Politics

Long-Distance Candidate: Would-Be Michigan Senator Works in Wyoming

October 27, 2014, 2:05 PM by  Alan Stamm

You know about absentee ballots. Meet an absentee candidate.

Former Detroit journalist Hawke Fracassa, who's on ballots next Tuesday as a Republican challenger for a Michigan Senate seat from Macomb County, began working full-time as a newspaper managing editor three months ago in Cody, WY. He lives 1,600 miles from Warren, the residence listed on his candidacy filing with the state, a Lansing newsletter reports.


"I look forward to the sense of adventure Cody offers,” Macomb candidate Hawke Fracassa tells readers in the Wyoming city where he began work in July.

That scoop by the Michigan Information and Research Service (MIRS) is behind a subscription paywall. It's summarized by Macomb Daily politics columnist Chad Selweski, who describes Fracassa as "a colorful character." He writes:

A longtime journalist who most recently ran an obscure paper known as the Macomb Observer, Fracassa is still hoping to defeat Democratic incumbent Sen. Steve Bieda of Warren. According to MIRS, he continues to own a home in Warren and will return to Michigan if he wins the November election.

"I came out here to make money," he told the news agency. "If I win the election, I will obviously accept . . . but what are you going to do, not eat?"

Bieda is the overwhelming favorite to win in the heavily Democratic 9th District (Warren, Center Line, Eastpointe, Roseville, Fraser and southern Clinton Township).

The senator said he will not make an issue of Fracassa's long absence. But he did note that The Detroit News, Fracassa's employer for a number of years, endorsed Bieda.

At his campaign site, the 55-year-old underdog candidate says:

Hawke Fracassa has been a homeowner in Macomb County for three decades. He has lived in a brick ranch home with his family on Palomino Drive in Warren since 1983. 

The candidate's employer, the twice-a-week Cody Enterprise near Yellowstone National Park, introduced him to readers in a July 21 story that doesn't mention his Michigan candidacy:

He comes to Cody from Detroit, where he worked in newspaper newsrooms since 1977 as a reporter, editor and publisher.

He’s eager to connect with the Cody community.

“I look forward to the sense of adventure Cody offers,” he said. “I’m excited to reach out to neighbors so we can become an ever better and more useful news source for readers.”

In a sharp contrast, Francassa tells MIRS his job is a "temporary assignment."

At his Macomb Daily column, Selweski sketches the Republican's political background:

A colorful character going back to his days at Wayne State University, when he was known as E. Dale Lee, Fracassa ran unsuccessfully for Warren City Council, state representative, Warren Woods school board and county commissioner from 2007-12. . . .

On his campaign website, Fracassa thanks the 7,853 voters who supported him in the August GOP primary election. He does not mention that he was running unopposed and living nearly 1,600 miles away at the time.


Read more:  The Macomb Daily


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