At an 8th Congressional District Republican debate earlier this week in Rochester Hills, each of the candidates were asked to detail their background in politics.
Mike Detmer of Howell went first, and he said, “No real past in politics. I was the president of the College Republicans back in the 90s and I did work a long time ago with the late, great L. Brooks Patterson.”
Detmer neglected to mention that he’s actually run for office before. Back in 1998, he ran for state representative in the 42nd District in the Rochester/Troy area.
Detmer finished a distant fourth in the five-person Republican primary. The winner of the primary was a former Troy City Council member named Robert Gosselin, who went on to win the seat easily in the fall in the heavily Republican district.
The debate this week was sponsored by the College Republicans of Oakland University. Only three of the four GOP candidates showed up; Paul Junge of Brighton did not, and Detmer and some audience members strongly objected at the beginning of the meeting when the moderator said he was going to read a statement from Junge.
The debate was held indoors with the candidates seated at a table. In looking at photos from the event, there appeared to be about 30 people in attendance. There was no apparent social distancing taking place, and only a few people were wearing masks.
A video of the candidate forum and photos are available on the College Republicans of Oakland County Facebook page.
