Published: November 05, 2008 11:32 am      

11 am: 1st Dem elected to GT board in 20 yrs

TRAVERSE CITY — A Democrat will take a seat on the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners for the first time in 20 years.

Ross Richardson handily defeated Republican David Barr by a 2,483 to 1,839 tally in commission District 5 that includes the eastern regions of Traverse City and Garfield Township. He’ll fill the open seat left by Wayne Schmidt, who won a seat in the state House of Representatives.

Richardson credited his victory to hard work and talking to a lot of people about county issues.

“I started in July knocking on doors and talking to people,” Richardson said. “Towards the end (Barr) did robo calls and a lot of mailings, but I don’t know how many doors he knocked on.”

Richardson will be the lone Democrat on the nine-member county board, but he said that won’t prevent him from working with his fellow commissioners.

“We have some serious issues we have to figure out,” Richardson said, “but I don’t think the issues facing the county commission have a heavy partisan slant on them.”

Barr, a member of the board for Traverse City Area Public Schools, was not available to comment.