Given Detroit's staggering crime and near-financial insolvency, among other problems, the possibility of a viable white contender is being debated in Detroit power circles, reports Leonard Fleming of the Detroit News.
Much of the talk centers on Mike Duggan, the former Wayne County prosecutor, deputy county executive and current CEO of the Detroit Medical Center.
Duggan has not made his intentions public, and the filing deadline is slightly less than a year away. But he recently moved from Livonia to the Palmer Woods section of the city and has done little to quell the speculation.
"In order to be elected as a white person in a black city, you have to be an extraordinary person," national political consultant Tom Lindenfeld told Fleming. "But it would be a groundbreaking thing. And it would require some personal skills as well as leadership skills to become viable. You're talking about a really hard thing."
