FACE OFF

Primary nights can get a little crazy, especially when the results are tight. State Rep. Jim Tedder (R- Clarkston) may have jumped the gun a bit on August 7, when in the 12th state Senate race, against Republican opponents Rep. Mike McCready (R-Bloomfield), Terry Whitney and Vernon Molnar, he posted a live victory speech over his challengers on Facebook at 11 p.m. Problem was, all of the results weren’t in yet – notably from Bloomfield Township and Independence Township. McCready ended up pulling ahead of Tedder by a slim margin of 250 votes, and won the right to be the Republican candidate in November. Tedder pulled his Facebook post by 11:30 p.m. that night – but according to McCready, still hasn’t given McCready a call to congratulate him. He did hear from Whitney, though, who he thanked for likely pulling about 2,000 conservative votes from Tedder, leaving the path open for McCready to squeeze through. One Republican was surprised that McCready prevailed in the conservative-leaning district, which runs from Beverly Hills, Bingham Hills, Franklin, Bloomfield Township north to Clarkston, Orion Township, Independence, Addison and Oakland townships, but noted that “McCready and Tedder are both good guys. And they’re friends.” Maybe not as friendly as they were before running against each other. McCready faces Democrat Rosemary Bayer in November.