Uncle’s Seat

Ian Conyers—the 29-year-old great nephew of former Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.)—officially launched his campaign on Friday for the U.S. House of Representatives to win his great uncle’s 13th district seat, after the legendary politician was forced to resign amid sexual harassment allegations.

Conyers, a Michigan state senator from the 4th district who announced his run on the west side of Detroit on Friday morning, hopes to continue the elder Conyers’ legacy by ushering in a youthful exuberance to a region that continues to suffer from a dropping population, 35 percent poverty rate and an ailing economy.

During a recent visit to New York City, Conyers specifically mentioned the economic renaissance that Detroit is undergoing and how not enough black people are benefiting from it. “My plan would be to get as many Detroiters and southeast Michiganders employed so that they can participate in that American Dream and that renaissance that you’re hearing about in Detroit,” he told The Root.

As a U.S. representative, Conyer says he would tap into the federal government’s budget for earmarked dollars to secure contracts for minority-owned businesses and provide job training for residents to be competitive for skilled jobs.

“It’s not enough for federal contractors to pay the fine when they can’t find the [minority] talent. We need to make sure those dollars are going specifically into the communities that have been effected [by economic decline] like Detroit, specifically for me,” he said. “But also places like Cleveland, St. Louis. Places that are on the rise, but need help from their country.”

Born and raised in Detroit, Conyers has a bachelor’s degree in government and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Georgetown University. After graduating, former D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty appointed Conyers as the Ward 6 constituent services deputy. Conyers worked as a director at The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, where he helped to lead redevelopment projects aimed at empowering small businesses in the region. In 2012, he served as field director for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential re-election campaign. Conyers returned to Michigan to work for the Democratic Party treasurer for Michigan’s 13th congressional district soon after.

An opening for state senator became available in Michigan’s 4th Senate district in 2016 after ex-State Senator Virgin Smith was forced to resign after a domestic abuse scandal. Conyers won the race with more than 76 percent of the vote against his Republican challenger.

The 4th district is a Democratic and largely African-American stronghold, so his margin of victory isn’t surprising. While Conyers has served for just over a year in his state senate seat, Michigan political consultant TJ Bucholz said the word in Lansing, Mich. is that Conyers can be a thoughtful legislator and brings a high level of intelligence to the table.

“When he does engage, he can be very thoughtful,”Bucholz said. “And if you have a thoughtful candidate with the name ID that he does, I think he’s a force to be reckoned with in the 13th [district race].”

Conyers certainly have competition. Fellow Detroit state senator and Democrat Coleman Young II has thrown his hat into the race. So has Detroit attorney and activist Michael Gilmore. The famous Detroit TV judge Greg Mathis was considered a candidate for the seat but said in a statement that he is taking his name out of consideration.

The elder Conyers endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to run for the seat, despite criticisms of his lack of political experience. When asked for comment, Conyers III told The Root he hasn’t decided whether he will run and declined to comment further.

Calvin Harris, Ian Conyer’s campaign manager, said his candidate has secure the fundraising services of Angerholzer Broz Consulting, a firm that has raised money for House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and other house democrats.

If Conyers wins, he would be one of the youngest members in at Congress 30, the age he’d be by time he is sworn in. Until then, Conyers will be hitting the pavement, going door-to-door, trying to convince voters that he is the best candidate to help lead his district to a more economically prosperous future.

One of his first tasks he wants to take on, if elected, would be rebuilding Michigan’s crumbling transportation infrastructure, with Detroiters filling the jobs to do so with federal financial support.

“We’ve got a C-minus infrastructure issue all across America, but specifically in Detroit. We can get those dollars to get Detroit back to work,” he said. “And if we can get Detroiters working, that powers the rest of our state. Getting a buy-in on that would be one of my main objectives.”

https://www.theroot.com/ian-conyers-great-nephew-of-john-conyers-announces-ca-1822203811

 

[Hotlantan]

Conyers vs. Conyers? Congressman backs son for seat
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...5/john-conyers-relatives-successor/108330920/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xmgwv/john-conyers-son-nephew-campaign-detroit

The battle over who will replace Conyers—who has held his House seat for more than a half-century—is also a family drama. Though the congressman endorsed his son, the elder John’s grand-nephew Ian Conyers also intends to run for the seat. “I expect for it to be utter chaos,” the Reverend David Bullock, a prominent Detroit civil rights activist, told me. “I think this creates a huge void and power vacuum that we have not prepared for and are unprepared to deal with.”

John Conyers III is the 27-year-old son of the legendary congressman and his wife Monica Conyers, a former Detroit city council member who served prison time after pleading guilty to taking bribes in a massive Detroit government corruption scandal. (Riddle, the political activist who supported Conyers at the church rally, was also implicated.) Until this week he had virtually no public profile, although in 2010, when he was 20, he gained some local notoriety after it emerged that he had been driving a government-registered Cadillac Escalade in his father’s district. After parking the vehicle in downtown Detroit, Conyers III reported two laptops and $27,000 worth of concert tickets—a sum so high likely because of Conyers III’s connection to rapper Big Sean’s Finally Famous crew—had been stolen in a break-in.

In 2013, Conyers III released a rap single, “Rich Glorious,” in which he references the incident. His bio on Huffington Post, where he’s listed as a contributor, describes him as a former intern with the Israeli embassy and “a partner at Detroit’s first minority run hedge fund” who “he has partnered with major film studios, record companies and book publishers” in LA as a consultant. His Twitter bio links to EIA All Weather Alpha Partners, a Detroit hedge fund. (I reached out by phone and email to confirm his employment there, but did not get an immediate response.)

On Wednesday NBC News reported that in February Conyers III was arrested in California for alleged domestic abuse. After reportedly going through his girlfriend’s computer, Conyers III “body slammed her” and “spit on her”; when she tried to call police, he allegedly chased her then ended up cutting her arm with a knife, according to the complaint. Conyers III told police that his girlfriend was intoxicated, she initiated a shoving match, and that she was cut by the knife in a struggle after she threatened him. He was not charged over the incident. A Detroit TV station also reported that Conyers III, who was seen driving a family vehicle to the airport Tuesday morning, has had his driver’s license suspended a half-dozen times, including for the past two and a half years.

“If JC is endorsing him, I just say I wish him the very best,” Shawn Campbell, who worked in Conyers’s Detroit office from 2006 to 2016, told me. “After witnessing him”—Campbell said he was familiar with Conyers III after having seen him frequently around the office— “I’m pretty sure he has a pretty decent understanding of what goes on.”

Other Conyers supporters echoed the same sentiment: If John Conyers was supporting his son, it must mean something. “I mean Conyers has served for 52 years and he knows what it takes to be in Congress,” said Williams II. “Let me put it this way: At the end of the day that’s his wish, and because that’s his wish it’s worth taking a look at.”

Yet it isn’t totally clear that Conyers III will in fact run: On Tuesday night, the would-be successor—who has not otherwise spoken publicly since his father’s retirement—praised the achievements of his dad on Twitter and said he was honored “that my father endorses me as his successor in his congressional seat.” But he also said, “I have not concluded if I will be a candidate,” adding that he expects to make the decision by the end of the year.

Whether Conyers III runs or not, the election to fill the open seat, the date of which will be set by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, will also feature Ian Conyers, the congressman’s grand-nephew and John III’s cousin. Ian is a 29-year-old who worked as the Democratic Party treasurer for Conyers's district and last year was elected as Michigan’s youngest-ever state senator. He announced his candidacy even before Conyers announced his retirement—effectively preempting the endorsement of his cousin.

“I didn’t expect him to make an endorsement,” Ian later told the Detroit Free Press by phone from Israel. (He did not respond to a request for an interview.)

Ian Conyers has said that his grand-uncle had actually encouraged him to run, but Monica Conyers, at least, took sharp offense to her grand-nephew’s announcement. “Please know that I don’t like the opportunist (sic) or disrespect,” she posted on Facebook, the Free Press reported on Tuesday. “One you did not consult with our family before you made such an announcement. Ian Conyers is not endorsed by the Congressman. Nor is he authorized to make any statements or comments on behalf of him.”

Yet many in Detroit—even some adamant Conyers supporters—are wary of a political dynasty, and question the ability of either potential family successor to fill such an enormous seat.

“Truth of the matter is it takes more than half a teaspoon of sperm & derivative DNA to replace Congressman #JohnConyers,” Riddle wrote on Twitter.

Coleman Young II, a longtime state senator who recently lost a bid for Detroit mayor, will also run, his mayoral campaign manager, longtime Detroit political consultant Adolph Mongo, told me. (“I could get a high school student if they’re going to push his son,” Mongo said of Conyers III.) More than a half-dozen other names are also being floated, including two Detroit city council members, a former Wayne County sheriff, and current and former state lawmakers from both Detroit and nearby suburbs.

The biggest concern, said Bullock, was that the flood of candidates would end up producing a winner—African American or otherwise—who is not a powerful voice for black issues in the same way Conyers was for decades. “I think we need someone who is in that tradition,” he said, citing Conyers’s persistent leadership on issues like slavery reparations. “We run the risk not only of losing a man and a legacy but losing a political tool.”

But days after the abrupt retirement, many Conyers supporters are still coming to terms with the sudden, ugly departure of a man who had become an institution. Despite the claims by multiple women, a large contingent of former Conyers staffers remain unwavering in their support: Campbell and another former staffer, a woman in her 20s who worked in the Detroit office and spoke on the condition of anonymity, strongly doubted the allegations, including those made by original accuser Marion Brown, who told the Today show that the now ex-congressman “just violated my body” and repeatedly invited her to hotels to proposition sex.

Even Detroiters who believe the accusations feel they’ve lost a legend.

“You’re talking about a man who put the Humphrey-Hawkins job act [a bill requiring the government to guarantee employment levels] up almost every year for the last 20 years,” said Williams II. “I mean he believed, optimistically, that the world would stop for Martin Luther King once a year… He was like the Mr. Smith that went to Washington that stayed in Washington for 52 years.”

Bullock said he was deeply disappointed by the way the congressman resigned, appearing to hide behind his lawyer as the scandal mounted and then retiring in an apparent political maneuver. But he still recognized the gravity of Conyers’s departure.

“It’s a major loss," he said. "I don’t think there’s room in politics for mourning, but I think there should be.”