Lenawee County Republicans honor longtime chairman with Ted Dusseau Day

ADRIAN — This past weekend, Lenawee County Republicans gathered to thank their outgoing chairman for decades of service to the party.

Ted Dusseau received accolades from U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg of Tipton, state Rep. Dale Zorn of Onsted, state Sen. Joe Bellino of Monroe, the Madison Township Board and others for his long tenure that saw Republicans dominate local, state and congressional elections.

Some of the speakers made reference in their remarks to getting to know Dusseau through his family’s business, Dusseau Auto Parts in Madison Township.

Along with being party chairman for about 30 years, Dusseau was Madison Township supervisor for 16 years and he served on the Madison school board.

The most gratifying and challenging part of being chairman was finding “good people to run for office — people you were confidant could do the job,” Dusseau said in an interview during Saturday’s event at the Carlton Lodge in Adrian. “Fortunately, Lenawee County has a lot of those people.”

Of course, the party then needs to get its candidates elected, he said.

He noted that after Democrats Doug and Dudley Spade held the state representative seat that serves most of Lenawee County for 12 years, Republicans have been elected since.

“Nancy Jenkins-Arno and Bronna Kahle came along and campaigned very hard with very low budgets but knocked on every door in Lenawee County, and both of them did an excellent job for Lenawee County,” he said.

Walberg was already a state representative when Dusseau became chairman, but he was elected to Congress for the first time in 2006, then bounced back to win in 2010 after losing in 2008. Walberg has been elected easily since.

All of the county’s elected positions except for one county commissioner position are held by Republicans.

“Even on a local basis, a township basis, we’ve managed to get a lot of good people interested and willing to serve,” Dusseau said.

Even in places where people might tend to vote for Democrats at the state and national level, Dusseau said, in Lenawee County they’ll vote locally for Republicans.

“At the local unit, it’s the responsibility of the party and of the chairman to deliver X number of votes to the state campaign and/or national campaign for whoever is running for that office. It was my job to take care of the local business,” he said.

While he, of course, worked to get state legislators elected and he was a delegate to the national Republican Party convention in 1992, Dusseau said he was more interested in local politics.

“I was not a big person to get involved with national politics or even state politics,” he said.

When he was serving on the school board and township board, he was asked about being a candidate for higher office himself. But he declined those advances.

“I didn’t even want to run for county commission. I liked township government,” he said “Township government is something you could do to help your community, help your neighbors, help whatever. You could see the results.”

He was township supervisor when Madison Township’s population just about doubled to about 9,000 people. Along with that population growth came infrastructure growth, including 35 miles of sewer line.

At 93 years old, Dusseau said it’s time for someone else to run the county party, though he expects to be involved “in a quiet way.” Craig Rodosalewicz is the county party’s new chairman. He is the owner of No Limits Homes LLC in Onsted. Julie Moore is vice chair, Ileana Chandler is secretary, and Beth Blanco is treasurer.

But he also suspects Republicans will still seek out his advice. He said something politicians have to address is the public’s dissatisfaction with government, whether Republican or Democratic. He said dozens of groups have formed outside of the Republican Party. Those groups “are really going to have to unite together to accomplish anything,” he said.

Dusseau pointed to the outcomes for Republicans running for state office in 2022 as an example of how disunity affected the party’s prospects.

“They have to learn how to pick good candidates, qualified candidates. They have to concentrate on issues,” he said. “We got involved in this last election (in issues) that really were not important to the average man or family.”

A lot of people are not interested in politics but are interested in how policies affect their everyday lives.

“You do a good job and pave my roads, make my water clean and keep the Chinese out of my backyard … as long as you’re doing your job, I’m fine,” he said, giving his view on how a lot of people think about politics. “Don’t bother me. Don’t tell me what to do every day. Don’t tell me what I can have for breakfast.”

New leadership

Rodosalewicz said Saturday he became more involved in the party after the 2020 election. When the time came to have the county’s leadership election, which takes place every two years, he was asked if he would be interested in running for chairman.

He said he wants to bring the party back to conservative principles of God, family and freedom.

“We wouldn’t be here without that,” he said.

He also said the party is too divided. An example is the split in the Hillsdale County Republican Party, where an American First faction and the establishment Republicans have found themselves in court over which group should be in charge of the county party.

“I can’t stand the division,” Rodosalewicz said.

His goal as party chairman is to work toward making Lenawee County a better community in which kids can grow up.

But, he said, don’t expect him to be chairman for anywhere close to 30 years.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County Republicans honor longtime chairman Ted Dusseau