THE COUNTY CLUSTER

Even county pols are bewildered when it comes to the exact street boundaries of new county commission districts when trying to determine who may be running in 2022. Here’s what we know at this point for the Birmingham/Bloomfield area. Current county commissioner Marcia Gershenson (D) will be running in the new 11th district, which is one of three that will carve up Bloomfield Township. The new district also would give her Bloomfield Hills and a larger portion of West Bloomfield. Watch for Democrat incumbent commissioner Angela Powell to run in District 9 which includes most of her home base of Pontiac and the northern and eastern tiers of Bloomfield. A small carve out of the township looks like it falls in with Franklin, Bingham Farms, Beverly Hills and a large section of Southfield which appears to be the home territory of incumbent Democrat Janet Jackson. Birmingham also got subdivided into two county districts. The larger portion of the city has been drawn into a district that includes Huntington Woods and Ferndale. Incumbent Republican commissioner Chuck Moss, a Birmingham resident, would be in this district. No word on whether he will run – we hear that the numbers are still getting crunched. If he does run, Moss would be facing progressive Democrat Charlie Cavell of Ferndale, first elected in November 2020. A sliver of Birmingham falls into District 1 which includes a sizable chunk of Royal Oak and also Troy. It’s anyone’s guess at this point who might be in the wings on this one although it won’t be incumbent Republican commissioner Thomas Kuhn of Troy who we hear has his sites on a state House seat.