Three incumbent commissioners survive tight races; Only millage proposal defeated
When the final voting cards went through the counting machine at the Presque Isle County Courthouse in Rogers City, and all the hanging chad jokes had been exhausted, three incumbent county commissioners had survived the August primary vote in their respective districts. Survive is the only way to describe it. The commissioner’s race in District 3 was decided by three votes, while the gap in District 1 was six. District 3 commissioner Mike Darga earned the right to move on to the November election and will be unopposed on the ballot. Darga received the Democratic party nod, 77-74 over Gary Nowak.
Darga won precinct two in the city of Rogers City 31-26, but Nowak was two votes better, 48-46, in precinct one. The race between the two was closer than the vote count in August 2002, when Darga won by 17 votes, 190-173.
MORE VOTERS turned out two years ago because of two county-wide ballot proposals. Commissioner Bob Schell won the District 1 seat over fellow Democrat Wayne Vermilya by six votes, 97-91. Schell won three of the four precincts, taking Bearinger Township by one vote, 11-10; city of Onaway 29-17; and North Allis Township, 19-13. Vermilya took his home precinct, Allis Township, by 13 votes, 51-38.
Like Darga, Schell will be unopposed in November. Both Darga and Vermilya ran as write-ins in the general election in 2002, and although the vote count was close in August, the gap widened considerably in both races. Primary election results from Tuesday’s races remain unofficial until the Board of Canvassers meets. That was to take place Wednesday at 1 p.m. (past press time).
GARY WOZNIAK, District 2, received a strong challenge from newcomer Laura Mertz of Rogers City, but it wasn’t enough to unseat the incumbent in the Democratic race. Mertz won two of six precincts and tied in a third. She won Rogers City 3, 10-8, and Belknap, 19-5. The two candidates tied in Rogers Township A, 7-7. Wozniak was strong in Metz Township, 20-8, six votes better in Posen Township B, 9-3, and solidified his lead in Pulawski Township, 18-6. Unless there are any write-in candidates in November, Wozniak will continue to serve constituents in District 4 for another two years. The number of candidates in the race for District 5 has been trimmed from four to two for November. Sally Goupell and Stephen Lang squared off on the Republican side. While the election results were close in Posen Township A and Krakow Township, Lang pulled away in Presque Isle Township, 66-22, and took the overall vote total, 86-47.
LANG WILL face Democrat Mary Field, who defeated Mike Rivenburgh, 67-55. Rivenburgh was 10 votes better in Posen Township A, 14-4, but lost in Krakow and Presque Isle townships by a combined total of 63-41. Field is looking to succeed her husband, who has not attended a commissioner meeting since a car accident in December. The other race in November will be in District 2, where Republican Allan Bruder faces a challenge from Democrat Gerald R. Gray, Jr. It may not be the year for millage requests, as the only one on the ballot, a one mill request for road improvement in Posen Township, was defeated by 10 votes, 42-32. The
THE TWO DEMOCRATS earning the right to move on to November were Roger A. Chojnacki, 19 votes, and Philip T. Kroll, 13 votes. Bonnie Strzelecki received eight of the 40 votes cast in the township and didn’t make the cut. Ralph Chappa will be the Republican candidate. Three Republican candidates were running for trustee in Moltke Township and only two survived, Gary Lee Klein, 22 votes, and Marlowe Paul, 21. Merlin E. Little was a distant third, with six votes. Compared to the last two primary elections, voter turnout was extremely low.
About 28 percent of the registered voters punched ballots in 2002, which was an increase from 22 percent in the 2000 primary. Of the 11,005 registered voters in the county, only 1,496, or 14 percent, showed up at the polls Tuesday.