The Detroit Election Commission on Thursday afternoon certified Mike Duggan as a mayoral candidate, despite a challenge from Tom Barrow.
The board voted 2-1 to certify Duggan. City Council President Charles Pugh, who sits on the commission, objected to the certification. The commission also certified 14 other candidates.
But it was the Duggan certification that the commission spent time discussing.
Pugh felt that Duggan, who he called the "best candidate" for office, didn't qualify as a candidate under the city charter.
"I respect Mike Duggan," Pugh said. "I think he's an excellent caniddate, but that is not what this is about."
The charter requires that a candidate be a resident and a registered voter in Detroit for at least one year before filing petitions for office.
Barrow, in a complaint to Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, claimed that Duggan violated Detroit city charter and was ineligible to run because he filed his signatures on April 2 to qualify to run, less than a year after he registered to vote in Detroit. He registered April 16, 2012.
Duggan's camp insisted the city charter dictated that the one-year residency was based on the May 14 filing deadline for signatures, not the actual filing date that Duggan submitted petitions. Duggan, one of the race's early frontrunners in could have waited until the deadline to file petitions.
Duggan supporters packed the room, raucously cheering when it became clear he was left on the August primary ballot.
The Detroit Election Commission is comprised of Pugh, Winfrey and city attorney Edward Keelean.
