Since the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick treated the Motor City like his own personal paradise (and paid a hefty price for it as well), anything resembling his likeness at the city’s helm would ultimately rub the people the wrong way.In all actuality, Detroit hasn’t had a Black mayor since 1974. A streak seemingly to be ended soon by Democrat Mike Duggan.
Seeing that D-Town is 83 percent African-American, their presence in the city’s head office isn’t that astonishing. Yet and still, change brings hesitation but it seems like Duggan has been priming for the job for sometime now.
Reports Bloomberg:
Duggan, 55, a former hospital executive and prosecutor, won more than half the vote as a write-in candidate in the Aug. 6 primary after he was kicked off the ballot in a residency dispute. A poll last month by the Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-TV showed him leading Napoleon, 58, whom he outpolled by more than 20,000 votes in the primary. Duggan raised and spent almost $1.7 million through Aug. 26, compared with $645,000 for Napoleon, according to reports filed by the candidates.
The odds seemingly would have been against Duggan to succeed Mayor Dave Bing, a former professional basketball star who decided not to seek a second term, said Bill Ballenger, associate editor of “Inside Michigan Politics,” a newsletter in Lansing, the capital. Though Duggan was born in Detroit, he has lived in Livonia until moving to run in the overwhelmingly black city.
With the city already bankrupt and still looking for a big break, they have nothing to lose except for the pride of a few residents. The article mentioned a Mr. Sean Davis who was deemed a “sellout” by his peers for supporting Duggan.
Davis didn’t listen. He said Duggan, who led Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon almost 2-1 in a poll last month, offers the best hope to change the trajectory of a bankrupt city where police don’t come, street lights don’t shine and neighborhoods are cut through by swaths of vacant homes and lots.
“I really wanted someone that was not part of the old regime,” Davis, 43, a former nightclub owner, said in an interview at Duggan’s campaign headquarters near downtown. “We definitely need a change.”
Politicians have been known to drop the ball but an ambitious one could also turn things around all the same. Check out in Mike Duggan’s profile in the following gallery and make a decision.
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Photo: Detroit Uncut, Michigan Citizen, Jonathan Hicks, Crain’s Detroit
