Mickey Switalski

If Michigan state Sen. Mickey Switalski was hoping a primary challenge to Rep. Sander M. Levin would nudge the 13-term Democratic incumbent out the door, he seems to have miscalculated.  

Switalski announced on Saturday that he would challenge the 78-year-old Levin, a veteran Ways and Means Committee member, saying Michigan’s 12th District needed new energy.  

Levin wasted no time hitting back, releasing an internal poll by the Mellman Group that shows Levin with a 62 to 14 percent lead over Switalski among primary voters. “I think the poll speaks for itself,” Levin told the Macomb Daily . “It shows the constituents understand the work that we’ve been doing.”