Rep. Bullard Wins Handily

Winners in the four primary elections held Tuesday in three of this area's state representative districts are Rep. Perry Bullard, D-Ann Arbor; Lee West, Republican chairman in Ypsilanti Township; Democrat Earle Stevenson of Chelsea, and Republican Michael Conlin of Jackson. . Bullard issued Tuesday night's earliest assertion of success. At 11:45 p.m., when it was evident that incumbent Bullard had won in virtually all precincts of the 53rd Representative District, he termed the voting "a victory for all the issues I have stood for." Complete unofficial returns show Bullard winning renomination by 5,790 votes to 4,167 for the challenger, county Cmsr. ElizabethTaylor. A more cautipus claim of victory was voiced at 2:20 a.m. by West, who said he sees "an extreme possibility" of a recount of votes cast for himself and Fred J. Doman in the 22nd Representative District. Unofficial complete returns show West winning the nomination to oppose Rep. Gary Owen, D-Ypsilanti Township, by a margin of just 587 to 579. Doman, a trustee in Wayne County's Van Buren Township, which forms the 22nd's eastern portion, won in his home area by an unofficial margin of 370 to 207, while West carried his more populous home area by better than two-to-one. Owen, facing no primary opposition, drew 6,450 votes Tuesday. West said he foresees "a tough race" against Owen, adding that he undertook the contest because "I feit I had a responsibility to the party." In the Ann Arbor contest, Bullard will face three candidates. The Republican candidate, unopposed in Tuesday's primary, in which she drew 1,435 votes, is Rae C. Weaver, Mayor James E. Stephenson's administrative assistant. Also seeking to represent the 53rd District are Human Rights Party candidate Robert Alexander, 29, a Willow Run elementary school teacher, and Ronald L. Graham, 42, of the American Independent Party, who is a salesman at Rampy Chevrolet. Bullard described his success in the primary as a showing of support for his position that "government should stop dealing with harmless personal behavior with criminal tactics . . . Pêople have to be able to control government again." Areas of notably low voter turnout in the primary included West's home area of Ypsilanti Township. Returns from the township varied from no votes recorded in the fifth precinct to 27 votes (four for Doman, 23 for West) in the 14th Drecinct. Stevenson, 51, and Conlin, 30, will - pose each other in the 23rd Representative District, which reaches from Ann Arbor's western limits to slightly west of Jackson, also including Ingham County's Stockbridge Township. Unofficial returns show Conlin, who is with Michigan National Bank, edging Jackson County Clerk Richard Hitt, 46, 1 for the Republican nomination by a 1 gin of 2,683 to 2,439. Hitt carried the district's Jackson County portion by 1,668 to 1,119 for Conlin. Stockbridge favored Conlin by 69 votes to Hitt's 44. Third place in the district's GOP primary went to Evangeline Mills of Jackson, who received 239 votes in Washtenaw County, 1,067 in Jackson County, 38 in Stockbridge. In the 23rd's Democratie primary, Stevenson, a long-range planner with Ford Motor Co., defeating Chrysler Pro ving Grounds engineer Robert L. Freels by 2, 060 to 783. Stevenson won 830 votes in Washtenaw County, 1,177 in Jackson County, 53 in Stockbridge, while Freels won 295 in Washtenaw County, 468 in Jackson County, 19 in Stockbridge.