Year in review: Top Detroit politics stories of 2009

Detroit isn’t the 1950s-era political juggernaut it once was on the state’s political assembly line. But given the city’s beyond-battered economy –- an ugly transformation marked by sustained loss of manufacturing jobs and especially the Motor City’s devastated auto industry –- Detroit still manages to garner plenty of statewide and even nationwide attention.

For the most part, it’s all very familiar (and bad) news, but part of that attention also focused inevitably on the city’s rough-and-tumble politics in 2009.

(Creative Commons photo by Cletch via Flickr)

Just as in years past, oversized personalities commanded the city’s political stage, but this year was unusually busy.

“All those elections, constant rolling elections, that was the dominant political phenomena of 2009,” Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics, told Michigan Messenger.

He’s referring to the series of four municipal elections held during the year — special, primary and general elections — triggered by the resignation of disgraced ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick was convicted on two felony counts of obstruction of justice in the infamous text messaging scandal, and was briefly jailed at the end of last year. He immediately moved to an upscale suburb of Dallas, Texas, but remained distractingly close to the city’s ongoing political soap opera this year as well.

“I don’t know what city could handle that stuff that we’ve been getting hit with,” Adolph Mongo, a long-time Detroit based political strategist, said in an interview. “It’s been disheartening to a lot of folks.”

1. Mayor Dave Bing wins… multiple times

If there was a political polar opposite to Kilpatrick, it is ex-NBA star and steel magnate Dave Bing. Older and more mature, Bing offered the city a fresh start amid mounting budget strife.

“The guy won four elections in one year!” Ballenger noted with a laugh. “That’s pretty good. Most people are satisfied with maybe one or two wins.”

Bing won a special election to fill out the remainder of Kilpatrick’s term, and then went on to win a full, four-year term of his own this past November. He did all this despite his lack of political experience, a fact he successfully marshaled as an advantage.

“It tells you how far we have fallen. Four years ago, Bing wouldn’t have been on the radar,” Mongo, who once worked for ex-Mayor Coleman Young, explained. “That a Dave Bing can move into the city in 30 days and get elected tells you that people were looking for some kind of change, looking for a miracle.”

Bing’s leadership challenge in 2009 and beyond is anything but easy, Mongo added. “You’ve got no manufacturing jobs, the crime is out of control, the police department is short-staffed and outgunned, and the unions still operate, some of them, like these are the good ol’ days,” he said. “He has a tall order in front of him.”

2. Fresh faces on the city council

The same political winds that blew Bing into City Hall also brought in a majority of newbies on the City Council. In fact, the top three vote getters in the Nov. 3 general election – Charles Pugh, Gary Brown and Santeel Jenkins – were all non-incumbents. Overall, five of the nine members of new council are first-time councilors.

“I think it was time to get some new blood,” Mongo said. “Plus there was a big appetite for change.”

Pugh, in particular, became a big story in 2009. Not only did the ex-TV journalist come in first and consequently will be the new council president, he also made history as the first openly gay elected city councilor.

Mongo, however, is quick to put that accomplishment in some local context.

“We’ve had gay politicians in Detroit, it just never came out,” he said. “We’ve had some real powerful gay politicians in the last 20 or 30 years. The significant part was that he was openly gay. But you know what, he was very popular and he was a fixture in the community… I think people got over the gay phobia.”

Ballenger, meanwhile, cites Pugh’s trailblazing success at the polls as yet another indication that city voters wanted new leadership above all else.

“Not only was Charles Pugh a complete neophyte in terms of not being a traditional politician who’d ever been elected to anything,” he said, “the fact that he was openly gay in a city where the black clergy has always had a lot of influence… I think it shows you how eager the voters were and various interest groups were for real change.”

Beyond the fresh faces on the council, 2009 marked the beginning of a new charter review commission, as well as the prospect of ending at-large council races and replacing them with district-based elections in the future.

3. A year of political scandal

The ripple effects of the Kilpatrick saga encompassed only part of the political scandals that rocked the city this year – but it was a big part.

“The spectacle of the former mayor in jail until early in the year, his new residence in Texas, the efforts by (Wayne County Prosecutor) Kym Worthy and the court to reel him back to Detroit to make sure he met his payment deadlines, these were constant drip-drip reminders all year long to the voters of how rotten and corrupt Kilpatrick had been.”

But other politicians contributed more than their fair share to the political scandal storyline. Among them were ex-Councilor Monica Conyers, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes.

“The overall disgust that the citizens of Detroit felt for so many of their public officials — people like Monica Conyers, Mary Waters, Sam Riddle — people were very concerned about all this and I think they basically decided it’s time to turn over a new leaf,” offered Ballenger.

Mongo agreed, but also argued that Kilpatrick’s restitution hearings were “very political.”

“There are people who own millions in restitution to the city and county, but they don’t haul them in court,” he said. “They go after them with a collection agency. But on the other hand, the former mayor made it easy for them to do it.”

4. Robert Bobb takes charge

Besides Bing, there was at least one more Detroit political figure this year who distinguished himself in the eyes of the public – Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb. Appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Bobb spent much of the year working to rein in millions of dollars in deficit spending. At the end of the year, he pointed to abysmal standardized test scores as another reason why he should also be in charge of the district’s academics.

“We need somebody to make some tough decisions,” Mongo said. “He’s doing that.”

While progress has been made downsizing the district and reordering its finances, Ballenger argues that the jury is still out on Bobb.

“He’s obviously is a very dominant figure. He gets a lot of headlines, and he’s seems to be breaking a lot of eggs,” he said. “Whether he has made an omelet or not, remains to be seen.”

5. Detroit’s shrinking political influence

Along with the city’s slumping economy, 2009 also marked a continued political slump. “Detroit political clout is nil to none when it comes to state politics,” Mongo said.

Ballenger agreed.

He points out that the city’s voters only currently constitute about 6 percent of the statewide electorate. “Detroit has shriveled in size and its voting turnout percentage is so poor,” he added.

That means that Detroit – an overwhelmingly Democratic and African-American city – probably won’t be affecting the state’s political machinations any time soon. Given the overarching economic problems, that’s probably not much of a surprise.

“Detroit for the last 5 or 6 years has been getting hit really hard with unemployment, people moving out in record numbers, students abandoning the school district, city on the verge of bankruptcy, and the school board not far behind,” Mongo said.

All that economic strife, he said, contributes to local political strife –- and ultimately public outrage.

“We have a civil war right here inside the city. You have a city council that’s been rocked with scandal,” Mongo said. “We had three mayors in a year.”

The sum total?

Mongo doesn’t mince his words: “People are just plain fed up right now with the political scene here in the city.”