Diane Hathaway has been declared the winner of Michigan Supreme Court Justice. (I bet Mark Brewer at the Michigan Democratic Party is celebrating-the MDP has wanted Taylor out for years!) This also breaks the "conservative" (corporatist) 9-year long 'lock' in the State Supreme Court. Cliff Taylor was originally appointed in 1997 by then-Governor John Engler.
Roddis got 11%, better than I expected. (part of his votes stemmed from the fact that this campaign was
very negative.)
In Congressional District 10, Candice Miller has been declared winner of re-election, 67% with 85% precincts reporting.
Both of Michigan's ballot proposals passed. Proposal 1 received 62%, while Proposal 2 received 52% (even though it lost the majority of counties, including Lapeer. Most of the heavier-populated counties passed it, including Genesee, Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, and Washtenaw).
In the 9th Congressional District, Knollenberg is out, Gary Peters is in. Early on as the vote returns were being received, some analysts speculated that some Republican-held county offices in Oakland County (which the 9th Congressional District serves) would be lost to Democrats. These included Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Executive L. Brooks Patterson (who endorsed Knollenberg). However, both these officers won by reasonable margins. Bouchard and Brooks Patterson are "household names" in Oakland County.
The 9th Congressional race was also quite negative-I saw numerous attack ads from both Peters and Knollenberg on Detroit area TV stations.
Controversial assisted-suicide doctor Jack Kevorkian got 2% of the vote.
Another GOP incumbent, Tim Walberg, lost to Democrat Mark Schauer 48 to 46%.
Of the few GOP Congressional candidates that won, Candice Miller appears to have got the most percentage-wise. (Miller is another "household" political name in Michigan-she was the Secretary of State from 1995-2002, and as I said in another thread, is a rumored candidate for Governor in 2010. Also, demographically, the 10th District is generally Republican-voting.)
The Democratic majority in the State House of Representatives, as expected, grew some more. Democrats will very likely also get the majority in the State Senate-up for re-election in 2010, every 4 years, with the Governor. All but a few of the incumbent Senators are term-limited out, including my district's senator (25th, Judson Gilbert, R-Algonac)
In my state House District, Republican Kevin Daley has won by 53% over Democrat Bill Marquardt.
Dana Miller (R) won the Lapeer County Treasurer spot over Democratic challenger Michelle Perry. Incumbent Treasurer Sally Eilerson (R) was voted out in the August 5 state primary.
Prosecutor Byron Konschuh won re-election.
A lot of the other county-level offices, including sheriff, clerk, and register of deeds, had Republicans running unopposed.
All seven of the County Board of Commissioners seats, one Democrat (which is my Commissioner), the rest Republicans, ran unopposed.
In a twist of irony, in Genesee County's Thetford Township Supervisor race, Republican candidate Clyde Howd won that seat over Democratic candidate Cynthia Hicks. (in general, Genesee County is heavily Democratic)
Incumbent Supervisor Duke Hatchett (Dem) was ousted in the August primary election in a "very negative" campaign. (in the summer prior to the primary, I saw attack-ad yard signs saying "AX HATCHETT" with an ax falling on the name Hatchett!) In adjacent Vienna Township, the incumbent supervisor Anthony McKerchie (D) lost the primary election to Nancy Belill. McKerchie attempted to re-enter the race as a "write-in" candidate, but Belill won.
Both Hatchett and McKerchie faced recall attempts during their terms in office.
In fact,
13 of Genesee County's 17 townships had supervisor races, and 9 of them kicked out incumbents in the August Primary-including aforementioned Thetford and Vienna Townships.
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/politics&id=6489604&rss=rss-wjrt-article-6489604
http://www.mlive.com/clio/index.ssf/2008/10/cindy_hick_and_clyde_howd_duke.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/politics/17895926/detail.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/politics/17896065/detail.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/politics/17889183/detail.html