2022 dawns with the debut of the fun new game “Who’s your elected official?”
Last week Michigan made history with the first ever congressional, State House and State Senate district maps drawn by citizens through the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC). These maps definitely hold some changes for Leelanau voters – read on to learn more.
Michigan Congressional (Chestnut)
Jack Bergman remains the incumbent in Michigan’s 1st Congressional district which still has most of the Northern Lower Peninsula & the entire UP.
FYI, this map is called the Chestnut map as that’s how the MICRC kept track of them.
Michigan State Senate (Linden)
With the new Linden map, Leelanau bids farewell to state Senator Kurt VanderWall with a move to the 37th Senate District. Wayne Schmidt currently represents the 37th, but since the new boundaries don’t include his stronghold of Traverse City, reports say he’s going to run for GT County commissioner.
Michigan State House (Hickory)
Leelanau moves from the 101st state House district to the 103rd, currently represented by Jack O’Malley. The district includes all of the Leelanau Peninsula along with the northern half of Grand Traverse County including Traverse City & Old Mission as well as a small chunk of Benzie County centered on Lake Ann, which is where Jack lives.
From where we sit, the changes to Michigan’s Senate map is a very good thing as it groups Leelanau with other coastal counties including Antrim, Charlevoix & Emmet. This should yield a state Senator much more responsive to our issues, particularly since neither candidate will be an incumbent.
On the House side, it’s a little less clear. While we’ll potentially have the same representation (Rep. O’Malley), the district will be dominated in terms of population and agenda by voters in Traverse City.
Dig into all the changes & the final maps through the MICRC.
