By Ray Hanania
Dennis Denno, the chief of staff to Michigan State Senator Virgil Smith said that Smith defeated fellow Democratic challenger State Rep. Rashida Tlaib because she lacked strong connections to the senate district in a radio interview Friday on Yahala Voice “Talk of the Town” Radio..
Tlaib represented a nearby State House seat for three terms (6 years) but was forced to retire this Fall because of Michigan Term Limits. Denno said that Smith was a well known and popular Democrat whose family has a long history of public service. His father served in the legislature more than 20 years, and noted that only about 10 percent of Tlaib’s voter base was in the Senate District battle.
Denno, who is also a political consultant, discussed the election battle and also offers insights into the landslide re-nomination of Tea Party Republican and Palestinian U.S. Congressman Justin Amash. Amash, a former Michigan state legislator, has served in Congress two terms representing the 3rd Congressional District. His father is Palestinian and his mother is Syrian.
Amash was challenged by rightwing extremist Brian Ellis but easily won more than 57 percent of the district vote. Some of his opposition came from his decision to not support the election of Congressman John Boehner as Republican House Speaker. Click to read a review of the Amash primary contest.
Amash is chairman of the Liberty Caucus in the U.S. House that has more than 33 members. The Liberty caucus is the Tea Party.
Denno also discusses the candidacy of Democrat Rashid Baydoun who ran an impressive second place in a field of 8 candidates to fill a vacancy caused by the decision of State Rep. Dennis Knezek to run for the Michigan State Senate. Click to read a background on Baydoun’s candidacy.
Denno was the guest on Talk of the Town Radio broadcast live on Yahala Voice Radio and WCEV 1450 AM radio in Chicago on Friday August 8, 2014. Talk of the Town is broadcast every Friday at 4 pm CST (Chicago time) live online and live on Chicagoland radio.
Click to listen to the complete interview with Dennis Denno on Talk of the Town Radio.
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Behind the scenes in the Smith-Tlaib Senate battle
Rashid Baydoun leads pack for Dearborn Heights legislative race
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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