Duggan re-elected as Detroit mayor plus local election news from across Michigan

Here's news so expected I wrote the first half of  this post's title of on Sunday: Mike Duggan wins re-election, beating Coleman Young II for Detroit mayor from WXYZ.


Congratulations to Mayor Mike Duggan!  I agree with him and the overwhelming majority of Detroiters that Detroit is moving in the right direction.  I also would like to agree with Duggan as he says "This is the year we put us-versus-them politics behind us forever," as MLive reported.

"This is the year we put us-versus-them politics behind us forever," says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan after winning reelection, Nov. 7, 2017.

I hope that's true, but I'll have to wait to see if it is.  Until then, "One Detroit!"

The other Detroit contest I was watching was for Detroit City Clerk.  The Detroit Free Press reported Janice Winfrey re-elected Detroit clerk in tight race.

Incumbent Janice Winfrey has won re-election as city clerk in a race that went down to the wire.

With all 590 precincts reporting, Winfrey was ahead by roughly 1,400 votes, with 49,882, (50.5%). Challenger Garlin Gilchrist II had 48,400 votes (49.0%) in what election watchers predicted would be a race down to the wire.

I live out in the suburbs, not in Detroit, but I was still rooting for Gilcrist.  That should come as no surprise after what I wrote in The party starts as Michigan recount begins as ordered.

That a third of precincts in Detroit may be ineligible for a recount is not good news for anyone having their hopes up that this recount will change the result of the election.  If anything, Trump's lead may increase because of it.  It also makes me even less enamored of both Janice Winfrey, the Detroit City Clerk, and Cathy M. Garrett, the Wayne County Clerk.  Neither one of them appears to be running a tight ship, or otherwise these kinds of irregularities would happen so frequently.  If either ever is up for nomination at a Michigan Democratic Convention for Secretary of State, I'm not voting for them and might just see if I could join a group to recruit another candidate.  Barb Byrum in Ingham County or Lisa Brown in Oakland County, the first two counties to participate in the recount, would be my choices.

Winfrey deserved that scare and I hope it makes her run the Detroit City Clerk's office better.  As for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State, I doubt either Byrum or Brown will be running next year.  Jocelyn Benson, who ran for the office in 2010, is running again.  I already plan on voting for her, both at the convention and in the general election.

Follow over more election news from across Michigan.

Duggan sworn in as Mayor

True, Mike Duggan was sworn in on January 1st, but WXYZ finally got around to posting a clip to the station's YouTube channel today.

Mike Duggan has been formally sworn in a Mayor of Detroit.

To be fair, what WXYZ posted was an investiture ceremony held this morning, not the actual swearing in ceremony last week, so WXYZ wasn't being lazy.  At today's ceremony, as you can see, Duggan announced action to improve DDOT, which is great news.  Duggan also told residents to give him and the new city council six months to improve Detroit.

Mayor Mike Duggan urged Detroiters considering moving out of the city to hold off for six months to give him, his administration and the new City Council the chance to show measurable improvements in quality of life.

“Maybe your neighborhood’s run down, you’re in a house and you’re thinking you’re going to just walk away from it, it’s a lost cause, like so many before you have,” Duggan told a crowd of city, county and state leaders and others gathered this morning for an investiture ceremony for him, the council and the city’s Police Commission.

“I say to you one thing: Just give us six months. Give us six months to prove that we can turn things around. Just push the pause button and don’t leave that house yet. …Give us six months before you walk away from the value of that house. Give us six months and let us prove to you what we can do.”

Good news and good luck, Mayor Duggan.