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Chelsea man running for President names his campaign committee "VanDeWeezy for Sheezy."

Mark VanDeWege of Chelsea is running for the President of the United States.  This is his campaign committee name.
VanDeWege for President
Mark VanDeWege of Chelsea is running for the President of the United States. This is his campaign committee name.
Mark VanDeWege of Chelsea is running for the President of the United States.  This is his campaign committee name.
Credit VanDeWege for President
Mark VanDeWege of Chelsea is running for the President of the United States. This is his campaign committee name.

Mark VanDeWege says as a boy, he always dreamed of running for President of the United States. That dream has become a reality.

VanDeWege, a father of two kids who works from home for an architectural design company, says he figured, "why not file with the FEC to run for President? After all, it's free."  

Well, free, except for the cost of buying two web domain names, "VanDeWeezy for Sheezy.com" and "VanDeWeezy for Sheezy 2020.com."

We called VanDeWege purely on the basis of his unusual campaign committee name. Turns out, he's a thoughtful man with a good sense of humor, who thinks the two-party system in the U.S. is deeply flawed, and has contributed to the current deep political divide.

Although he'd be happy to give people who don't like either the eventual Republican or Democratic candidate for President another choice on the ballot, he has no expectation of becoming a national name in the race.

"Winning would be raising enough campaign contributions to fly a banner over Michigan Stadium before a football game," he says. "Maybe some day when my bid for the presidency fails, I'll have got enough name recognition to run for mayor of Chelsea."

VanDeWege says he may have to disappoint the likely hoards of people hoping to meet him on a whistle-stop tour of Chelsea. He says his full-time job, along with his other full-time job of raising a five-year-old and a three-year-old means, "I won't have too much time for extensive campaign activities."

Copyright 2019 Michigan Radio

Tracy Samilton covers the auto beat for Michigan Radio. She has worked for the station for 12 years, and started out as an intern before becoming a part-time and, later, a full-time reporter. Tracy's reports on the auto industry can frequently be heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as on Michigan Radio. She considers her coverage of the landmark lawsuit against the University of Michigan for its use of affirmative action a highlight of her reporting career.