A new "gotcha" claim by serial mayoral candidate Tom Barrow is aimed at Mike Duggan, as the Free Press reports. It involves the timing of his move from Livonia to Palmer Woods.
Mayoral candidate Mike Duggan campaigns at a neighborhood gathering,Barrow is claiming that Mike Duggan wasn’t a resident of Detroit for a year — as required by city charter — when he turned in his signatures to become an official candidate for mayor in the city’s August primary. . . .
“The city charter is explicit,” Barrow said after a mayoral candidate forum hosted by the Booker T. Washington Business Association on Tuesday afternoon at the MGM Grand Detroit Casino. “Mr. Duggan was two weeks short of that. He’ll be off the ballot; I’m absolutely convinced of that. He’s as good as gone.”
In a formal complaint filed with the city clerk this week, according to free Press reports Matt Helms and Joe Guillen, Barrow says Duggan wasn’t a city resident for a year when he turned in petition signatures April 2 to make the August ballot.
Duggan legally became a Detroit resident on April 16, 2012, after moving to the city’s Palmer Woods neighborhood from suburban Livonia and registering to vote in the city that day, according to Barrow’s complaint. . . .
Representatives for Duggan‘s campaign dismissed the charge as a misguided attempt to remove one of the front-runners. . . . Duggan’s campaign did not dispute the April 16 date.
The new city charter, which took effect Jan. 1, 2012, says candidates for elected office must be city residents and registered voters for one year before they file for office.
