Republicans Move Closer to Bay County Commission Parity or Control

Apportionment Pares Board to 7, Pits Dems, Forms New E-H-Merritt District

May 29, 2011
By: Dave Rogers

A new apportionment plan lops two members from the Bay County Commission and may put Republicans in a control position for the first time since the 1940s.

The apportionment plan was approved on a 3-2 vote today, with support from the chairpersons of the Democratic and Republican parties and County Clerk Cindy Luczak.

Opposing the plan were County Treasurer Rick Brezinski and Prosecutor Kurt Asbury.

The adopted plan forces incumbent Democratic commissioners Donald Tilley, current chairman, and Tom Ryder to run against each other, along with another pair of Dems, Brandon Krause and Michael Duranczyk.

Incumbent Kim Coonan, a Democrat, will face Republican Joe Davis in a district considered safely Democratic.

Incumbent Republican commissioners Vaughn Begick and Christopher Rupp have no opposition, the same situation in which Commissioner Ernie Krygier, a Democratic incumbent, finds himself.

The plan creates a new district with no incumbent including the City of Essexville and the townships of Hampton and Merritt.

Political observers theorized that a Republican victory in the new district could narrow the margin of control to 4-3 Democratic, a far cry from the former 6-3 Democratic under the old nine commissioner plan. ###