Washtenaw County Elections 2010 Examiner Digest--Post-Primary Edition

by: Neon Vincent

Mon Aug 09, 2010 at 01:22:25 AM EDT

Examiner.com: Votes on millage proposals show little anti-tax sentiment
By Vince Lamb, Washtenaw County Election 2010 Examiner

Many column inches have been written about the anti-tax sentiment sweeping the country in the form of Tea Party protests and town hall meetings during the past year.  However, only a relatively small amount of that well-publicized hostily to taxation was in evidence Tuesday, as ten of the thirteen ballot proposals involving property taxes passed, some by impressive margins with relatively strong turnouts exceeding the county average of 21.28%.  Only the renewal of the millage for the general operating budget for Manchester Township, one of the millage renewals for police protection in Northfield Township, and the bond proposal for the Saline Area Schools failed.

Details on the ballot proposals at the link in the headline.

Examiner.com: Little anti-incumbent sentiment in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti races as office holders win
By Vince Lamb, Washtenaw County Election 2010 Examiner

In municipal primary elections held last Tuesday, all the incumbents running to keep their offices won.  In Ann Arbor, the mayor and five council members won strong, in some cases overwhelming victories over an insurgent slate.  In Ypsilanti, the mayor and the one council member who ran for re-election also won by large margins.

These electoral wins came despite widely publicized anti-incumbent sentiment which claimed only a few victims in the state, most notably Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, who lost her congressional seat in the primary.

Details on the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti municipal elections at the link.

It looks both these memes (anti-incumbent and anti-tax) held little weight in local elections.  Take that, Tea Party!

Other races, including Governor and U.S. House of Representatives, on the other side of the jump.

Washtenaw County, where Rick Snyder now calls home, rewarded its local candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor with 48.95% of the primary vote, the second highest of any county in the state. Only Arenac County, where he earned 49.34% of the Republican tally, awarded Snyder a greater share of the vote. Snyder also earned pluralities in most of the counties of the state, especially vote-rich urban and suburban Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb.

Snyder was not alone in receiving a boost from his home region. Many of the other candidates for Governor, both Democratic and Republican, had strong showings from their local bases of support. This turned the primary into a contest to see who could not just win their home counties and surrounding areas, but also earn the most votes from parts of the state that were not part of any candidate's stronghold. Only those candidates who could do both won their nominations.

For example, Democratic nominee and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernaro earned his highest percentages from those counties in the Lansing Television Market. His highest share came from Ingham County (78.5%), where his home town of Lansing is located. Next came the counties of Jackson (78.2%), Clinton (78.0%), Eaton (76.4%), and Hillsdale (76.2%). Outside of the Lansing Television Market, only Shiawassee County, which adjoins both Clinton and Ingham couties, gave Bernaro more than 75% of its vote with 76.1%. Bernaro's share of the vote nearly everywhere else, such as Washtenaw County (65.57%), remained below 70%, with only Gratiot (74.5%), Arenac (71.7%), and Genesee (70.4%) counties above that threshold.

Now that I've done this analysis, I'm wondering why Arenac County seems so progressive for a small rural county.  Most rural counties voted for the more conservative candidates in both parties; Arenac voted for the most liberal.

Examiner.com: Republicans choose challengers for two congressional seats
By Vince Lamb, Washtenaw County Election 2010 Examiner

In Tuesday's primary, Republicans in the two congressional districts that include Washtenaw County elected their challengers to the Democratic incumbents who now represent those districts.  In the Seventh Congressional District, former U.S. Representative Tim Walberg earned a rematch against Mark Schauer, who defeated Walberg in 2008.  In the Fifteenth Congressional District, Ypsilanti physician Rob Steele defeated three other contenders in order to challenge John Dingell, currently the longest serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Both Walberg and Steele won their nominations by clear majorities, both within Washtenaw County and throughout the districts they hope to represent.

Examiner.com: Nominees for township trustees and park commissioners decided
By Vince Lamb, Washtenaw County Election 2010 Examiner

In six primary contests, five townships nominated candidates for trustee and park commissioner to fill out the remaining two years of the positions' four year terms.  In all but one case, the Democratic nominees will be running unopposed on November's ballot.

Augusta Township

In the only race that showed any evidence of anti-incumbent sentiment in the entire county, Susan Burek defeated interim Trustee Kathleen M. Jackson and fellow challenger Judy Thornton in the Democratic primary.  Burek received 240 votes (40.40%), Jackson 190 (31.99%), and Thornton 161 (27.10%).  In November, Burek will face Brian Shelby, who garnered 499 votes running unopposed in the Republican primary.

While Jackson was the incumbent, she had never been elected, having been appointed to fill out the term of John McGehee, who resigned in April 2009.  In addition, as AnnArbor.com reported, Jackson had lost the 2008 election for Township Supervisor and was appointed on the basis of a 3-2 vote of the Township Board while one of the Trustees was away on maternity leave.

The one incumbent I could find that lost was an interim township trustee.  Some anti-incumbent election! snort