County clerk Larry Kestenbaum

continued

Kestenbaum lives with his wife, Janice Gutfreund, a psychologist, and their daughter, Sarah, ten, in a 1950s ranch house in the Eberwhite neighborhood. Politicalgraveyard.

com has gained him a national fol-

lowing—almost

every day, he says, he receives an email question, comment, or word of thanks from political junkies who’ve found him through the site. Kestenbaum was dismayed when, after he became clerk, he was too busy to work on it for several months. He’s since caught up.

As clerk, he is responsible for a budget of nearly

$5 million and directs a staff of fifty. Currently they’re bracing for the 2008 presidential election. Word is that the turnout will be the “largest in Michigan history,” Kestenbaum says, citing discussions with a state voting official. In 2000, 4.2 million Michiganians voted. The number climbed to 4.8 million in 2004, and “the prediction is that this year will be 5.1 million,” Kestenbaum says.