Flynn quits 10th District congressional race for Miller’s seat, endorses Pavlov

Michael Flynn, the treasurer in Shelby Township (Macomb County), formally dropped out of the race for Michigan’s 10^th Congressional District today and endorsed state Sen. Phil Pavlov of St. Clair for the seat to be vacated by Congresswoman Candice Miller.

Flynn was the first to announce his candidacy, 16 months before the 2016 election, when Miller made her surprise decision last March to retire from Congress. But Flynn had idled his campaign by the summer and had not filed for the seat in the solidly Republican 10^th District as the April deadline approached.

The result of this sequence is that the battle to succeed Miller has not shaped up at all like any political prognosticators had assumed. While Macomb County comprises about half of the district’s voters, the long line of Macomb candidates that were anticipated has not materialized. As of now, former state senator Alan Sanborn of Richmond Township is the only Macomb contender competing on a playing field that stretches from northern Macomb County to the tip of the Thumb Area.

State Sen. Jack Brandenburg, like Miller a Republican from Macomb County’s Harrison Township, was considered the instant frontrunner if he entered the race. But he announced two weeks ago that he won’t toss his hat into the ring.

Like Flynn, Brandenburg declared his preference for Pavlov, though he stopped short of a formal endorsement. “Pavlov is looking pretty strong. I … would say that at this point he is the frontrunner and it’s his race to lose,” he said of his fellow senator.

Flynn offered a traditional endorsement statement:

“Phil (Pavlov) is the kind of results-based leader we love here in Shelby Township and throughout Macomb County.  … Phil has a successful track record of cutting red tape, cutting costs, and forcing government to live within its means in Lansing.”

But Pavlov still has a long way to go to match the broad support collected by the candidate who no one saw coming: Paul Mitchell, who recently moved into the district, into Lapeer County, after leading the successful campaign to defeat the Proposal 1 road-funding plan that appeared on a May statewide ballot.

A wealthy businessman, Mitchell has racked up more than 100 endorsements from elected and party officials across the 10^th District. With the August GOP primary as the determining factor for Miller’s seat, Mitchell is also expected to have a big advantage in campaign funds and on-the-ground organization.