Laura Berman's column in the Detroit News

By Jocelyn Benson, Candidate for Secretary of State
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I wanted to share with you this article about my candidacy for Michigan Secretary of State in The Detroit News. I’ve pasted the content of Laura Berman's column below.

We've built a campaign based on the values of transparency, access, fairness, and accountability. And on Saturday, members of the Michigan Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly to send us into the general election.

Help us build on our unprecedented momentum as we work to expand our campaign to reach voters throughout this state. It's going to take a lot of hard work, tenacity, and courage from all of us to ensure we win in November.

Thank you for all that you do,
Jocelyn

PS - We've updated our website to include an excerpt of my new book on Secretaries of State, and a supporter's video of my speech on the convention floor accepting the endorsement of the Democratic Party. Check it out!

Unknown Dem's run is a profile in courage
By Laura Berman, Detroit News
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

To Michigan voters, Jocelyn Benson is an unknown. "I'm either a fresh face or an outsider, depending on how you look at it," is the way Benson described her status recently.

But on Saturday, Benson was endorsed for secretary of state by delegates at the state Democratic Party convention over Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, who said Monday she's "absolutely" out of the race.

Outsider and fresh face, Benson is a 32-year-old professor, marathon runner, Detroit resident and expert on election law whose take on the office that supervises elections and car registrations is unique: She's campaigning to make the office sound "like the greatest job there is," rather than a convenient stepping stone to another position.

"For some reason, people don't believe this," says Benson, who is both fiercely articulate and disarmingly passionate about using the office "in a bipartisan way to ensure fairness."

One proof: She has written a secretary of state's version of "Profiles in Courage."

Benson, who won tenure at Wayne State University Law School three weeks ago, used a 2008 sabbatical and fellowship to interview 35 secretaries of state for case studies of six Democratic and six Republican secretaries of state she believed used the office to improve democracy.

Published last month, Benson's book promptly sold out on Amazon, despite its $89.95 price, and academic tone and title: "State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process." (The press run was only 350 copies.)

Inspired by that research, Benson decided to run in 2009, taking the advice of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who suggested during her book interview that the unknown Benson could build an organization county by county.

Ultimately, that advice proved invaluable to Benson. She tapped into Barack Obama's former organizers, among others, signing up coordinators in 70 counties and visiting almost every Michigan secretary of state office to get a sense of the staffing, layout and efficiency.

"She's a fabulous candidate," says Ginny Washburn, a Berrien County supporter from New Buffalo, who was impressed by Benson's energy and "brilliance."

But, Benson, who grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Wellesley, Oxford and Harvard Law, has her detractors. The conservative American Spectator in December bashed her as a "candidate ACORN would love" for her work to keep voting rights for those who lost their homes to foreclosure.

The book research, Benson says, inspired her.
"I realized that no position can be more important in giving people access to the system, or improving the perception of democracy," she said during a recent pre-convention lunch.

The daughter of special education teachers, Benson says her parents taught her to be a ferocious learner ("they were always teaching") and to fight "for truth and justice, because there's a lot of inequality in the world."

At Wellesley, the alma mater of Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright, she says, "We were told to do the impossible. Being there solidified that nothing is impossible."

After capturing 95 percent of the endorsement vote Saturday, Benson was fundraising on Monday, a long-distance runner aware the real race is far from won.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100420/OPINION03/4200371/1022/Unknown-Dem-s-run-is-a-profile-in-courage#ixzz0lec1L01E