Mudslinging marks the first Detroit mayoral debate

Detroit

During the first 90-minute debate of candidates for mayor of Detroit Tuesday night, the usual political mudslinging occurred, but no candidate outshone the other.

The three candidates picked from the 15 contenders for the debate, aired on WADL-TV, were current Detroit interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr., businessman David Bing, and former deputy mayor Freman Hendrix.

No one seemed to introduce any new ideas last night, though they were all quick to point fingers at the Kilpatrick administration and at one another.

All three candidates agreed on the major issues: that there needs to be more police presence, that the public school system needs attention, that abandoned buildings need to be demolished or renovated and the budget needs to be balanced. But no one presented a solid plan to do any of those things.

All three agreed that if Wayne County prosecutor Kim Worthy were to continue her investigation of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in the text-messaging scandal and found any new charges against him, they would support her. But Cockrel added that while he agrees that the law should be carried out, he felt the city needs to “move on.”

One popular topic was the current perjury investigation underway by Attorney General Mike Cox that will discern whether Cockrel knew he had outstanding debts with the city clerk’s office when he signed an affidavit saying he had no debts with the city.

Cockrel said he believed those debts had been waived by the time he signed the affidavit and added that he has been open with Cox during the investigation.

But the topic resurfaced multiple times in the debate. David Bing slammed Cockrel saying, ““We’ve got a former mayor that’s spending time in prison right now. In jail. And we’ve got an acting mayor right now that’s under investigation. How long do the citizens of Detroit need to endure this?”

Hendrix said if he were Cockrel he would wait until the general election to run for mayor so that the current investigation wouldn’t be a distraction.

“I would have withdrawn my name, re-loaded and waited for the August/November election,” Hendrix said. “[But] who doesn’t want a shortcut to power and glory?”

Cockrel and Hendrix turned on Bing for his pledge last week to work for free if elected. They called it a cry for attention and chided him for his wealth.

“He’ll hire two cops with that,” Hendrix said of Bing’s plan to use his salary to pay more police officers.

“Must be nice to be a millionaire,” Cockrel said.

“I guess I should apologize for being successful,” Bing responded.

Bing called Hendrix a “re-tread” because he ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Kilpatrick in 2005.

Cockrel was quick to remind his opponents that he was the current mayor, and he brought up the fact that crime was down from last year at this time.

He harped on the fact that he opened four mini-police stations in the city but didn’t mention that all but one are on the East Side and that one of them had already been in place.

The city budget was another issue that Cockrel took heat for from his competitors. In September when he took office, Cockrel promised a balanced budget within two months. So far, the city’s new chief financial officer Joe Harris has only managed to discover that the city is actually $200 million more in debt than previously thought.

Cockrel blamed the previous administration for keeping these debts hidden.

The next mayoral debates will be aired on WADL-TV Jan. 6, Jan. 27 and Feb. 17. Candidates will be selected randomly in groups of four and each will have different sponsors.