Sam Salamey

The race for judge in Dearborn’s 19th District Court was supposed to be a close one but when the votes were all tallied, it was Dearborn attorney Sam Salamey defeating incumbent Judge Richard Wygonik by more than 4,000 votes.

Salamey pulled in an impressive 18,150 votes to Wygonik’s 14,020 votes.

Salamey worked hard, going door-to-door to most homes in Dearborn and picking up a key endorsement from Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. What weight the mayor’s endorsement had on this race isn’t known but the Wygonik camp was unhappy when the mayor made the endorsement earlier this year.

Wygonik was appointed to the bench in 2005 and Dearborn voters retained him for a full six-year term in November 2006.

It was a close race, but Dearborn voters returned two Dearborn School Board incumbents to the board.

Incumbent Aimee Blackburn (first elected in 2000 and serving her third term) and Mary Lane (serving her third term) were the top two vote-getters finishing with 17,868 votes and 15,678, respectively. The two will keep their seats for another two years.

Mary K. Petlichkoff, who threw her hat back in the race after being defeated in 2011, finished in third with 12,863 votes.