“Mayors all over America have PACs, and I have not had one,” says Christopher Taylor. Not until now, that is: The mayor’s recently formed political action committee, Ann Arbor for Everyone, has already raised more than $20,000.
Most of the twenty-one donations reported by mid-December were less than $100. But three contributors each gave $5,000: real estate investor Mark Hutton, U-M musical theater grad turned TV producer Mike Mosallam, and developer Heidi Poscher, whose projects include Venue restaurant on South Industrial and the planned $100 million Southtown apartment complex nearby (see “Imagining Southtown,” April 2023). Thousand-dollar donations came from attorney and former SPARK board member Mike Staebler, Huron River Watershed Council ecologist Kris Olsson, and Duo Security cofounder Adam Goodman.
Since topping a four-way Democratic primary in 2014, Taylor has won a series of increasingly expensive contests—in 2022, facing both primary and general election challenges, he raised and spent roughly $90,000. But he says he doesn’t plan to draw on the PAC himself. While he hasn’t yet decided whether to seek another term in 2026, he says, “If I were to run for reelection, I would expect to fundraise through my ordinary mayoral campaign committee.”
Then why have a PAC? “So that I could do my part to help progressive candidates,” Taylor says. It will “help communicate directly to community members some of the things that we’re doing in the city …
“I believe that Ann Arbor is a progressive community where everyone is welcome and where it is important that the municipal government look to support all members of the community, largely through improvement of basic services and enhancing quality of life.”
The PAC’s first focus is the Fourth Ward, a longtime opposition stronghold. With Taylor’s backing, Jen Eyer defeated incumbent councilmember (and former Taylor mayoral opponent) Jack Eaton there in 2020. Dharma Akmon ousted another opposition incumbent, Elizabeth Nelson, in 2022.
But Akmon won by just 165 votes, and with Eyer up for reelection this year, the mayor is evidently preparing for another battle: Ann Arbor for Everyone has already given her $1,000.
