Greene takes GOP 65th House primary
TRI-CITY AREA — Some voters were in the mood for change when they went to the polls on Tuesday, August 2.
In Lapeer County, several challengers defeated sitting incumbents, according to unofficial results.
John Howell (9,376) unseated Les Nichols (6,221) to earn a seat on the Lapeer County Road Commission.
Likewise Gary Howell (1,304) defeated incumbent county commissioner Gary Roy (433). A third Republican in the race was David Rouse (565).
In two other local county commission contests, former representatives Ian Kempf and Dave Eady weren’t successful in their bid to return to the board.
In the 5th District race, Truman Mast (1,116) was the top vote getter with Katie Jostock Poniatowski (576) coming in second and Kempf (554) coming in third.
In the 6th District, William Hamilton (889) was the winner in what was also a three-way race with Greg Wise (733) and Dave Eady (682) rounding out the field.
All the candidates are Republicans.
In St. Clair County, incumbent Dave Rushing (2,075) fended off a challenge from Bill Gilmer (1,780) for the District 6 seat on the county board. Rushing will now face Democrat John Pettinato.
As for District 1, the stage has been set for the general election matchup. Fred Fuller (766) defeated Tina Ritter (525) in the Democratic primary. Steve Simasko (2,275) won the Republican side of the ticket, surpassing Carolyn Richards (1,694). That means Fuller—the county’s former drain commissioner—and Simasko—a former commissioner—will vie for the job in November.
As for state-level contests, it appears Jaime Greene is the winner of the Republican primary for the 65th House district, having defeated Michael Pratt. Democrat Mark Lingeman was the presumed winner on the Democratic side of the ballot and the two will face off in November.
Incumbent Congress member Lisa McClain appears to have also won her re-election bid over Michelle Donovan. McClain and Democrat Brian Jaye will comprise the general election contest.
The Associated Press named Kevin Daley the winner of the Republican primary race for the 26th State Senate, giving him a wide margin over Sherry Marden.