A look at the MI-02 primary (Huizenga v Riemersma)

I first wrote about the 2nd district back in January. Ottawa County is the base of the district, and in primaries, it's the base on steroids. It is about 40% of the district in the general election's population, but in the 2010 primary, it was almost 1/2 of the vote.

If things stand as they look, Bill Huizenga will be the next Congressman from the 2nd District. He won Ottawa County, and the district overall. Ottawa County was the difference. It knocked out Bill Cooper. It edged out Jay Riemersma, who finished a close third in Ottawa County. Cooper pushed hard in Muskegon County, his home, and won it by a gigantic margin. Muskegon is the 2nd biggest voting area in the district, but also has a lot of democrats. Only about 16,000 voted in the GOP primary in Muskegon County. They didn't turn out.


Here's the numbers.

	Bill	Bill	Wayne	Chris	Field	Jay	Ted	TOTAL
COUNTY	Cooper	Huizenga	Kuipers	Larson	Reichardt	Riemersma	Schendel	BY
CODE/NAME	REP	REP	REP	REP	REP	REP	REP	COUNTY
03 ALLEGAN	658	2,767	2,260	129	300	2,618	104	8,836
10 BENZIE	573	460	162	143	140	578	413	2,469
41 KENT	380	829	1,302	149	68	1,001	101	3,830
43 LAKE	346	298	185	78	34	260	70	1,271
51 MANISTEE	716	816	243	161	189	776	269	3,170
53 MASON	849	1,276	466	205	162	1,193	184	4,335
61 MUSKEGON	8,211	2,054	1,788	306	474	2,885	206	15,924
62 NEWAYGO	1,528	1,610	1,305	198	175	2,224	164	7,204
64 OCEANA	840	988	641	119	110	912	70	3,680
70 OTTAWA	5,549	14,833	14,412	479	2,555	12,825	595	51,248
83 WEXFORD	936	1,116	463	363	318	1,117	230	4,543
	Bill	Bill	Wayne	Chris	Field	Jay	Ted	TOTAL
COUNTY	Cooper	Huizenga	Kuipers	Larson	Reichardt	Riemersma	Schendel	BY
CODE/NAME	REP	REP	REP	REP	REP	REP	REP	COUNTY
===============	==============	==============	==============	==============	==============	==============	==============	==============
Totals	20,586	27,047	23,227	2,330	4,525	26,389	2,406	106,510

And the Percentages.

% % % % % % % Cooper Huizenga Kuipers Larson Field Riemersma Schendel 03 ALLEGAN 7.45% 31.32% 25.58% 1.46% 3.40% 29.63% 1.18% 10 BENZIE 23.21% 18.63% 6.56% 5.79% 5.67% 23.41% 16.73% 41 KENT 9.92% 21.64% 33.99% 3.89% 1.78% 26.14% 2.64% 43 LAKE 27.22% 23.45% 14.56% 6.14% 2.68% 20.46% 5.51% 51 MANISTEE 22.59% 25.74% 7.67% 5.08% 5.96% 24.48% 8.49% 53 MASON 19.58% 29.43% 10.75% 4.73% 3.74% 27.52% 4.24% 61 MUSKEGON 51.56% 12.90% 11.23% 1.92% 2.98% 18.12% 1.29% 62 NEWAYGO 21.21% 22.35% 18.11% 2.75% 2.43% 30.87% 2.28% 64 OCEANA 22.83% 26.85% 17.42% 3.23% 2.99% 24.78% 1.90% 70 OTTAWA 10.83% 28.94% 28.12% 0.93% 4.99% 25.03% 1.16% 83 WEXFORD 20.60% 24.57% 10.19% 7.99% 7.00% 24.59% 5.06% Total 19.33% 25.39% 21.81% 2.19% 4.25% 24.78% 2.26%

25.39% was your winner. Huizenga took Ottawa by slightly over 400 votes against Kuipers, who did not run well Up North. That took Kuipers out. He almost tripled Cooper in Ottawa, taking him out. Huizenga edged Riemersma in Ottawa by about 2000 votes. That offset the lead in a couple of Up North counties.

I don't know Huizenga, but I've heard good things about him from some people that do know him. The question is if he can pull the numbers Hoekstra had in Ottawa County and Allegan County to offset Muskegon County. If he can do that, we have nothing to worry about with this district.

Congratulations to Huizenga, and good luck to him this November.