While she was a senior at MSU, Artley worked for Clark Durant’s U.S. Senate campaign. She said she fell in love with the fast-paced environment of the campaign trail.

After the Durant campaign, Artley worked as the campaign manager for 54-B District Court Judge Andrea Larkin during the 2012 election. Artley now works for Mitchell Research & Communications, Inc. as a consultant. She recently sat down with The State News to discuss her candidacy.

SA: “Where I work is in the Park District, so what happens to the Park District is going to directly affect what we do with the business moving forward. … I want to see the project come to life. I think it is important that the community actually engages with how the project develops. … It’s not so much about when it happens, just that it happens. Nobody wants to see another failed project. I don’t want to have to use residents’ tax dollars to supplement the project and get things moving the way that happened with the Ann Street Plaza.”

SA: “I’m not going to turn down a business from coming to East Lansing. … At the same time, I want a diverse downtown, and I think our nightlife should be able to be matched by an equally vibrant daytime downtown. You need diversification in any market to be successful, so I would say it doesn’t have to be an ultimatum. We don’t have to say bars or no bars — I want East Lansing to be conducive to business.”

SA: “I want city council to take some time in the coming months and start to carve out what ordinances, resolutions or strategies that we’ve already developed and already put into place that aren’t working as effectively as they could be working, and ask where we need to make revisions and start prioritizing where we could improve things. … Right now, we are kind of just the city down the road from the Capitol. No one really looks at us as an attractive place to go. We should be using what resources we have to rebrand our city and market ourselves as an attractive place to spend the weekend.”

SA: “I think we need to do everything to stop the ‘we vs. them’ mentality. Grand River (Avenue) is not supposed to be a dividing line. I think educating students about opportunities to connect with the city is helpful. … I’ve been on both sides of this. I was a student just a year and a half ago. … I think it is really easy to think that they are separate communities. The students are not monolithic, and they shouldn’t be treated in a way that categorizes them under one broad, sweeping category. There are so many students that want to invest in the city — We should connect them to ways to do that.”

Editor’s note: This article has been changed to correctly reflect Artley’s place of employment.