Municipal elections over, next election cycle begins

Farm photo before website

The election is over. Long live the election.

Farm photo after website

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, a candidate for U.S. Senate against Republican Terri Lynn Land in 2014, launched a new website Wednesday, promising an aggressive online campaign in his bid to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Carl Levin next year, even as voters were still digesting the results of Tuesday’s municipal elections.

The jazzed up website shows Peters, a 54-year-old Bloomfield Township Democrat, in front of a pastoral picture of a farm. The website rotates through other background photos.

Farming is a background that is missing from the third-term congressman’s biography that notes his time spent pursuing law and philosophy degrees, in the military reserve, in the state senate, in the financial services industry, and as Michigan lottery commissioner before his election to Congress in 2008.

By comparison, Land’s campaign website is a bit bland, simply hosting at this point a biography, a short video, links to the social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, and a way to make campaign donations.

Land, 55, is a former Michigan secretary of state and current member of the Republican National Committee.

Peters entered the senate race in the spring, and Land announced her intent to do so in June. Both currently have no opposition within their own parties.

Polls over the summer and fall have alternately given the lead to each, indicating that next year’s voters are from settled in their choice for the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. Senate race is expected to be among the higher profile races in what will be a large ballot for voters a year from now.

Besides electing a U.S. senator, voters will also decide races for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, 14 seats in the U.S. House, all 148 seats in the Michigan Legislature, some judicial races, and scads of local township offices — not to mention the possible plethora of local and state questions that might make it to the ballot.