For a long time, it was looking like Bob Bezotte was going to coast to an easy victory in the 47th State House District this year. It doesn’t look that way anymore.
The 47th District covers the Howell, Fowlerville and Hartland areas, and the seat is currently held by State Rep. Hank Vaupel, R-Fowlerville, who is term-limited out and can’t run again. The district is very, very Republican, and it’s an absolute certainty that whoever wins the Republican primary will win the seat.
Bezotte is a current Livingston County commissioner and the former Livingston County sheriff, and he announced early last year that he would be running in the GOP primary to take Vaupel’s place in Lansing. He had an opponent for a while last summer, when Mike Detmer announced that he was running, but then the field cleared for Bezotte when Detmer decided to run for U.S. Congress instead.
So as of a couple of weeks ago, it looked like Bezotte was going to cruise to victory without a Republican primary opponent. All that has now changed. Bezotte has some opposition, and he might be getting more.
Yvonne Black, a Marion Township resident, announced recently that she would be running for the seat. That name might be familiar, because she’s been in the news a fair amount through the years. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she made her name as a homeschool advocate and a VERY vocal critic of the Howell Public Schools district and board, and even ran unsuccessfully for the Howell school board herself a few times. It appears from her campaign announcement that she’ll be running as a fiscal conservative.
And now, with the April 21 filing deadline approaching, there are rampant rumors both in Lansing (where I work) and in Livingston County GOP circles that ANOTHER candidate might be entering the race. No names attached to the rumor, but it seems to be a pretty substantial one. We’ll find out for sure on April 21, if not sooner.
In any case, what was looking like it was going to be one of Livingston County’s more boring political races in 2020 is now looking like it might be one of the more exciting. Stay tuned!
