This past election season was unusually long and grueling for many. But for Judge Lynne Pierce, the journey to 3rd Circuit Court started back in 2001.

Her 7-year effort to make her name a familiar one throughout Wayne County came to a successful end on Nov. 4, when she was elected to fill one of three open seats on the court, along with Daniel Hathaway and Connie Marie Kelley.

Judge Lynne Pierce

“The first thing I felt was relief that I finally accomplished it,” Pierce said. “It’s been a very long campaign.”
A Grosse Pointe Woods municipal judge, Pierce, 57, ran for circuit court in 2002 and 2004, losing by close margins in single-seat races. She sat out another single-seat race in 2006, but by 2008, Pierce knew she had built-up enough familiarity in a broad range of communities to come out a winner among 11 candidates for three open seats.

She came in a close second to Hathaway in both the primary and general elections, winning a seat last week with 19 percent of the vote.

“To run county-wide, name recognition is very important,” Pierce said.

She said a large number of voters fill out their choices in presidential and municipal races and have no idea who to vote for in county judicial races.

“Many of them just look at the names and check off those that look familiar,” she said.

“When I started in 2001, I’d walk into a room and no one would know me.”

That changed after she began getting involved in community groups of all kinds.

“Wayne County is extremely diverse and it takes time to do that,” she said.

This time around, in her 2008 campaign, when she went to visit people, they knew exactly who she was.

“That was a big boost for me,” she said. “People have to make contact with you a minimum of three times before they start knowing who you are.”

Pierce is a member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s local advisory board, and she was endorsed by the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC).

Add to that TV, radio and billboard ads and online campaigning, and she was no longer an underdog.

Hathaway and Kelley — who AAPAC also endorsed — have built-in name recognition in Wayne County. There are currently four Judge Hathaways in 3rd Circuit Court, one of whom was just elected to the Michigan Supreme Court. Kelley’s late father-in-law, Jack Kelley, was a Detroit City Councilman. Another candidate, Susan Hubbard, is the granddaughter of former Dearborn Mayor Orville Hubbard. She won among Dearborn voters but came in fifth overall.

“I had to build mine,” said Pierce about her own name recognition.

“We knew, because it was a presidential year and because of the historic nature of the election, that we would have a lot of people coming out to vote who have never voted before.”

So she both bombarded the public with her name through advertising, and dove into communities introducing herself.

Pierce got close to the Arab American community through her husband, attorney Raymond Andary, who is of Lebanese descent.

She became known among local civil rights activists after writing an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press condemning ethnic profiling after the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks.

Pierce said she comes from a background that instilled in her a respect for diversity.

“That’s how I was raised — I was raised in a family where I was taught that you respect everybody,” she said. “And I’m not afraid to take a stand.”

Her late father, Ed Pierce, was a doctor in Ann Arbor who provided free health care for the disadvantaged.

Pierce expects to be assigned to either the family or criminal divisions of the circuit court.

“I’m anxious to find out… but I’m happy to go wherever I’m assigned,” she said.

In either division, she said she’d feel right at home.

From her current judicial seat, Pierce initiated a “Critical Life Choices” program at Grosse Pointe North High School, an outreach program for teenagers to steer them toward safe decision-making and away from drug and alcohol abuse. She said she works closely with parents and their children and encounters domestic issues frequently.

As a municipal judge for the last 16 years, when presiding over criminal cases, Pierce said she holds a philosophy of trying to provide non-violent offenders with the tools necessary to overcome addictions or mental problems.

She’s described her style as presiding with “a velvet glove over an iron fist.”

“I take my job of protecting people’s rights very seriously,” she said. “I’m very excited and very proud to be able to serve the community.”