Councilmember has filed to be a state representative

Mohammed Hassan

By Charles Sercombe
State Rep. Abraham Aiyash’s unexpected withdrawal from being re-elected has left one city councilmember upset.
Councilmember Mohammed Hassan said Aiyash’s bowing out means there will not be a Hamtramck resident in Lansing after this year.
Hassan said Aiyash should have given locals a heads-up so they could run for his seat.
Aiyash dropped out in order to position himself for a run as a state senator next year, political observers say. He did not answer an email from The Review as to why he dropped out.
Hassan, who is currently a candidate to win the Wayne County Commission seat that Martha Scott has long held, questioned why Aiyash did not let anyone know he was going to drop out.
“I called Aiyash a month ago to talk about the election, but he never returned my call,” Hassan said. “Is he jealous and doesn’t want anyone to go there (Lansing), or was he forced out?”
Hassan declined to elaborate on what he meant by Aiyash being “forced out” of the election. Aiyash did not respond to an email from The Review asking him whether he is, indeed, being forced out by someone.
However, according to state election law, in order for Aiyash to qualify to serve two terms as state senator, he had to withdraw from his re-election bid.
On Tuesday, Hassan has filed to be a write-in candidate for the Aug. 6 primary election. He faces three other Democratic challengers – all of whom are Detroit residents.
Hassan has also filed to run as a challenger to Wayne County Commissioner Martha Scott. Councilmember Mohammed Alsomiri is also challenging Scott.
If he were to win both elections in the August primary, he would have to withdraw from one of the races, according to the Wayne County Elections Office.
During Aiyash’s tenure in Lansing, he championed expanding the civil rights of the LGTBQ community, but faced backlash for that from the conservative Muslim community here in town.
Aiyash, a Democrat, is the first Yemeni-American to represent the city in the legislature, and he is the first Arab-American to be appointed Majority Floor Leader.
Aiyash also drew the ire of some state Democrats for encouraging voters to withhold their vote for President Biden in the state’s Presidential Primary.
Aiyash and other Arab-Americans urged voters to be “uncommitted” in the primary election as a sign of protest against Biden supporting Israel in its invasion of Gaza.
Biden has actually been critical of how the Israeli government is handling its war in Gaza.
Many have termed it, at this point, a genocide.
Israel retaliated against Hamas in Gaza after the latter invaded into Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 Israelis and resulted in hundreds more people taken as hostages, some of whom were also killed.
So far, in the retaliation, much of Gaza has been destroyed, and well over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed – many of them women and children.
As of Thursday, the day The Review went to press, there was talk of a possible ceasefire.
In other election news, congressional candidate Adam Hollier might have an issue with what looks like forged signatures on his nominating petition.
It’s unclear, at this point, whether he has enough valid signatures to guarantee him a spot on the August ballot.
Hollier, a former state senator, is challenging first termer U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit).
Posted May 10, 2024