Who's filed to run for county board so far?
As of the candidate filings on Tuesday, Feb. 8, there will be two Republican primaries in the newly drawn Livingston County Commission districts in August, with the possibility that two others might come to fruition.
Filing deadline for all candidates is 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, 2022.
In the newly drawn District 3, former Iosco Township Clerk Dan Delmerico and Meghan Reckling, chair of the Livingston County GOP and chief of staff for state Sen. Lana Theis, have filed. The district has no incumbent.
In District 8, Roger Deaton and Daniel Schifko will be facing off for the Republican nomination.
Possible primaries
We are keeping our eyes on the possibility of two additional Republican primaries between four current commissioners. If they all decide they want to remain on the county board, the newly drawn districts will force two primary contests.
In the new District 5, Mitchell Zajac, who lives in Marion Township, and Jay Drick, who lives in the City of Howell, will be running against each other in the upcoming Republican primary if they both decide to seek the seat. So far, Drick is the only one who has filed.
A primary between Drick and Zajac for the newly drawn District 5 takes place will be one of the more interesting contests in Livingston County. Make no mistake: Drick and Zajac are both lawyers and conservative Republicans; but what makes this possible primary interesting is that Zajac has shown some voting independence from Wes Nakagiri, the board’s controversial, uber-right wing chairperson, while Drick has not.
And in the new District 9, Jay Gross and Brenda Plank, both of whom live in Green Oak Township, will face off if they both decide to run. So far, Plank is the only one who has filed.
In one of the most controversial issues facing the county board this year, both Drick and Plank voted with Nakagiri to forego $1.5 MILLION in funding for the Livingston County Health Department to support its efforts fighting COVID. Because the health department needed that funding to keep doing its work, it was taken from the one-time-only $37.5 MILLION American Rescue Plan windfall received by the county, money that could be used for a variety of projects, including community-wide broadband internet service. (You can click here to read all our broadband coverage on The Livingston Post.)
Zajac also broke with Nakagiri in voting to re-appoint former commissioner Steve Williams to the Huron Clinton Metroparks Authority Board, rather than Nakagiri’s hand-picked representative, Pastor Bill Bolin of Floodgate Renewal Church. Bolin went on to receive the appointment. (Click here to read our coverage of the appointment on The Livingston Post.)
And before taking his seat in January, Zajac expressed his opposition to the 5% raise (down from an original 8.4%) the commissioners voted themselves, a raise that Drick vocally supported and voted to accept. (You can read about the contentious meeting at which the raises were approved in a 5-4 vote by clicking here.) The increase raised a lot of eyebrows and got a lot of push back in the community, including a rare moment of bipartisan agreement between Meghan Reckling, the chair of the Livingston County GOP, who has also filed to run in the 3rd county district, and Judy Deubenmier, chair of the Livingston County Democrats; they both cited bad optics and inappropriateness in the middle of the pandemic’s poor economic climate that sees small business owners in the community struggling to this day.
If Zajac and Drick face off in the primary, the differences between the two will likely make it one of Livingston County’s most interesting local races to watch.
The map
The new districts were adopted by the Livingston County Apportionment Commission — which includes the county’s clerk (Elizabeth Hundley), treasurer (Jennifer Nash), prosecuting attorney (David Reader), and the chairs of the local Republican (Meghan Reckling) and Democratic (Judy Daubenmier) parties.
The map selected by the commission was submitted by Clerk Hundley, and the one dissenting vote on its adoption was cast by Daubenmier.
“The decision to adopt a map that splits up Oceola and Genoa townships into three separate districts is grossly unfair to voters,” Daubenmier said in a release. “It will lead to confusion about who their county commissioner is, making it more difficult for them to have a voice in county government and creating frustration and cynicism. The multiple splits also will make it harder for township clerks to administer elections, requiring multiple different ballots. It was totally unnecessary because better maps were available”
Hundley’s map splits 5 townships — with Hamburg, Oceola and Genoa townships segmented into 3 districts — and was rated 90 out of 100 for compactness by the redistricting software; the map drawn by county resident and professional cartographer Anna Santa Maria split 4 townships, had no triple splits, and scored a perfect 100 out of 100 by the redistricting software, but did not get support from the Republicans on the commission, Daubenmier said. She also pointed out that Hundley’s map splits Livingston County’s most populous municipality — Hamburg Township — thus denying it the chance to elect its own commissioner; under the current map, Hamburg Township is represented by Commissioner Jay Gross, who lives in Green Oak Township.
Who’s filed so far:
State Representative
50th District
Bob Bezotte, R
The Livingston County Board of Commissioners
District 1
Douglas G. Helzerman, R
Michelle L. Spisz, D
District 2
Lisa Wojciechowski, D
District 3
Lori Cowan, D
Dan Delmerico, R
Meghan Reckling, R
District 4
Amelia Purdy-Ketchum, D
District 5
Jay R. Drick, R
District 6
Roger Deaton, R
Daniel Schifko, R
District 7
Caitlyn Perry Dial, D
District 8
Amber S. Bismark, D
Jim Mortensen, R
District 9
Christine Kaczkowski, D
Brenda Plank, R
This is the current map for the districts of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners:
This is the newly drawn map for the districts of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2023:
