The Arab American News - Election results bring moderate change

Tuesday's elections will result in some moderate shakeups in upcoming city council and school board terms of several municipalities.

Voter Hassane Oseili enters his ballot at McDonald Elementary School in Dearborn on Tuesday. PHOTOS: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

"We're hoing for new blood. I'm hoping change happens," said voter Iman Khalil as she exited the polls at Salina School in Dearborn's south end.

Khalil said she voted for younger candidates like Ali Sayed, who ran for city council

Sayed fell short of making the top seven.

Brian C. O'Donnell, who sought and gained Arab American endorsements and support, was the only non-incumbent to win a spot on the seven-member council, unseating current Councilman Doug Thomas.

Arab American council members George Darany, Robert Abraham and Suzanne Sareini were each re-elected. Sareini was the second highest vote-getter, which will make her the president pro tem in the upcoming term. Only Council President Thomas Tafelski garnered more votes.

"I'm overwhelmed, elated, exhausted," Sareini said a post-election party Tuesday. "This is the greatest feeling...

Dearborn City Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini celebrates her re-election with family and supporters at her restaurant Uncle Sam's Village Cafe in Dearborn on Tuesday night.

"It's a show of confidence. That the people out there have confidence in me, I'm grateful for that."

Sareini said that as a woman, an Arab and a Muslim, she's had to fight for every vote in every election since first making it onto the council 20 years ago.

"I have, in every election, had to work for every vote I got... They thought I was a sword-carrying Muslim. I got threatening phone calls," she said of her first campaign. "I think they've finally gotten used to me after all these years."

She said she believes that had many voters not engaged in plunking, the tactic of voting for only one favored candidate or less than the full seven available choices in the council election, she may have become council president.

Many voters said they voted for only a single underdog candidate in an attempt to give fresher faces a boost.

But Sayed came in 12th place and David Bazzy, another council hopeful of Arab descent, came in eighth, behind incumbent Nancy Hubbard by 548 votes.

Hassane Oseili, a voter at McDonald Elementary School, said he voted for an entire slate of candidates endorsed by the Arab American Political Action Committee.

"They've really been doing a very, very good job," said Oseili about AAPAC's endorsement and mobilization efforts. "They study all the candidates and they've been very fair and balanced. It's very, very good for the community."

Claudia Bazzi, 35, votes at McDonald Elementary School in Dearborn on Tuesday as her daughter, Zainab Bazzi, 16, watches.

He said efforts by Arab American activists and candidates to register and remind voters of the election by placing booths and campaigning at gathering places like the Islamic House of Wisdom, where he is a board member, helped achieve an above-average turnout.

A slightly higher turnout likely helped earn another Arab American candidate a spot on the Dearborn School Board, which currently has no members of Arab descent, despite the fact that Arab children make up more than half the student population.

Hussein Berry, a real estate agent and well-known, long-time PTA figure in the school district, took the second of two seats up for election on the board. Incumbent Pamela Adams was the top vote-getter. Berry will replace current board member Darrell Donelson, who did not run for another term.

Arab American candidates in Detroit, Hamtramck and Roseville fell short of wins in their municipalities. Hamtramck mayoral candidate Abdul Algazali came the closest among them, falling to incumbent Mayor Karen Majewski by 123 votes.

Two Bangladeshi candidates, Kazi Miah and Mohammed Hassan, were elected to Hamtramck's six-member city council Tuesday, in what some view as a historic shift in political influence in that small, diverse city. Along with incumbent Shahab Ahmed, Bangladeshis will make up half the council.

Dearborn election results, all precincts counted:

REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 59,351

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 17,173, 28.93 percent

MAYOR:

John B. O'Reilly, Jr. . . . . . . 14,150, 87.77 percent

Michael J. Prus . . . . . . . . 1,932, 11.98 percent

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 40, 0.25 percent

CITY CLERK:

Kathleen Buda . . . . . . . . . 12,181, 99.02 percent

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 121, 0.98 percent

CITY COUNCIL, seven seats:

Thomas Patrick Tafelski. . . . . . 9,744, 10.80 percent

Suzanne Sareini . . . . . . . . 8,103, 8.98 percent

George T. Darany . . . . . . . . 7,762, 8.60 percent

Mark C. Shooshanian . . . . . . . 7,586, 8.41 percent

Robert A. Abraham. . . . . . . . 7,570, 8.39 percent

Brian C. O'Donnell . . . . . . . 7,101, 7.87 percent

Nancy A. Hubbard . . . . . . . . 6,970, 7.72 percent

David W. Bazzy. . . . . . . . . 6,422, 7.12 percent

Sharon Dulmage. . . . . . . . . 5,789, 6.42 percent

Doug Thomas. . . . . . . . . . 5,078, 5.63 percent

Patrick M. Kiernan . . . . . . . 4,921, 5.45 percent

Ali Sayed . . . . . . . . . . 4,676, 5.18 percent

Patrick D'Ambrosio . . . . . . . 4,563, 5.06 percent

George Hart. . . . . . . . . . 3,915, 4.34 percent

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 35, 0.04 percent

DEARBORN SCHOOL BOARD, two seats:

Pamela Adams . . . . . . . . . 6,968, 31.16 percent

Hussein Berry . . . . . . . . . 5,965, 26.68 percent

Roxanne McDonald . . . . . . . . 4,889, 21.87 percent

John C. Corbin. . . . . . . . . 4,517, 20.20 percent

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 20, 0.09 percent

PROPOSITION O

YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,353, 74.33 percent

NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,921, 25.67 percent

HENRY FORD COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROPOSITION

YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,496, 78.19 percent

NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,485, 21.81 percent

View more area election results here.