Democrat picked to run in Ottawa County board recall election

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Ottawa County Democrats have selected a candidate to run against Republican Lucy Ebel for her commissioner seat in a recall election.

Christian “Chris” Kleinjans will run as a Democrat for the District 2 seat, which represents much of Holland Charter Township and a portion of Park Township on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.

The seat is held by Lucy Ebel, who is among several conservative commissioners backed by conservative political action committee Ottawa Impact who took office earlier this year. Organizers put together an effort to have a recall election, calling Ebel and her Ottawa Impact counterparts “too extreme.”

Ottawa County commissioner Lucy Ebel will face recall election next May

By late November, petitioners had submitted enough signatures to trigger the recall. The special election will happen on May 7.

Kleinjans is a 1986 graduate of Holland High School and a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He has lived in District 2 for the last 30 years with his family, according to his website. He is currently a community nutrition instructor and an Ottawa County Community Emergency Response Team volunteer and is on the county’s board of Community Mental Health as well as the Advisory Board of Ottawa Food.

“District 2 is the crossroads of the county, with a high degree of diversity in many aspects,” Kleinjans wrote on his website. “With that comes an understanding of what it takes to strive for a better future. We know how to work, and we know what works. People with this much hustle and this much strength deserve representation equal to their aspirations.”

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