Voter guide: Macomb County races

(This story was updated to correct a misspelling.)

The following are brief biographies of each major party candidate pulled from their official websites, our previous reporting, campaign websites and campaign social media pages. Candidates without that information were contacted, and in some cases did not respond. If the candidate has a campaign website, we've linked to that under "Read more here." This guide does not include third-party candidates or candidates in uncontested races. For a full listing of all candidates, including from third parties, see here for statewide races and here for Macomb County races.

Macomb County Prosecutor

Christina Hines, D

Hines, of Warren, graduated from Warren Woods Tower High School, the University of Michigan (where she played tuba in the marching band) and Wayne State University Law School. The married mother of three began work in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and recently served as chief of the appeals division at the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, according to her campaign website. She served several years as chief of the special victims unit division, worked to create and implement the Restorative Justice Diversion program, oversaw the prosecution of LGBTQ+ hate crimes and led an initiative that investigated and prosecuted cold case sexual assaults. Hines’ core priorities are to end violent crimes, sex crimes, elder abuse, sexual assault and crimes against children; prioritize treatment and rehabilitation on drug and mental health cases; work with law enforcement to make Macomb County safer, and hold polluters accountable. Other priorities include changing office culture and practices; prosecuting theft and financial crimes; crime prevention advocacy, and bringing fairness, dignity, transparency, and integrity to the prosecutor’s office. Hines was president of the First Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Union, the youngest attorney to chair the criminal law section of the state bar and has served as a member of Wayne and Washtenaw County’s Sexual Assault Review Team, the Child Death Review Committee, the Washtenaw County Human Trafficking Task Force and the Women Lawyer’s Association of Michigan, according to her website. Read more here.

Peter J. Lucido, R

Lucido, of Shelby Township, is seeking his second term as prosecutor. He has been practicing law for more than three decades, founded the Lucido & Manzella law firm and served as a state representative and state senator. He became prosecutor in January 2021, vowing to clean up the office after the former prosecutor resigned amid embezzlement charges. Lucido is married with three adult children, is founder and publisher emeritus of Macomb Now Magazine and is chairman of the Macomb Foundation Hall of Fame. An internal investigation in 2020 found he engaged in “inappropriate workplace behavior” as a state senator, but Lucido said he never sexually harassed anyone. During the first part of his term as prosecutor, an independent workplace investigation concluded in 2022 that, among other things, he made inappropriate statements containing sexual comments and/or sexual innuendo during his time as prosecutor. Lucido said at the time of the report the investigation was “retaliatory” and a “witch hunt” in response to a budget dispute and litigation he had with the county executive. Lucido, a lifelong Macomb County resident, touts creating the first conviction integrity unit, hate crimes unit, warrant appeals unit and major crimes unit in the award-winning prosecutor’s office, as well as hiring the most female attorneys and educating seniors about elder abuse and fraud among his many accomplishments the last four years, according to his campaign website. Lucido has a bachelor’s degree from Oakland University, a master’s degree from Central Michigan University and earned his law degree at Detroit College of Law. He is on numerous boards, including Care House, the Macomb County Child Advocacy Center. Read more here.

Macomb County Sheriff

Terence Mekoski, R

Mekoski is retired from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and is making his second run at Macomb County sheriff, a seat he lost in the 2020 general election. The husband, father and grandfather from Shelby Township identifies as a Constitutional Republican, according to his campaign website. A Detroit police officer for five years, he then spent 26 years at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, retiring in 2016 as deputy commander of patrol services. He then worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a senior financial investigator for the Opioid Strike Task Force. He won a special election in 2022 for a partial term as state representative for the former 36th House District. He supports protecting county borders and expanding the marine division to assist with that effort, as well as attacking human/child sex trafficking organizations and the opioid and fentanyl epidemic in neighborhoods. He proposes informing and protecting seniors from scams and fraud, training and assigning more school liaison officers, upholding the U.S. Constitution and protecting citizens rights. Read more here.

Anthony Wickersham, D

Wickersham, of Bruce Township, is seeking a fourth term as sheriff. He was appointed in 2011 and elected in 2012. He has been at the sheriff’s office for 39 years, beginning as a jail corrections officer. He has lived in Macomb County for more than six decades, moving to Warren from Detroit. He is married with a blended family that includes six children, four grandchildren and two dogs. He has an associate’s degree from Macomb Community College, a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University and graduated from the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety School of Police Staff and Command. He attended the FBI National Academy and the U.S. Secret Service Dignitary Protection School and is a member of community groups and boards, including vice chair of the Michigan Coalition on Law Enforcement Standards. He said he touts being involved in consolidating dispatch with Sterling Heights and Clinton Township, developing the communications center, increasing staff and road patrol deputies in contracted communities and being on the forefront of technology, such as body-worn cameras, during his tenure as sheriff. If reelected, he said he will work to ensure the new central intake and assessment center will be completed on time and on budget, wants to develop a crime suppression unit with deputies and local law enforcement to work targeted areas in the county, and will hire and retain personnel, hoping to have a full staff roster by the end of 2025.

Macomb County Clerk and Register of Deeds

David Adams, D

Adams, of Bruce Township, is a lifelong Macomb County resident, U.S. Army veteran and 23-year public school educator, teaching in Sterling Heights. A married father of two teens, he proposes an alternative to a career politician and wants to bring integrity, transparency, and commitment to responsible governance, according to his campaign website. He was born in Detroit to a native Detroit mother and immigrant father from Iran. He attended several public schools in Macomb but didn’t graduate high school, per his website. He joined the Army when he was 17, with service including border duty on the Czech/German border during the fall of the Berlin Wall. He earned his GED while in Germany and used the Montgomery GI Bill to support his college education. He apprenticed as a sheet metal model maker at Macomb Community College and worked at a manufacturing plant in Royal Oak, where he was a union representative. He graduated from Wayne State University in 2001 and was hired by Chippewa Valley High School as a summer school teacher. Adams, who has a master's in linguistics from Oakland University, has served as a reader for the AP College Board, led his school district’s curriculum to a digital platform and coached track. Read more here.

Anthony Forlini, R

Forlini was elected Macomb County clerk and register of deeds in 2020 after most recently serving roles as district director for a U.S. congressman and operations manager at Macomb County Public Works. Forlini, of Harrison Township, is a lifelong Macomb County resident, father and grandfather who served as a state representative for six years and prior to that served as the Harrison Township supervisor. He also owns a business and is a certified financial planner. He has been active in community groups and was knighted by President Sergio Mattarella of Italy for charitable works between the two countries in 2016, according to his campaign website. As clerk, he touts a state-of-the art software system for residents; reduced wait times; elimination of voicemails so callers speak to a live person when they call. He conducted a county elections forensic audit, digitized court cases back to 2019 and has in-house concealed pistol license fingerprinting. Read more here.

Macomb County Treasurer

Matthew T. Churchwell, D

Churchwell, of St. Clair Shores, grew up in Macomb County, moved away for college, worked in local politics in Pennsylvania, was chief of staff at a global law firm and eventually moved back to Macomb. He is the father of a daughter, with another on the way; the son of military parents; has a brother on the autism spectrum, and comes from a union family, according to his campaign website. He has a master’s degree from the University of Detroit Mercy and is employed as a director of urban strategy. He supports unions and wants out-of-town corporations to pay their fair share. He says he will work with economic development agencies and county departments to advocate to eliminate unnecessary tax burdens on Macomb businesses, lift the burden of starting a local business and target tax incentives toward attracting and retaining local businesses. He wants to provide help to families experiencing financial hardships and advocates that tax money be spent to improve roads and infrastructure by a trained union labor force. He supports reproductive freedom. Read more here.

Larry Rocca, R

Rocca, of Clinton Township, is seeking a third term as Macomb County treasurer, having been first elected in 2016. He highlights increasing the number of payment plans for residents in the “Keep Macomb Your Home” program, resulting in fewer tax foreclosures in the county. He touts his role as treasurer, on his campaign website, in the removal of clerk Karen Spranger, who was ousted from office in 2018 when a judge determined she lied about her residency on election paperwork, as well as the downfall of ex-prosecutor Eric Smith, who pleaded guilty in 2023 in state court to official misconduct in office, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit forgery of a false receipt and resigned from office. Rocca was a business owner for more than 30 years, a licensed Realtor and broker and served as treasurer of several political and community groups. He was in the U.S. Navy, serving during the Vietnam War, and was honorably discharged in 1970. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Oakland University in 1980. Read more here.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner

Kevin Higgins, D

Higgins, of Warren, is an associate broker and real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Kee Realty in St. Clair Shores. The Realtor of 22 years is a graduate of Grosse Pointe North High School and attended Macomb Community College. He has been a resident of Macomb County for 35 years, is married, has one son, two indoor cats and three outdoor feral cats. He said he has been a member of the Local Business Network for 20 years, is a member of the Warren Zoning Board of Appeals and is a former precinct delegate in Warren. He was past president of St. Edmund Church’s parish council. He said he supports ensuring that residents have safe drinking water, that sewer systems are working correctly to prevent backups and a proposed water affordability bill before the state Legislature. He did not appear to have a campaign website at the time this voter guide was being written.

Candice Miller, R

Miller, of Harrison Township, is seeking a third term as public works commissioner. She said she wants to see her office complete dozens of generational-fix projects that are in various stages, including hundreds of millions of dollars in sewer rehabilitation for major interceptors and efforts to eliminate combined sewer overflows in area waterways, particularly Lake St. Clair. If reelected, she said she wants to focus more public attention on ways to protect the environment and water quality and is looking to do an online classroom and other outreach efforts, even for small things, such as a recent effort of 200 rain barrel kits for Roseville residents. She wants to continue efforts to capture trash before it gets into Lake St. Clair and a spill response program for oil or diesel that may get into area drains. The lifelong Macomb County resident has been in politics since 1979, serving as a Harrison Township trustee and later supervisor, Macomb County treasurer, Michigan Secretary of State, and a U.S. Representative. She has a daughter and two granddaughters. Her late husband, Donald, was a retired Circuit Court judge. The Lakeshore High School graduate attended Macomb Community College. Miller is the honorary base commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and has completed 29 Bayview Mackinac Races, being on the first all-female crew in 1970. She did not appear to have a campaign website at the time this voter guide was being written.

16th Circuit Court Judge - (1) position

Saima Rehman Khalil

Khalil, of Sterling Heights, is a lifelong resident of Macomb County, graduating from Warren Woods Tower High School. She studied at Wayne State University, earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Michigan Dearborn and a law degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. She has experience in family law, recently opened her own practice and developed expertise in criminal law, as well as practices appellate law in the Circuit Court and Court of Appeals, according to her campaign website. She is on the county’s Community Corrections Advisory Board; volunteers with community groups and legal aid clinics, provides pro bono services, is vice-chair of Hearts for Homes, and president of the Clinton Township Optimist Club. She is raising her niece and nephew and enjoys spending time with her family and five “cute kitties,” according to her campaign website. She unsuccessfully ran for county prosecutor in the Democratic primary in 2020. Read more here.

Anthony R. Servitto

Servitto, of Mount Clemens, is an assistant prosecutor in Macomb County, with more than a decade in criminal, civil, juvenile and probate law. He has served as the chief of senior crimes and played a role in the Macomb County Sobriety Court, focusing on rehabilitation and reducing recidivism, according to his campaign website. Servitto is a lifelong member of Macomb County, growing up in Warren and attending De La Salle Collegiate High School. Servitto earned his bachelor’s degree in political science/pre-law from Michigan State University and his law degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He began as a solo practitioner, then became an assistant prosecutor. He is married and has a stepdaughter. His father and brother are Macomb County Circuit Court judges and his mother is a former Michigan Court of Appeals judge. Read more here.

Probate Judge - (1) position

Aaron J. Hall

Hall, of Clinton Township, is a Macomb County assistant prosecutor who is chief of the probate unit, handling family cases; and he’s deputy chief of the Treatment Court Unit, which gives special attention to those whose criminal cases involve addiction. Previously, Hall worked as a research attorney for Macomb County Circuit Court, where he drafted numerous decisions for judges to consider. Hall was an “extern” for Justice David Viviano of the Michigan Supreme Court. He’s a graduate of the University of Detroit School of Law and a cancer survivor. Read more here.

Benjamin A. Schock

Schock, of Macomb Township, is a dual alumnus of Michigan State University, both as an undergraduate and of the law school. He co-founded a law firm in Mount Clemens that specializes in probate cases, including guardianships and elder law. In 20 years, he estimates he has advised clients on more than 500 probate court cases, although he also has handled criminal defense work. Schock is serving his second term as president of the Macomb County Bar Association, earlier having been vice president, and he is active in mentoring young lawyers. Before practicing law, Schock was a financial adviser and, for two years, a credit counselor for General Motors Acceptance Corporation. Read more here.

This year's voter guide was compiled by reporters Clara Hendrickson, John Wisely, Arpan Lobo, Paul Egan, Todd Spangler, Niraj Warikoo, Christina Hall, Bill Laytner, Gina Kaufman, Ahmad Garnett, Jenna Prestininzi, Bella Bakeman, Carmella Guaglianone and Diamy Wang, with editing help from Emily Lawler, Pat Byrne, Sally Tato and Jewel Gopwani.

Questions about this guide, or about election coverage in the Free Press? Contact State Government & Politics Editor Emily Lawler: [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Voter guide: Macomb County races