Photo by Sherri Kolade
Dearborn voters waited in long lines for hours at some polling places to cast their ballots Nov. 6. Residents vote at the Iris Becker Elementary School gymnasium about 5:30 p.m.
DPS board members, Heights councilor retain seats
By SHERRI KOLADE
Times-Herald Newspapers
Dearborn and Dearborn Heights voters chose candidates for federal, state, county and city-wide seats Nov. 6.
Sam Salamey beat out incumbent Richard Wygonik for the 19 District Court judge seat with 18,150 votes to Wygonik’s 14,020.
Salamey and Wygonik did not return phone calls by press time.
Ferguson won statewide with 2,031,491 votes; Mosallam won the second trustee seat with 1,777,008 votes.
Mosallam said he is humbled to win one of the seats.
“I’m truly honored to be elected statewide,” Mosallam said. “I stated that if I win we all win in Dearborn, Downriver and metro Detroit.”
Mosallam, a Fordson High School and MSU alumnus, said as an MSU trustee, he wants to create policies that lower tuition and encourage diversity among students.
“I hope to really make an impact to make sure our kids in this area are repsresetned at MSU,” Mosallam said. “I am a son of Dearborn and I always will be.”
On the local ballot, Dearborn voters elected incumbents Aimee Blackburn and Mary Lane for spots on the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education, six-year terms that expire Dec. 31, 2018.
Blackburn netted 19,124 votes; Lane received 16,930 votes. Former Trustee Mary Petlichkoff lost with 13,784 votes.
Blackburn will serve her fourth term as a trustee, after being elected in 2000. Blackburn is a graduate of Henry Ford Community College with an associate’s degree in business and a bachelor’s degree in business finance and business administration from Wayne State University.
She works in financial risk management at TRW Automotive in Livonia.
Lane also will serve her fourth term on the school board. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and received post-graduate training in immigration law and English as a Second Language.
In Dearborn Heights, Crestwood School District Board candidate Diane Ward beat out Zaineb Hussein 6,328 votes to 3,379 for a two-year term that expires on Dec. 31, 2014.
Ward has lived in the district for the past two decades. She has helped with fundraising events at Riverside Middle School and volunteered as a parent chaperone at school-related events. She started the Patrons of the Crestwood Drama Club, a booster organization for the district’s Drama Club, and belongs to other clubs and organizations.
School Board candidate James Taylor beat out Hamid Soueidan 6,338 votes to 2,920 for a four-year term that expires Dec. 31, 2016.
Taylor, a 1975 Annapolis High graduate, served four years in the U.S. Army.
Dearborn Heights City Councilman Joseph Kosinski beat out candidate Lisa Farrens 8,831 to 6,539 for a partial term that expires on Dec. 31, 2013.
Kosinski, a longtime Dearborn Heights resident, filled a vacant city council seat during an Aug. 28 council meeting.
Kosinski won the seat with a 4-2 vote, beating out opponent Farrens. That term is scheduled to end this year.
The seat became available when the previous four-term Councilwoman Margaret Van Houten stepped down March 27 to fill the governor-appointed position of Third Circuit Court judge.
Kosinski received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Detroit. He began his public service career as vice chairman on the Zoning Board of Appeals in 1973 and from 1996 to 1999 was the city council chairman.
Kosinski attributed winning the election to his involvement in the community.
“There is name recognition when you are involved in various activities in community,” Kosinski said. “Giving back to the community has done me well.”
Kosinski said as a councilman he wants to support the community in any way he can.
Westwood School Board candidate winners include Cheryl Bell-Everett who won one of two six-year seats with 3,660 votes. Roderick Means received 2,441 votes. The terms expire on Dec. 31, 2018.
Means graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree; Bell-Everett graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Everest University.
Dearborn City Clerk Kathleen Buda said the polling lines were not unusually long in comparison to the 2008 election.
“I was making my rounds and I voted at Miller School and I only had to wait 15 minutes,” Buda said. “I know there were lines elsewhere, but the lines were moving at a significant pace.”
Buda said she thought the lines were indicative of a larger voter turnout, but that wasn’t the case. In 2008, about 70 percent of Dearborn residents voted, this year about 65 percent of voters turned out to vote.
The following are the federal and state, county and district candidates from the general election ballot.
State House of Representatives
11th District
Democrat David Knezek beat out Republican Kathleen Kopczyk with 27,616 votes. Kopczyk had 10,875 votes.
(The 11th District covers north Dearborn Heights, Inkster, Garden City and a small corner of Livonia.
15th District
Incumbent Democrat George Darany beat out Republican Priscilla Parness with 26,465 votes. Parness had 8,804 votes.
(The 15th District covers most of Dearborn and several other southeastern Michigan communities.)
Wayne County Commission
8th District
Incumbent Democrat Diane Webb beat out Republican Mark Cochran with 39,955 votes. Cochran had 14,018 votes.
(The 8th District covers Dearborn Heights and Redford Township)
13th District
Incumbent Democrat Gary Woronchak beat out Republican J. Scott Saoinz with 37,362 votes. Saoinz received 12,882 votes.
U.S. House of Representatives
13th District
Incumbent Democrat John Conyers won with 235,258 votes beating out Republican Harry Sawicki who garnered 38,765 votes, Libertarian Chris Sharer who had 6,076 votes, and U.S. Taxpayers Martin Gray who had 4,089 votes.
(The district includes east Dearborn, parts of Detroit and several Downriver communities.)
12th District
Incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. John Dingell won with 216,537 votes beating out Republican Cynthia Kallgren, who had 92,305 votes, and Libertarian Richard Secula, who had 9,867 votes.
(The 12th District covers parts of Wayne and Washtenaw counties, and all of Monroe County. It includes west Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Taylor, Romulus and Inkster.)
(The 13th District covers Dearborn, Allen Park and Melvindale)