DIPPING HIS TOE IN
It was 10 years ago that former state Rep. Mike McCready (R-Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township) was first elected to the state House after serving as a Bloomfield Hills City Commissioner and Mayor. After being term-limited in the House and losing a hard-fought campaign against Democratic state Senator Rosemary Bayer in 2018, McCready served as economic development director for Oakland County, and is now economic development director for the city of Novi. “I’ve


PUSHNG FOR THE MITTEN
While Republicans are still figuring out leadership in the now-Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives, in late November, Democrats passed the torch to a new round of leaders, with New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries the new incoming Minority Leader. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti) was part of a four-person race to be the next House Democratic Caucus vice chair, but ultimately lost out to Rep. Ted Lieu of California. Dingell’s pitch to be part of leadership


LOW KEY LEADER
Some constituents misconstrue Democratic Senator Gary Peters understated demeanor with a lack of effectiveness for Michiganders. Peters, of Bloomfield Township, has a long history of proving that a fallacy – as he did once again in November, as the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – known as the DSCC. The job of the chair is to raise lots of money for Democratic Senate candidates nationwide, and get them elected. And Peters had a 100 percent success rate


EENY, MEENY, MINEY, MOE
Just when you thought political campaigns and elections were done for the time being. Now here comes behind-the-scenes drama and machinations for chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), following the party’s national bashing. Ronna (don’t call me Romney) McDaniel of Northville has been perched atop as chair of the RNC since 2017, after a very successful run as Michigan GOP chair, helping The Donald win the state. McDaniel has maintained her position for three terms,


RALLY ‘ROUND THE FLAG
Several local lawmakers flew to Washington D.C. for the historic bill signing on December 13, when President Joe Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, putting all Americans on equal footing for marriage. The bipartisan-approved bill requires all states and territories to recognize the validity of same sex and interracial marriages in the U.S., and protects religious liberty. Among those included to witness the bill signing was Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), whos
INTO THE FIRE
Michigan Republican party stalwarts who have not thrown in the towel yet after the drubbing this past November in the midterm elections are not too hopeful that the early 2023 delegate voting for a new state party chair will substantially improve the party’s chance in the long-term, let alone in 2024. State party co-chair Ron Weiser, at 72 years of age and we are told with a new main squeeze, has already announced he will be checking out, so there goes the main source of mone


ROOM AT THE TROUGH
The Democratic controlled Oakland County board of commissioners in a December 8 session granted themselves an over 16 percent wage increase, following an earlier five percent hike for cost of living as part of the county budget this past fall. The latest pay increase passed on basically a party line vote with Republicans in opposition. To pull the latest pay increase off, the commissioners suspended board rules for adding this at the last moment to the lame duck session agend
INFAMOUS RECOUNT
Bloomfield Township resident Jerome Jay Allen got his 15 minutes of fame when he filed for a recount of November election results in some precincts in a number of Michigan counties, including those in Oakland, for Proposals 2 (election changes) and Proposal 3 (abortion rights). Preliminary results showed little change in the outcome of either ballot proposals. Proposal 2 passed with 60 percent support while Proposal 3 was backed by 57 percent of those casing votes. The estim