The State News
City Council candidate Nathan Triplett is applauded by his wife, Sarah Gonzales Triplett, right, and Bob Alexander, left, whom Triplett helped with his campaign for Congress, after the announcement that Triplett came in second in the election.
The State News
Newly elected Councilmember Roger Peters looks over the results with fellow Councilmember Diane Goddeeris. Peters earned 24.30 percent of voters while Goddeeris earned 28.72 percent.
The State News
Diane Goddeeris reacts after finding out the final numbers of the East Lansing City Council election Tuesday night. Goddeeris led the polls with 28.7 percent of the votes.
The State News
Beverly Baten, center, looks at City Council election results with Susan Schmidt, far left, Bob Stein, left, and commissioner Mark Grebner on Tuesday evening at Lou & Harry’s Grill, 245 Ann St. Baten didn’t receive enough votes to be re-elected to the City Council. “I gave it a shot, I did what I had to do,” Baten said.
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Fresh, familiar faces
Editor’s note: This article was corrected to report the Capital Area Transportation Authority millage proposal failed.
A recent MSU graduate and a pair of experienced leaders will help usher East Lansing into the future through 2011.
Diane Goddeeris, Nathan Triplett and Roger Peters will join Mayor Pro Tem Vic Loomis and Councilmember Kevin Beard on the East Lansing City Council after the three were elected to four-year terms during Tuesday’s City Council elections.
The Capital Area Transportation Authority millage proposal failed.
About 11 percent of the 29,965 registered voters in East Lansing turned out for the election.
Goddeeris received 28.7 percent of the votes and was followed by Triplett with 26.8 percent and Peters with 24.3 percent.
Beverly Baten, who was first elected to the East Lansing City Council in 1999, received 1,565 votes, or 20.2 percent.
Triplett, 24, and Peters, 59, will serve their first terms on the council and Goddeeris, 52, will serve her first full term. Goddeeris filled the seat left vacant when former Mayor Mark Meadows was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2006.
“It feels good to have the community support for what I’ve already done,” Goddeeris said. “We’ve got to plan as we go forward. It’s about how the council works as a team and the vision they have. I think we’ve got a really good plan here right now.”
Triplett and Peters will be sworn in during a public hearing Nov. 14. Afterward, the councilmembers will appoint the city’s replacement for Mayor Sam Singh, who announced in August that he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Peters and Goddeeris gathered at a mutual friend’s house with Downtown Development Authority member Bob Potvin. The three lived in the same neighborhood about 25 years ago, Peters said. Beard and Singh also waited for the results with the two candidates.
“It’s been frantic for so long — probably the last two and a half months. This has been the first chance for me to really let down,” Peters said of watching the results with family and friends.
Triplett, a legislative aide in the Michigan House of Representatives and graduate student at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, said he’s excited to bring his fresh voice to the City Council.
“I’m looking forward to getting to work for the people of East Lansing Wednesday when we get sworn in,” Triplett said.
Peters said he was “excited and looking forward to the challenge,” but also highlighted the achievements of Goddeeris and Triplett.
Baten was the 16th person to vote at Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road. This election was different from the previous two she participated in because the candidates were more competitive, she said.
“You had to be more on your toes and ready,” Baten said. “This was different from the other two times because there was more of a campaign and the other two times I ran I didn’t see that push from candidates.
“They were willing to go to the extremes. I think I had the credentials to do it, but apparently voters wanted something different … I had eight good years, and I felt like I contributed in a way that was needed at the time.”
Published on Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Comments
SC
11/06/07 @ 8:47pm
Four out of how many precincts reporting?
factchecker
11/06/07 @ 11:30pm
you might want to re-check the millage totals, the news reported it as failing….
just to make sure
John Addis
11/06/07 @ 11:50pm
Yeah, wtf on the CATA thing — that failed 10,254 – Yes, 10,892 – No. LSJ called it “soundly defeated”, but it actually seemed pretty close to me… either way, please correct this article.
John Addis
11/06/07 @ 11:51pm
Ah, that’s better. Insto-correction! :)
Sorry to hear about Sarah Anthony’s close-call defeat in Lansing, though.
SC
11/07/07 @ 1:58am
Amazing. Did students actually vote Baten out of office? Boy that would be sweet. And did the SN swing the election???
Look at these comments on the editorial: http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2007/11/triplett_peters_baten_best_for_city_council
It’s obvious that those who commented, including me, wanted her off. Did enough people read that to swing it Goddeeris’s way? Let’s see a precinct map.