Primary Report - Races within Livingston County

I had a good baseball average in predictions this time. Overall, turnout sucked at 21.57% It was atrocious and lower than the Howell School Board race. I don't know of two better terms to descrive it besides sucks and atrocious.

US Senate (Livingston Only)
Mike Bouchard - 10484
Keith Butler - 6744

I'll address this race later. Bouchard won rather easily statewide. Butler won a few counties in West Michigan, but lost the rest of them handily. I thought it would have been a much closer race. Good luck to Bouchard.

US Congress (Livingston Only)
Mike Rogers - 15456
Patrick Flynn - 2973

About as expected here. Mike won easily overall. Patrick Flynn simply picked the wrong opponent to run against. I hope Patrick stays active in the community.

State Senate (Livingston Only)
Valde Garcia - 13385
Barton Hellmuth - 4106

This was also as expected. Barton was on Howell School Board and has more name ID than Flynn, but Garcia is popular and wasn't going to be turned out by an opponent who spent no money and ran fiscally to his left.

County Commish 5
Don Parker - 838
Susan Charron Spagnolio (sp) - 775

This was close as expected. I suspect Parker's name ID and fiscal conservatism carried him through. He's the most fiscally conservative of the county commissioners. Don's unopposed in November.

County Commish 8 (Democrat)
Dave Buckland - 417
Nick Bosak - 247

Dave Buckland will face Dennis Dolan in November. I haven't followed this race. Debby Buckland is an active democrat volunteer and I believe was Howard Dean's campaign chair for the county.

Judges:
Theresa Brennan - 14501
Jay Drick - 6704
Christina Heikkinen - 2323

Good news and bad news. The bad news is that we got crushed so far. I thought it would have been much closer. The good news is that we still made the playoffs, albeit as an "8 seed". Name ID (or lack of it) was a killer. There's three months to regroup, and with the low turnout, it's not over.

Bill McCririe - 10101
Carol Sue Reader - 6714
Linda Walker - 5368

This is about as I expected. McCririe wins, and it's close between Reader and Walker.

Probate Court:
Bob Parker - 5528
Carol Garagiola - 5390
Kathy Oemke - 4125
Suzanne Dugas - 3330
Roberta Balon-Vaughn - 2784
Lyle Dickson - 1078
Anthony Kandt - 913

This was the toughest to predict. I expected Parker to move on. I expected Vaughn to do much better considering the money she spent on this race. Oemke had a strong core following, but not the money. Dugas had roots in the county. Garagiola was a surprise second to me due to time in the county, but I underestimated last name ID. She was hitting doors as well, including my parents house in a rural area. I expect this race to be a very tough campaign on both sides.

Millages:

I predicted all renewals to pass, and all new ones to die. I was wrong here. 911 and police/fire millages usually do better than the other ones, and it showed here. Those passed.

911 (County)
Yes - 15076
No - 10835

Cohoctah proposal (Roads)
Yes - 224
No - 128

Green Oak Fire
Yes - 2270
No - 609

Green Oak Police
Yes - 2212
No - 666

Hamburg Bond
Yes - 1573
No - 1497

Hartland Fire
Yes - 976
No - 496

Howell Twp Road
Yes - 528
No - 466

Howell Area Parks
Yes - 2650
No - 3652

Brighton Fire
Yes - 3725
No - 3366