DOUBLE PLAY

Just as Noah Arbit, director of communications for the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, was preparing to announce his candidacy to run for the Democrat nomination for the 39th state House District, which currently covers Commerce Township and the western half of West Bloomfield to take on Republican incumbent Ryan Berman for what would have been his third and final term, when Berman did a switcheroo, announcing he is running for state attorney general in 2022, hoping to take on Democrat incumbent Dana Nessel. Berman is the first Republican to officially take her on, although word is that former Speaker of the House Tom Leonard (R-DeWitt), who lost to Nessel in 2018 by only three percentage points, is considering a rematch, and Kalamazoo attorney Matthew DePerno, who has questioned the validity of the 2020 election, has formed a fundraising campaign. As for Arbit, while this will be the first campaign for the 25-year-old West Bloomfield native, he is already an experienced campaigner and community leader, having been a former staffer for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Hillary Clinton, and the Michigan House of Representatives. In 2020, Arbit founded and chairs the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, introducing Oakland County Jews to Democratic politicos and candidates. The Second Annual Summer Simcha had nearly 300 attendees on August 1, including Gov. Whitmer, Nessel, Rep. Haley Stevens, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Southfield, West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Detroit), and state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield, Oak Park, Huntington Woods) and state Rep. Samantha Steckloff (D-Farmington Hills).