L. Brooks Patterson Elected To 7th Term As Oakland County Executive

(CBS Detroit) Facing an unusually vigorous opponent this election cycle, longtime Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson pulled out a victory Tuesday in his race against Vicki Barnett.

Barnett, 62, is the former mayor of Farmington Hills.

Patterson, 77, who was seeking his seventh term, is known for easy quips and lashing verbal assaults. He's long touted the idea he runs Oakland County like a successful corporation.

One of Barnett's most stark oppositions to Patterson came in the area of transportation. She's a longstanding proponent of robust mass transit, while Patterson has steadily urged the expansion of freeways, most notably the widening of I-75 in northern Oakland county.

Freep.com summed it up this way when they endorsed Barnett: "Patterson is also distinguished by his rough edges — his flip and frequently offensive comments about Detroit, his Trumpian vilification of refugees fleeing war-torn Syria, his coolness to mass transit and, of course, his historical opposition to school desegregation in Detroit, which launched his political career in the 1970s. These demagogic outbursts have always been problematic. But they have grown more frequent in recent years, prompting many to wonder whether Oakland's longtime executive is still the right fit for his diverse and dynamic county."