Taking a page out of the Sharon McPhail playbook, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon has asked former top city attorney and fervent consent-decree opponent Krystal Crittendon to be his deputy mayor.
“He did ask,” Crittendon told Matt Helms of the Free Press Sunday, confirming a report in the Michigan Citizen newspaper that Napoleon told a meeting of the Michigan chapter of the civil rights group National Action Network on Saturday that he requested that she run as his No. 2.
“I am going to seriously consider it,” she said, “but I am going to work hard to ensure that the sheriff gets elected mayor of Detroit in the meantime.”
Crittendon finished third in the city’s Aug. 6 mayoral primary. Former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan, running as a write-in, won more than 50% of the vote, with Napoleon at 30% and Crittendon at 5.6%.
Napoleon spokesman Jamaine Dickens said he wasn’t aware an offer had been made.
Deputy mayor is an appointed position, and does not appear on the ballot. For decades no mayoral candidate singled out anyone in advance to be his or her deputy. In 2005, then-City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail asked Napoleon to be her running mate. He accepted. She lost.
