Michigan Legislative Report #11 (they’re coming Fast & Furious now)
Hopefully I can get all of these out as new candidates and races are coming up the board *fast* as the filing deadline is coming up (and I know of one candidate that’s seriously debating getting in another race but they don’t have everything lined).
Michigan State House District 25 (Macomb County – Portions of Sterling Heights and Warren)
Incumbent: Henry Yanez (D – Running for State Senate District 10)
Dem Candidates: Sterling Heights City Councilman Nate Shannon (Website: https://www.nateforstaterep.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nateforstaterep/ ), General Motors Designer Diane Accavitti (Website: http://www.voteaccavitti.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diane.sophieaaccavitti )
Republican Candidate: Adam G Willey (of whom I’ve found nothing)
This is a fairly safe seat and we have a fairly contested primary between Diane Accavitti, who was related by marriage to the politically involved Accavitti family (Frank Accavittti Jr. was the former State Representative and Macomb County Commissioner who ran against Paul Mitchell in the 10th district last year, don’t know if he was her ex-husband or not) while Sterling Heights City Councilman Nate Shannon is a city councilman in the larger portion of the district. Adam Willey has no public profile I could find. All candidates entered the race after December so no fundraising info yet.
Michigan State House District 38 (Oakland County – South Lyon, Lyon Township, Novi, the Oakland County portion of Northville, what I believe to be a portion of Walled Lake)
Incumbent – Kathy Crawford (running for reelection)
Democratic Candidates Running: Real Estate Businessman/former IT Professional Joseph Petrillo (Campaign Website: https://electjoepetrillo.com/ , Facebook Site: https://www.facebook.com/electjoepetrillo/ ). Dentist Aditi Bagchi (website: https://www.electbagchi.com/ , Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/electbagchi/ )
Rundown from last time: Feeling pretty good about the prior races discussed? Well, this race isn’t one of those. We’ve got a combination of a popular incumbent (Crawford has deep roots in the community, especially working with senior & retired groups…and guess what groups are the most likely to vote?), a challenger without money and he doesn’t seem to be doing events to raise some, *and* a district made up of some of the most conservative parts of Oakland County.
Update: I didn’t have the greatest confidence in Joseph Petrillo and it appears we now have a primary as area dentist Aditi Bagchi jumped into the race and has her campaign kick-off later this month. As an area businesswoman (owner of her own dental practice) she might have some name recognition in the district and thus improving things ever so slightly for us. This remains a tough district.
Michigan State House District 45 (Oakland County – Rochester, Rochester Hills, and Oakland Township)
Incumbent: Michael Webber (R – Eligible to run for Re-election)
Dem Challengers: bartender & volunteer high school football coach Kyle Cooper (Website: https://cooperformihouse.wordpress.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cooperformihouse2018/ , Twitter: https://twitter.com/CooperforMI )
Dermatologist & frequent candidate Dr. Ted Golden (website: http://www.tagolden.com/rep45.pdf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bestrep45/ )
Not the greatest district in the world, but Kyle Cooper is running an active campaign, coming out of the Run for Something movement, and advocating environmental protection, gun safety, and Medicare for All and went to one of the March for Our Lives and seems a dedicated guy. Dr. Ted Golden is making, at a minimum, his fourth run for office (he’s taken shots at the statehouse in 2008 and 2012 and ran for State Senate in 2010) and, while he’s a distinguished guy (University of Michigan educated physician) doesn’t necessarily seem in line with standard political thought (his 2012 campaign features a Golden Oversight Amendment, a state constitutional amendment to create an independent board to police the “abusive legal system”) and describes himself as a fiscal conservative. We don’t have a great chance here, but I do admire Cooper’s dedication.
Michigan State House District 46 (Oakland County – Orion, Oxford, Brandon, Addison Township and the portion of Oakland Township that isn’t in the 45th)
Incumbent: John Reilly (R – Running for Re-election)
Dem Challengers: Automotive Engineer Mindy Denninger (Website: https://www.mindydenninger.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mindy-Denninger-for-State-Representative-162853874428675/info )
And we have another candidate stepping up in a relatively tough district, as this collection of smaller townships in Oakland County were placed I recall being places we didn’t do particularly well in 2016. However, Reilly was just elected in 2016 and we are doing better in Oakland County so let’s give this a shot.
Michigan State House District 56 (Monroe County – portion of Monroe Township, Bedford Township, Erie, Whiteford, Summerfield, Ida, LaSalle, Dundee, Raisinville, and Milan Townships and the city of Petersburg and the Monroe County portion of the City of Milan)
Incumbent: Jason Sheppard (R – Running for Re-election)
Democratic Challenger: Technology Professional (possibly retired)/Monroe County Board of Canvasser Member/Monroe County Democratic Party Treasurer Ernie Whiteside (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ernie.whiteside )
This was a race that I wasn’t sure if we were going to get a candidate, hoped it as Sheppard is as rightwing as expected *and* I can remember when this district was represented by Dems (this district has a large portion of Kathleen Angerer’s district and a tiny portion of the district represented by Herb Kehrl and later Kate Elbi). And Whiteside is a fighter, being a leader in the Progressive Democrats of Monroe County and trying to fight the Financial Manager law. Ernie just got in but I’m still really glad he took the jump. A local write-up on his candidacy can be found at http://www.monroenews.com/news/20180406/whiteside-running-for-state-house .
Michigan State House District 61 (Kalamazoo County – City of Portage, Texas Township, Schoolcraft Township, Praire Ronde Township, and Oshtemo Township)
Incumbent: Brandt Iden (R – Running for Re-election)
Democratic Candidates Running: Game Designer Consultant Thomas Whitener (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/VoteThomasWhitener/about/?ref=page_internal ), Small Business Owner and Western Michigan University Instructor (and Thurgood Marshall Doctoral Fellow) Alberta Griffin (Webpage: https://www.albertagriffin61st.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/albertagriffin61st/ )
The race write-up was as follows from last time: This race was reasonably close in 2014 & 2016 with Iden getting the nod both times with around 54% of the ballot.
Update: Never fails, you submit a Michigan Legislative Project write-up and *then* you find a bunch of stuff on the candidate: Alberta Griffin is a fairly distinguished candidate running her own business AGS Data Analytics Consulting while also working for Western Michigan. She also has a fairly good platform and gets special credit from me for including mental healthcare in the discussion. She is also running a really energetic campaign with events listed for April 19, 20, 21, and 24th. No knock on Whitener but I think Griffin would be my preference here.
This is a comparatively brief write-up on a lot of the changes coming in the Michigan House Races, the next project will be for the Michigan State Senate as we’ve had even more candidates and races come up on the board that I just haven’t had the time to write-up. Still, some pretty solid people stepping forward to try to help out our right-wing ailed state.