Patterson’s daughter ends campaign
Patterson Warner quits race for Oakland County executive position
She's the daughter of Oakland County's longest-serving top politician.
Some said she was heir apparent to the Republican legacy of her father, L. Brooks Patterson, who died in 2019. To make that point, she changed her name when she announced her candidacy last year, with the slogan: “Mary Margaret Patterson for Oakland County Executive.”
Yet, after launching her campaign amid hundreds of supporters at a private club in Clarkston, before dozens of local Republican leaders, Mary Margaret Patterson, whose married name is Mary Warner, quietly dropped out of the face against the incumbent Democrat, Dave Coulter of Ferndale.
“While I am forever grateful for the outpouring of grassroots support, the financial backing that is necessary to win this race simply isn’t there,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Feb. 9.
The county’s Republican Party leader said on Friday that he would announce a candidate on Monday. That’s one day before the filing deadline of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23.
“We were disappointed,” said Vance Patrick of Southfield, chair of the Oakland County Republican Party and owner of a construction firm.
“I know she said she had a hard time raising funds, but when she quit we were just getting on board” with key donors, Patrick said Thursday.
“We were all counting on her father’s legacy. She wasn’t her dad, but he had 25 years of experience,” Patrick said.
Mary Margaret Patterson Warner has never held elective office. She is a mother of three teens and a former elementary school teacher. She is married to Gary Warner, co-owner of a Waterford-based landscaping and snow-removal firm.
As a candidate, Patterson Warner failed to enlist potential donors because she never put much of her own money into the race, said Brian Szmytke of Highland Township, who was Patterson Warner’s campaign manager.
“People didn’t want to give to her campaign because they said she doesn’t have any skin in the game,” said Szmytke, who besides assisting Republican candidates is self-employed in information technology.
“She put in $10,000 at the beginning” and the Oakland County Republican Party matched it with another $10,000, he said. “But she knew that was just to get started. We expected her to put in more. I think $100,000 (in total) would’ve been about right."