Commission allows Mike Duggan to stay on Detroit mayoral ballot

Fellow candidate Tom Barrow says Duggan hasn't lived in Detroit long enough to be on mayoral ballot

DETROIT – Former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan will be on Detroit's mayoral ballot next year but there were some tense moments while awaiting a decision.

It was a technicality: did Duggan file his candidate papers at the right time? It turns out he did.

"I never in my life heard of somebody being excluded from a ballot for filing their petitions too early. The fact that we actually spent 48 hours debating whether that was a real theory tells you how hard things are," Duggan said. "But this was the correct result. We never had any doubt that this was the way that it was going to come out, and now we're going to get back and focused on the campaign."

Duggan was spiking the ball on Thursday after the Detroit Election Commission voted to allow him to stay on the November ballot. The question raised by candidate Tom Barrow was whether Duggan bought a home in the city of Detroit and lived there for a full year before filing his papers to run for mayor.

Duggan say he and his staff were exceptionally careful.

"We expected a challenge so the folks here double and triple checked every single circulator, every single signature. We knew what the law was. We knew that May 14 was the deadline and I was legally registered here by April 16," said Duggan.

Barrow says legal opinions are just that. He says more at play here was politics over sound judgment.

"I think Detroiters know that you got a guy that got here barely a year -- I don't know if it's been a year yet or not, but he got here barely a year ago -- who comes in and wants to be the messiah. We see what he is and this proves that there are separate rules for him that doesn't apply to anybody else," said Barrow. "So be assured, I think it's going to be an interesting campaign."


About the Author:

Rod Meloni is an Emmy Award-winning Business Editor on Local 4 News and a Certified Financial Plannerâ„¢ Professional.