In Westland, an up-and-coming state legislator, Peter Herzberg, is making his mark. After landing himself a Wayne County seat in the 25th House District this April, he now faces an intense competition from four potential challengers – Layla Taha, Melandie Yvonne Hines, Salif Kourouma and Lekisha Maxwell, in the upcoming Democratic primary on Aug. 6. Interestingly, two of these competitors are not new to him, as they also rivaled him in the January special election.
A former accountant, Herzberg finds his strength in unique goals for the next legislative session and previous governmental experience, including a stint on the Westland City Council. He’s all charged up about improving the ecological situation and aims to discourage communities from transporting garbage to Michigan with one of his environmental bills.
Herzberg acknowledges his achievements so far and his connections, stating, “I have the relationships, the experience, to get things done”. He also plans to tackle the power outage issues plaguing the district by holding power supply companies accountable for their services.
Layla Taha, a communications director for a U.S. Rep, is one of Herzberg’s opponents. She is deeply invested in health policy and supports universal health care. Taha wants to address staffing requirements for nursing homes and is all for local efforts to unionize care home workers. She also shares Herzberg’s aim to tackle power outages, proposing steeper fines and potential options for reimbursement for each hour a customer is without power.
Melandie Yvonne Hines, another candidate, is pretty respectful towards Herzberg, regarding him as a “great guy”. She’s running mainly to ensure Democrats retain their seat. Hines wants to focus on affordable housing and better-paying jobs. Hailing from the community herself, she’s familiar with the struggle of people who work regular jobs but are still homeless.
Lekisha Maxwell is eyeing to bring her financial experience, effective communication, program leadership and Master of Business Administration in strategic leadership to the mix. A strong advocate for education policy, economic development, veteran assistance and family support, Maxwell aspires to inject fresh energy into state government.
The fifth candidate, Salif Kourouma, brings his positive attitude to the table. Currently jobless, he sees the Legislature as potential for a “career job” and claims he’s not aiming to change anything but just rock a constructive attitude.
This is gonna be an interesting race folks, keep your eyes peeled for the Aug. 6 Democratic primary!
