You can get national and statewide results lots of other places. This post will focus on Kalamazoo area election results.
See the raw numbers from Election Magic.
Obama won 58.9% in Kalamazoo County, to 39.4% for McCain.
Carl Levin won 59.1% in Kalamazoo County to 37.6% for Jack Hoogendyk.
Fred Upton got 53.6% in Kalamazoo County to 43.8% for Don Cooney.
In the 60th state house district, Robert Jones won 30135 (73.9%) to 10658 (26.1%) for Charles Ybema.
In the 61st state house district, Larry DeShazor won 28303 (51.1%) to 27122 (48.9%) for Julie Rogers. The 61st district still leans Republican.
In the 63rd state house district, James Bolger won 15600 to 11870 over Phyllis Smith in Kalamazoo County and 12041 to 9309 in Calhoun County, for a total of 27641 (56.6%) to 21179 (43.4%). This district is still Republican, and it didn't have a hotly contested primary this time.
Prosecutor: Republican Jeff Fink was reelected 62676 (52.2%) to 57326 (47.8%) over Robert Champion. Fink worked very hard for this.
Sheriff: Republican Michael Anderson lost reelection 56010 (46.7%) to 63859 (53.3%) to democrat Richard Fuller. This is what happens when you're an incumbent who doesn't campaign at all.
Clerk: Republican Tim Snow was reelected 61282 (52.1%) to 56285 (47.9%) for democrat David Kinsey. Snow didn't campaign that much.
Treasurer: Republican Mary Balkema won a very narrow victory 59603 (50.5%) to 58434 (49.5%) for democrat Julie Kaufman. Mary worked very hard and Kaufman didn't even campaign.
Drain Commissioner: Republican Pat Krause was crushed 49419 (42.4%) to 67173 (57.6%) by democrat Pat Crowley.
Surveyor: Republican Bill Hahn was unopposed. If the democrats could have found someone to run for this seat they would have won it.
County commission:
District 9: Republican Nasim Ansari narrowly survived 3585 (51.9%) to 3326 (48.1%) against Dorphine Payne.
District 10: Republican James Graham lost the seat of the retiring Tom Drabik 3569 (49.7%) to 3605 (50.3%) to Michael Quinn.
District 12: Republican Chris Haenicke lost 4298 (46.7%) to 4906 (53.3%) to democrat John Nieuwenhuis.
District 15: Republican Ann Nieuwenhuis defeated incumbent democrat Leroy Crabtree 3849 (54.5%) to 3224 (45.5%).
This means the Republicans and democrats traded a pair of seats, so the county commission will stay 9-8 democrat.
Townships:
Republicans got wiped out in Kalamazoo Township. Ditto in Comstock Township. In Oshtemo, Republican Bob Brink was defeated for supervisor by Libby Heiny-Cogswell. Democrats Grace Borgfjord and Scott McCormick, who did absolutely no campaigning, won trustee positions, along with incumbent Republicans Dave Bushouse and Jim Grace.
8th district court: Julie Phillips defeated Bill Murphy 49271 (55.2%) to 39994 (44.8%). Score one for Republicans, thanks to not having party labels on the ballot. Women have an advantage in judicial races in the general election.
The transportation millage was overwhelmingly defeated, 69993 (58%) to 50653 (42%), despite there not being any organized campaign against it.
2 comments:
Women do not necessarily have an advantage. Stephanie Fekkes lost to Bill Doherty in Barry primary of '04. Nanette Bowler lost to a bunch of men in the Ionia primary of '04. Heidi Wolf lost to a bunch of men in the Allegan primary in '00. And Marge Bakker lost to Joe Skocelas in '06.
I believe you can simply put it down to the Phillips camp outworking the Murphy camp. I think after August Bill rested on his laurels and thought his work in August would carry him. He was sadly mistaken.
To clarify, women have an advantage in general elections, not in primaries. General elections draw more uninformed voters who vote on such factors.
There is no question that Julie worked hard and that this was a big factor in her victory.
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