Supervisor Takes Aim At Party Affiliation in Local Elections

Americans have much more in common with one another than most people realize, Leelanau Township Supervisor Mike McMillan says, but it seems like their differences take center stage these days.

A lot of that is increasingly tied to the pesky little letters that are (formally or informally) connected to a person’s name. Those Rs and Ds seem to cause a lot of division, McMillan believes, and he wants them gone from county and township races.

“I’ve never met a citizen or an official that feels the county-on-down positions should be partisan,” McMillan tells The Ticker. “It’s just such a distraction.”

McMillan, who was appointed as supervisor of Leelanau County’s northernmost township in 2023, is running for the position as a Republican in the November general election against Democrat Barb Conley. If elected, he plans to push lawmakers to make all local elections nonpartisan. 

While McMillan acknowledges that changing something as major as this would be an uphill battle, he says “it has to start with a conversation.”

“I’m passionate about removing that barrier, though I have not started the investigation or the research on why it is what it is from a historical perspective,” he says. “If I can get back into office, I think it gives me a credible platform to push legislators to at least consider some reforms.”

For a variety of historical reasons, partisanship in Michigan local elections is a mixed bag. Villages, school boards and most cities are nonpartisan, while almost all county and township positions are partisan.

McMillan began to focus on this issue after a potential voter told him she couldn’t support him for township supervisor if he supports Donald Trump. He got to thinking about how silly it is that partisan politics play a role in local elections, especially since they play virtually no role whatsoever in township operations.

“So whatever platform I have, as much as positive as it can be for the community, she’d still vote against me because of the national leader,” he says. “Are people supporting a party, or are they supporting things that are good for the community? In a lot of these small communities, a lot of people are voting party first, topic later. And it’s on both sides.”

At least some of McMillan’s points resonate with longtime Leelanau County Clerk Michelle Crocker, who agreed that having party affiliation can cause at least some elected officials to get bogged down in politics. 

“You’d like to think the merits of the topic at hand would be (the deciding factor) rather than the endorsement from your party,” she tells The Ticker. “Do I see party influence affecting decisions that are made? Unfortunately, yes.”

Crocker says that people can always run as an independent, though she says many feel that doing so doesn’t carry as much clout or pull with voters. Regardless, she says, party affiliation can lead to situations in which officials are forced to make tough choices that could be avoided if their positions were nonpartisan. 

“I think it takes a really strong person to be able to stand up and say ‘I don’t think the way the party wants me to go is really the right way for the people,’” she says.

Crocker is not sure, though, if things can or will ever change. After all, McMillan is far from the first person to suggest stripping party affiliation from local elections, but it’s still there.

"I do hear people across the state talk about it, but the reality is: Is there enough support to make it happen?" she says. "It's talked about a lot, but opinions seem all over the board...you'd want to start with the Michigan Townships Assocation to see if (that sentiment) is shared amongst all of the other townships."

Jenn Fiedler, communications director for the Michigan Townships Association, tells The Ticker that the MTA's legislative platform includes lobbying for individual townships to be able to go nonpartisan if both the township board and electorate approve doing so. She could not immediately comment further on the status or background of that intiative other than to say it represents the desires of MTA's members. 

Leelanau County Commission Chair Ty Wessell said he’d support any movement to strip partisan politics from local elections. While he says he's proud of the fact that his commission rarely splits votes on a partisan basis, he ackowledges that having party affilation at this level can be needlessly divisive. 

“At election time, the political parties exaggerate their differences, and I think we have so many more common interests (than differences),” he tells The Ticker. “If we didn’t have the political parties, we could probably focus on what brings us together instead of what divides us.”

Conley, McMillan’s opponent, is not overly concerned with partisan politics in local elections.

“I think people up here tend to know each other better, and they vote for the person,” she tells The Ticker.