Thursday, March 21, 2013
Birmingham needs to revise the City Charter after Michigan moved its filing deadlines for elections for the second time in three years.
It's barely spring but already the November general election is on the minds of Birmingham city leaders, who voted Monday night to place an amendment to the city's charter on the November ballot. The amendment wouldn't change much: according to City Clerk Laura Broski, Michigan recently changed its filing deadline to 15 weeks prior to an election, a law that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2014. That means Birmingham's City Charter has to be amended to adhere to state law, and according to a memo from Broski addressed to the Birmingham City Commission, "any changes to the charter must go before the voters." Birmingham has voted for something like this before. In 2010, Michigan moved the filing deadline to 12 weeks before an election, a change …
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Despite reports that Bloomfield Hills attorney Scott Romney is leading a poll of potential Republicans to replace U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, Romney said on Tuesday he won't be running.
Michigan's next U.S. senator may still be from the Birmingham-Bloomfield area, but it won't be Scott Romney, a Bloomfield Hills resident and brother to 2012 Republican presidential nomineee, Mitt Romney. According to the Michigan Information & Research Service, Romney said on Tuesday he won't be running for Carl Levin's seat in the U.S. Senate. Levin announced last week that after a 35-year career, he won't be running again in 2014. According to a report in the Huffington Post, Romney said it was a "tough decision," but that 2014 just wasn't the right time to run for the 71-year-old, a corporate attorney at the Detroit office of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn. However, Romney was a likely forerunner for Levin's seat as early as Monday, …
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Former Oakland County Commissioner Jim Nash, who won Nov. 6 over incumbent John McCullough by a slim margin, plans to battle fracking and expand regional cooperation.
In a finish that may have surprised even the candidate himself, Oakland County Commissioner Jim Nash (D-15th District) won a tight race Tuesday to become the Oakland County's newest Water Resources Commissioner. Nash, who was redistricted out of his seat, beat out 12-year incumbent Republican John McCulloch by less than 1 percentage point, or about 2,700 of the more than 581,000 votes cast. What does a Water Resources Commissioner do? "The responsibilities are just about anything you can think of with water in Oakland County," Nash said. "We're in charge of all the water once it crosses Eight Mile ... except municipal (systems)." That means keeping track of lake levels, monitoring agricultural drains, dealing with water issues on …
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Oakland County executive proved he's a stand-up guy during an Election Night appearance in Royal Oak.
As Democrats celebrated election victories Tuesday in Michigan and across the country, the mood at the Emagine Royal Oak theater complex, where more than 200 Oakland County Republicans gathered, was a mixed bag. That is, until L. Brooks Patterson, 73, changed the energy of room. “He gave some remarks and then he told us he had a surprise for us – and then he stood up on his own,” said former Royal Oak Mayor Dennis Cowan. “Everyone burst into applause.” Patterson, elected to his sixth term as Oakland County Executive on Nov. 6, was injured in a crash in August that left him hospitalized at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac for five weeks after suffering almost a dozen broken bones. He returned to work in October using a wheelchair and …
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Precinct 4, which votes at the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, had the highest voter turnout in Birmingham at 82.9 percent.
The 2012 election is over, the final votes have been tallied and in Birmingham, two incumbents have been returned to the Birmingham Board of Education while a proposed amendment to the city charter has failed. However, it was largely the big name issues — from picking a U.S. Senator to electing the president of the United States — that drew the biggest crowds to the polls. In total, 13,106 Birmingham residents cast a ballot on Tuesday, bringing this year's voter turnout to 78 percent. That's just about on par with the turnout during the 2008 presidential election, which came in at 79 percent. Compared to the rest of Oakland County, meanwhile, Birmingham was just at or above average, joining the majority of the county which saw similiar 70-…
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Unions were disappointed. Canadians were thrilled. All in all, reactions were varied as Michigan voters shot down all six statewide ballot proposals.
Unions were disappointed. Canadians were thrilled. All in all, reactions were varied as Michigan voters shot down all six statewide ballot proposals. (See all statewide election results here.) The six state proposals on the Nov. 6 ballot in Michigan were: How did you vote on these proposals?
Birmingham voters chose Mitt Romney over Barack Obama Tuesday night, as well as Republican Pete Hoekstra over the re-elected U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
While Birmingham didn't always vote with the pack on Tuesday night, the city proved to serve as a model for several state- and county-wide elections. In total, 13,106 Birmingham residents cast a ballot in Tuesday's election. About 4,600 of those — around 35 percent — were submitted absentee. That brings Tuesday's voter turnout to 78 percent. This is just about on par with the voter turnout during the 2008 presidential election, City Clerk Laura Broski said. Voter turnout four years ago was 79 percent, she said. On the ballot in Birmingham were a number of national, state- and county-level candidates for various offices, from U.S. Senator to Oakland County Clerk. Also on Birmingham's ballot were a school board election and city charter …
A Birmingham city ordinance requires residents to clean up their political signs within three days after an election.
So maybe you're excited President Barack Obama has been re-elected, or maybe you're still upset with Mitt Romney's Tuesday night defeat. Regardless of which political sign is in your front yard, it's time to clean them up. According to a city ordinance, political signs must be removed within three days of an election. The ordinance was adopted by the Birmingham City Commission in March 2011. According to the resolution, "the City of Birmingham considers the lengthy display and exceeding numbers of political signs in residential districts to be both an aesthetic problem and a source of visual blight, especially when the signs become dilapidated." While taking into account residents' right to free speech, the resolution notes the three-day …
Taj conceded the race Wednesday morning.
Some results are still trickling in, but Democrat Syed Taj conceded the race for Michigan's 11th Congressional District to Republican Kerry Bentivolio Wednesday morning. "It goes without saying that I am disappointed in last night's results. However, I am not disappointed in the campaign that we have ran in the 11th. We faced a tough map and in spite of this disadvantage worked our district hard and left nothing on the table," Taj said in a statement. Bentivolio spoke to a group of supporters just before midnight Tuesday at his election party at the Sheraton in Novi, thanking them for their support. "We're going to go to Washington, and we're going to represent the 11th District like it's never been represented before," he said. As of …
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27790 Novi Rd, Novi, MI
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Five of the six statewide ballot proposals were defeated, according to early results.
Voters throughout Michigan chose Barack Obama over Mitt Romney for president, according to early results, and voted no on at least five of the six state proposals. Michiganders also chose incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow over Republican challenger Pete Hoekstra for Senate, according to early results. Voter turnout was reported to be high across the state. In 2008, 66.2 percent of Michigan's registered voters cast ballots, the highest number since 1968 when voter turnout was 66.8 percent. On Tuesday, many precincts were still taking ballots well after 8 p.m. to accommodate voters. 1:32 AM: U.S. Rep. John Dingell claimed victory and a record-breaking 30th term in Congress. 12:46 AM: Results are trickling in. Dexter Patch reports Gretchen …
Clinton Baller
7:30 am on Thursday, November 8, 2012
Who were the two "challengers" at Precinct 1 on Tuesday morning? I've heard of poll watchers, but these two women, with their ominous name tags, looked more like "intimidators" than benign "watchers." more ›