Macomb County prepares for November election showdown as key contests are set

The stage is looking set for the November general election in Macomb County after Tuesday's primary, where there was competition in two countywide offices, clerk and sheriff.

Five of the six countywide offices will be up for grabs in the fall. The county executive seat is not up for another two years.

Republican Clerk/Register of Deeds Anthony Forlini defeated challengers Kristi Dean, secretary of the Macomb Community College Board of Trustees from Shelby Township, and Jackie Ryan, of Sterling Heights, a former deputy county clerk who served under ousted county Clerk Karen Spranger, in Tuesday's primary, according to unofficial results, with 100% of precincts reporting.

Forlini, a former Harrison Township supervisor and state representative, took more than 62% of the vote and will face David Adams of Bruce Township, who defeated Steve Fleck of Eastpointe in the Democratic primary, in November.

Republican sheriff's candidate Terence Mekoski of Shelby Township edged out Scott Budnick of Macomb Township to face Sheriff Anthony Wickersham, a Democrat who was unopposed in the primary, on Nov. 5, according to the unofficial results.

Mekoski, who took 43.1% of the vote, won by 189 votes over Budnick, who received 42.8% of the tally in the three-way GOP race. Mekoski, a former state representative who is retired from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, will face Wickersham, in a rehash of the 2020 election.

Budnick, a Hamtramck police officer, and former Warren City Councilman Eddie Kabacinski competed in the GOP primary for sheriff.

Three countywide offices had no primary contest, with the three incumbents facing opponents in the general election. They are:

• Incumbent Prosecutor Peter Lucido, a Republican, who will face Democrat Christina Hines of Warren for prosecutor.

• Incumbent Treasurer Larry Rocca, a Republican, who is challenged by Democrat Mathew Churchwell of St. Clair Shores.

• Incumbent Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller, a Republican, will face opposition from Democrat Kevin Higgins of Warren.

County Executive Mark Hackel’s term is not up until 2026.

Hackel and Wickersham currently are the only two Democrats holding countywide office. Democrats held all of the countywide offices until 2020, when Republicans won four of five seats in that year’s election and flipped the majority of the Board of Commissioners to the GOP.

Macomb County commission races

Six of the 13 county commission seats did not have a primary Tuesday, with incumbents in those seats headed to the general election. For incumbents in four of the six seats — Districts 2, 8, 10 and 13 — there was no primary for the opposing party.

Commissioner Michelle Nard lost in the Democratic primary to Michael Howard, who took 37% of the vote, according to unofficial results, for the 12th District seat that serves part of Warren. Nard came in third with 21% of the vote in the four-person race. There was no Republican primary for the seat.

All countywide offices and county commission seats are four-year terms.

For the other six county board seats:

• Democrat Ken Reid will face Commissioner Sylvia Grot, who won 49.6% of the vote in the GOP primary over two opponents, in November for the 3rd District seat, which represents most of Shelby Township and the city of Utica. (A side note: Grot's husband, Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot won his GOP primary with nearly 52% of the vote in a four-way race for township clerk.)

• Commissioner Don VanSyckel won with more than 72% of the vote in the Republican primary over Pashko Ujkic for the 5th District. There was no Democratic primary for the district, which represents part of Sterling Heights.

• Commissioner Joseph Romano, a Republican, will face Matthew Smith, who won the Democratic primary over Ben Orjada, in November for the 6th District seat, which represents part of Sterling Heights.

• Republican Commissioner James Perna will face Edlira Sako, who beat Frank Borsellino in the Democratic primary, in the general election for the 7th District seat. The seat represents parts of Clinton, Macomb and Shelby townships.

• Republican Barbara Zinner, who beat three opponents in the GOP primary with just over 49% of the vote, will face Donald Wheaton Jr., who won the Democratic primary over Tenia Denard, in November for the 9th District. The seat represents parts of St. Clair Shores and Harrison Township and the Macomb County portion of Grosse Pointe Shores.

• Republican Gus Ghanam, who was appointed to the county board this year, won over former Warren City Councilman Garry Watts with 53% of the vote in the GOP primary for the 11th District seat. Ghanam will face Democrat Lisa Wojno in November for the seat, which serves part of Warren.

Clinton Township races

Among other local races with primaries that will make for interesting viewing in the general election is the supervisor's race in Clinton Township. Longtime Supervisor Bob Cannon announced in April he would not seek reelection after 24 years as supervisor and 40 years on the township Board of Trustees.

Cannon ran as a Democrat as a trustee and in a crowded field of candidates for supervisor in 2000, he switched parties and won as a Republican.

In November, Democrat Paul Gieleghem, the township treasurer who served as a former chairman of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners and a state representative, will face Republican Vicki Wolber, a retired Macomb County deputy executive, to succeed Cannon for a four-year term.

Gieleghem won the Democratic primary over Kenneth Reiff, taking more than 80% of the vote, while Wolber beat Noah Cannon in the GOP contest, taking 56.7% of the vote.

For Clinton Township treasurer, two township trustees duked it out in the Democratic primary with Tammy Patton winning a tight race — 91 votes — over Mike Keys, per the unofficial results. Patton had just over 50% of the vote to just over Keys' 49%. Patton faces GOP candidate Mike Aiello in November.

Other races, proposals

In Armada Township, Supervisor John Paterek lost in the GOP primary to Christopher Krotche, retired Armada fire chief, who received 66.8% of the vote, according to unofficial results. The was no primary on the Democratic side.

The county also will be adding another probate judge, with a field of three candidates narrowed in Tuesday's contest.

Benjamin Schock, of Macomb Township, an elder law attorney who co-founded a law firm in Mount Clemens that specializes in probate cases, and Aaron Hall, of Clinton Township, a county assistant prosecutor who is chief of the probate unit, were the top two vote-getters over Jevona Fudge, of St. Clair Shores, a deputy chief/assistant prosecutor with the county in the Constructive Reimbursement Unit.

Several communities also had proposals on their ballots, including St. Clair Shores' infrastructure millage (which passed) to parks and recreation and senior citizen transportation millage renewals in Bruce and Washington townships (which also passed).

In Warren, term limits were again up for voters to decide. This time, it was a city charter amendment proposal to count incomplete terms of office greater than two years as one term for term limit purposes for the offices of mayor, city council, clerk and treasurer. The proposal passed with a vote of more than 72%.

Warren voters also approved a city charter amendment proposal to appoint a citizen representative on the city election commission in place of the assessor. The city election commission's current makeup is clerk, city attorney and assessor. The proposal would replace the assessor with a citizen representative appointed by the city council who is a registered voter and not a current city officer, city employee or candidate for city office. The proposal passed with more than 58.5% of the vote.

Warren voters also gave a thumbs up to a proposal to the 60-plus-year-old city charter that would allow posting notices on a public portion of the city's website and not on 10 bulletin boards the charter requires be maintained for posting notices. The measure, which passed with more than 70% of the vote, required a prominent link on the city's homepage to all active notices and notices for the past five years.

Warren voters also overwhelmingly approved a road repair millage renewal.

Contact Christina Hall: [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.

Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Macomb County general election preview: Key contests set after primary