TURNING BLUE, OR NOT

Jody LaMacchia

Democrats have made inroads in the north Oakland area when it comes to Congress and the Michigan Senate, so now that the primary is over, the question is whether Jody LaMacchia, a Democrat from Oxford, can flip the 46th state House district which includes the normally conservative communities of Addison, Brandon, Orion and Oxford and most of Oakland Township. She’s up again incumbent Republican John Reilly who is seeking his third term in the November election. Outlier. Paleoconservative. Right-wing. If there are 2-5 ‘no’ votes on an issue in the House, that is where you will find him. Reilly first ran in 2014 and lost, only to return in 2016, beating (loudly) the drum against the expansion of Medicare in Michigan, taking over 69 percent of the general election vote. But in 2018 his margin of victory slipped by 10 points. Along comes LaMacchia, who filed for this office in early 2019 and immediately launched her door-to-door ground game, to be replaced with hundreds of weekly phone calls when the campaign ran up against the pandemic this spring. In her favor, she continues to out-raise Reilly. She – over $92,000 during the life of the campaign, $65,000 of which is still in the bank. He – just over $50,000, of which about $30,000 is left for the November race. Add to her side of the ledger, we’re told the percentage of college educated residents in the district is 14 percent higher than the state average, a crowd getting its distance from Trump and other Republicans. Plus, Biden is currently polling at least nine points ahead of Trump in the state and his coattails are expected to have some down ballot impact. A race to watch in the coming weeks.