We're back for Week 2 of IPR's 2024 Election Notebook.
On the calendar…
The Leelanau Women’s Forum is hosting a series of forums for the candidates for the Leelanau County Commission.
Voters there are deciding on all seven seats for county commissioner this fall.
Craig Manning covers these races for the Leelanau Ticker. He says there could be a lot of turnover in November — only three of the seats have incumbents running.
This is also the only county in the northern Lower Peninsula that has had a Democratic majority in recent years.
And, Manning says the commission has been struggling to fill necessary roles.
"They've had five different finance directors, they brought in a county administrator and then she stepped down, then they decided they wanted an administrator/CFO, and now they've pivoted back on that," he said. "I think there's been a little bit of frustration with some of that back and forth."
In District 3, former board chairman Will Bunek is running to get his seat back — you might remember he was recalled by voters a few years ago, for comments about the county's childcare millage, and he's back on the ballot running against his replacement.
Districts 1, 2, and 7 all also have brand new candidates.
The forum for Districts 1 and 4 was held earlier this week. Here’s the schedule for the rest of the forums, also available on the Leelanau League of Women Voters website:
September 18th: Scott Perry vs. Mark Walter (District 2) and Alan Campbell vs. Kama Ross (District 5).
September 19th: Gwenne Allgaier vs. Mark Roberts (District 6) and Tim Dowd vs. Steve Yoder (District 7).
October 3rd: Lois Bahle vs Will Bunek (District 3) and Faith Hoekstra vs. Tim O’Non (Drain Commissioner).
Spotlight back on Antrim County
Antrim County’s clerk, Sheryl Guy, has decided to run a write-in campaign to keep her job, which involves overseeing elections.
Guy had wanted to retire after facing national criticism, and lawsuits, over Antrim’s election results. She did not run in the August 6th primary.
But, she changed her mind. The candidate she endorsed in August lost. Victoria Bishop, who won the primary, campaigned on "cleaning up the voter rolls" in Antrim County and hand counting every ballot after each voting day.
IPR tried to call Bishop via the phone number on her campaign website. Her husband, Randy Bishop, said she did not wish to comment.
The Washington Post reported on Guy's decision last week.
Guy told IPR's Michael Livingston that her team is coming back with full force. “We have a lot of signs out. We have a mailer out that will explain exactly how to do a write in... we're hitting the road running. I mean, we have to touch many, many people and knock on doors, and that's what we intend to do.”
That's all for this week.
Are there local races or issues that you want to see us cover before November?
Send us an email at ipr@interlochen.org.