Former state representative Ed McBroom has been elected to represent the Upper Peninsula in the state senate.
The Dickinson County Republican defeated the Democratic state representative from the western U-P, Scott Dianda, 55-to-43 percent in Tuesday’s elections, with 58,605 votes to 46,985 for Dianda. The Green Party candidate Wade Roberts got two percent.
McBroom, a dairy farmer from the Norway-Vulcan area, served three terms in the Michigan House before leaving because of term limits in Jan. 2017. He replaces Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba), who will leave at the end of this year, also due to term limits.
“It’s humbling, and exciting,” McBroom said during a Election Night party at Hereford & Hops Restaurant in Escanaba.
McBroom earned the endorsement of Casperson, and that of the family of the late state representative John Kivela (D-Marquette). He tells the Radio Results Network that those endorsements meant a lot.
“Tom sets a tremendous example for working hard,” McBroom said. “I mean, the guys just wears out cars and shoes getting out there to serve people. I think that work effort has been rewarded (for Republicans). John and I were great friends, and enjoyed working together. John was so good at bridging gaps and bringing people together. So having his family come to me and say, ‘hey, John supported you, we want to do that in his memory, and because we believe in you’, was tremendously meaningful.”
McBroom will be serving with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, in office.
“She’s going to have to work with us, and we’re going to have to work with her, on certain issues, to get things done that people expect to get done,” McBroom said. “I’m sure there’s going to be some tough debates and some tough neogtiations at times. She never cared much for me during my time in the House, and didn’t support a lot of the things I tried to do with skilled trades and flexibility (in the state education curriculum). But I think that all across the state, we’re seeing more and more, that people are supporting that. So, I think she’ll come around.”
In the eastern U.P. and northern lower peninsula, state senator Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City) was elected to a second term Tuesday with 58.7 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for Democrat Jim Page.
