Ann Arbor City Incumbents Win

With final unofficial results now tabulated on the Washtenaw County clerk’s website, results for the four contested city races in the Democratic primary show clear wins for all incumbents: John Hieftje for mayor, Sandi Smith in Ward 1, Margie Teall in Ward 4, and Carsten Hohnke in Ward 5.

The closest of the races was in Ward 1, where challenger Sumi Kailasapathy polled 42% of the vote to Smith’s 58% (769 to 1,068 votes) 45% of the vote to Smith’s 55% (833 to 1,004 votes).

In the two other contested council races, challengers received roughly 30% of the vote. In Ward 4, challenger Jack Eaton received 31% to Teall’s 69% (642 to 1,448). In Ward 5, Lou Glorie received 28% to Hohnke’s 72% (933 to 2,415).

In the mayor’s race, however, the margin was even greater. Hieftje took 84% of the vote to challenger Patricia Lesko’s 16% (10,058  to 1,869).

In November, Hieftje will face independent challenger Steve Bean.

In Ward 5, Carsten Hohnke will face John Floyd, who won the uncontested Republican primary on Tuesday, along with independent Newcombe Clark. Teall and Smith are unopposed in November. In Ward 2 and Ward 3, incumbents Tony Derezinski and Christopher Taylor did not face challenges in the Democratic primary and will also be unopposed in November.

Analyzing the council races compared to the mayor’s contest, it’s clear that council challengers performed uniformly better than Lesko did in her bid for the mayoral nomination. In the three council races, challengers polled 45% (Kailasapathy), 31% (Eaton) and 28% (Glorie), while Lesko only managed 16% of the vote.

Percentage-wise, Lesko’s total was roughly half what challengers received in the last two Democratic mayoral primaries: 30% by Wendy Woods in 2006 and 31% by Tom Wall.

Her performance across the city was fairly uniform, ranging from 14-16% of the vote, doing slightly better in Ward 1 at 19%. Ward 1 is her home ward.

Ward	     Hieftje	    Lesko

Ward 5       3,037 (84%)    580 (16%)
Ward 4       1,860 (85%)    327 (15%)
Ward 3       1,949 (85%)    339 (15%)
Ward 2       1,707 (86%)    273 (14%)
Ward 1       1,505 (81%)    350 (19%)

Total       10,058 (84%)  1,869 (16%)

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One of the tactics used by Hieftje in the mayoral campaign was to stress a characterization of the group of challengers as a “slate,” which carried a certain plausibility as they issued joint press releases and marched as one entry the city’s 4th of July parade, for example. Based on Chronicle conversations with voters, the council challengers’ association with Lesko was a liability for them. Voters who might have been otherwise inclined to vote for a council challenger did not do so based on the council challenger’s association with Lesko. If they were a slate, then Lesko was a drag on the ticket.

The breakdown by precinct for the council races:

Precinct            Smith   Kailasapathy

1-1 Michigan Union    14      9
1-2 Michigan Union     2      6
1-3 Community HS      21     15
1-4 Community Cnt    113     77
1-5 Northside Sch    184    139
1-6 Northside Sch     80     62
1-7 Pierpont Cms      18      3
1-8 Skyline HS       237    156
1-9 Clague MS        126    190
1-10 Arrowwood       209    176

Total              1,004    833

Precinct            Teall  Eaton

4-1 Michigan Union     5      1
4-2 Mary St.          18     25
4-3 UM Coliseum      163     51
4-4 Pioneer HS       291    101
4-5 St. C/TmpleBth   152     43
4-6 Cobblestone      211     96
4-7 Dicken Sch       273    162
4-8 Pioneer HS       110     31
4-9 Lawton Sch       225    132

Total              1,448    642

Precinct           Hohnke   Glorie

5-1 AA Dtct Lib       28     29
5-2 Bach Sch         285    120
5-3 Second Baptist   136     89
5-4 Slauson MS       383    107
5-5 Slauson MS       196     93
5-6 Eberwhite Sch    266     68
5-7 Dicken            63     31
5-8 Lakewood         140     53
5-9 Haisley          296     97
5-10 Abbot School    196     61
5-11 Forsythe MS     426    185

Total              2,415    933