Northern Michigan Elections & Government

Former Kalkaska County Sheriff Jerry Cannon has some ground to make up on the campaign trail in northern Michigan’s hotly contested First Congressional District. In December, Cannon spent more than three weeks recuperating in a Traverse City hospital, after his car slid off an icy road near his home in Fife Lake.

Cannon is only now getting back to his campaign.

This is the second time the Democrat has run in the First Congressional District. Cannon lost in 2014 to incumbent Rep. Dan Benishek.

“We’re trying to build on the success that we achieved in 2014,” Cannon says.

He says the political winds are blowing in his favor this election cycle.

“There’s a lot of disenchantment with the establishment and people who are career politicians,” Cannon, a Democrat, told IPR News Radio in an interview. “And that’s not me. I’m a career public servant. I’m not an insider. I’m not connected. I’m not big money.”

Congressional candidate Lon Johnson is calling for the oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac to be shut down while an independent investigation is conducted.

“If we were to have an accident there, the cost would be immeasurable to our ecology, to our economy, to our health,” Johnson told IPR News Radio in an interview last week.

Enbridge’s Line 5 runs across the Straits, and has drawn criticism from environmental groups who worry about the age of the 63-year old pipe. Enbridge says the crossing is safe.

Lon Johnson, the former chairperson of the Michigan Democratic Party, is running for northern Michigan’s seat in U.S. Congress. He led Michigan Democrats for two years, from 2013-2015, before announcing he was jumping into the race for the First Congressional District.

Lon Johnson, a Democrat running for northern Michigan’s seat in U.S. Congress, raised more than three time as much money as all the other candidates combined in 2015. His total was $625,723, according to an end-of-the-year filing report with the Federal Election Commission.

“His fundraising numbers so far are looking pretty solid for him,” says Craig Mauger, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. Mauger covers political spending across the state.

President Obama’s record on national defense is a campaign issue in 2016. Some Republicans say the U.S. Army and Navy will be too small at the end of the Obama administration. Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz recently attacked the president for having “dramatically degraded our military.”

A candidate for northern Michigan’s seat in U.S. Congress is also using this argument. Last month, former state legislator Jason Allen kicked off his congressional campaign at his family’s clothing store in Traverse City.
 

“I’m very concerned about the direction America is heading,” Allen said.

When asked by IPR News Radio why he had decided to run, Allen said the first issue on his list was the drop in troop levels, and he made a bold statement about just how large those reductions are.

“First of all from a national defense perspective, we’ll have the smallest military since before the first World War,” Allen said.

Former state legislator Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, has announced he is trying again to win northern Michigan's seat in US Congress. Allen came within 15 votes of winning the Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District in 2010.

"I'm very concerned with the direction America is heading," Allen says. "First of all, from a national defense perspective, we'll have the smallest military since before the first World War."

He spoke with IPR News Radio's David Cassleman about why he is running.

Ten thousand people partied on Torch Lake over July 4th weekend this year. The sandbar on the lake has become one of northern Michigan's prime summer party destinations.

But many neighbors on the lake are upset about the trash, the trespassing and the noise.

State Representative Triston Cole (R-105th District) put together a roundtable on the issue last week, seeking a solution.

"This is a public body of water," Rep. Cole says, "and people have a right to have a great time and enjoy places like the sandbar on Torch Lake."

Gerrymandering is a term you hear a lot about every ten years or so, when state legislatures across the country start to redraw legislative districts after the census. It happens when districts are drawn in a way that favors one political party against another.

In Michigan, Republicans have controlled the redistricting process during the past two censuses, and Democrats have accused them of gerrymandering. Now some Democrats are pushing to change how redistricting is done, which they say would make it less political.

A new session began for state lawmakers last week. 

The newest members of the state House of Representatives and Senate from northern Michigan are settling into new offices and hiring staff, among many other things.

Right now they’re learning about new jobs and about the challenges of getting anything done in Lansing.

The race for Grand Traverse County’s state house seat is open for the first time since 2008.

So far the campaign has been a relatively polite affair, but the two candidates are appealing to voters in totally different ways.

Interlochen Public Radio is co-sponsoring a number of debates over the next week for candidates in Northwest Lower Michigan seeking state and federal office. Candidates for the 101st and 104th State House districts, the 35th and 37th State Senate districts, and Michigan's 1st Congressional District will participate. For information about attending the live events, follow the links below. You can listen online (on this page) within 24 hours and they will also be broadcast at the times indicated on IPR News Radio.

The race for northern Michigan’s U.S. House seat was one of the most closely contested elections in the state in 2012.

Republican Dan Benishek won reelection by less than half a percentage point. Once again he's facing strong competition as the November election approaches – this time from a retired Army National Guard general.

Politicians across Michigan are arguing about the Governor’s record on education as the November election approaches.

State Democrats say Republicans cut $1 billion from schools. But Republicans are defending their record on education.

This issue is a key one in the race for the state house district that spans from Ludington to Northport.

Judge Thomas Power has disqualified himself from the Clarence Gomery trial.

Gomery – a former prosecutor for Leelanau County – is accused of trying to hire someone in July to kill attorney Christopher Cooke.

Judge Power made the decision at a motion hearing on Friday afternoon. Gomery's attorney filed the motion asking for a new judge because of Power's past involvement in a civil suit between Gomery and Cooke.