Republican Floyd Files in County Board Race

On Monday, May 14, two additional candidates have filed in races for the Washtenaw County board of commissioners. One day remains before the 4 p.m. May 15 filing deadline for candidates affiliated with political parties running in the Aug. 7 primary.

John Floyd has filed as the only Republican candidate in the new District 9 so far. Incumbent Conan Smith, who serves as the current board chair, is the only Democrat so far in that race. Floyd most recently was a Republican candidate in the 2010 Ward 5 Ann Arbor city council race, losing with 21.9% of the vote to incumbent Democrat Carsten Hohnke – in a three-way race that included Newcombe Clark, who ran as an independent. In 2008 Floyd had also challenged Hohnke, but lost with 20.3% of the vote.

In the new District 4, covering Pittsfield Township, incumbent Democrat Felicia Brabec has now filed and is the only Democrat so far in that primary race. On the Republican side, Richard Conn is the only candidate who’s filed for that district to date. Conn recently lost a May 8 special election for that seat to Brabec for a truncated term that runs through 2012. The special election resulted from the October 2011 resignation of former  commissioner Kristin Judge. The county board appointed Brabec to replace Judge at its Oct. 19, 2011 meeting.

Washtenaw County commissioners serve two-year terms. Currently there are 11 county districts, but redistricting that was completed last year will take effect for the 2012 election, shrinking the number of districts to nine. Three of the new districts – 7, 8 and 9 – will represent Ann Arbor, down from the current four. [map of new county board districts]

Candidates for other county races are unchanged from The Chronicle’s previous report.