Thursday, 6:40 p.m. -- The Detroit Retired City Employees Association (DRCEA) Board, which advocates for more than 12,000 City of Detroit retirees and their beneficiaries, announced Thursday that it was endorsing Duggan. Napoleon's camp announced that former Detroit mayoral candidate Fred Durhal Jr and 17 neighborhood leaders endorsed Napoleon Thursday.
The fight is on in the Detroit mayoral race for support from labor unions.
Darren A. Nichols of the Detroit News reports that Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon on Wednesday got the endorsement of Michigan’s American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 25 — which represents the largest contingent of city workers, as well as other Detroiters who work at the DMC, Wayne State University, the state of Michigan and Wayne County.
Candidate Mike Duggan, former head of the Detroit Medical Center, has land three labor endorsements in the past month, Nichols reports.
Al Garrett, the AFSCME president, said Napoleon received the nod because of his favorable history of working with union members as sheriff and Detroit’s former police chief.
“Our members have experienced layoffs, concessions (and) pension rollbacks (under Duggan) and that was a factor,” Al Garrett, president of AFSCME, said, according to the News. “Our members felt they know Benny Napoleon. We wanted someone who is committed to the working people, but also committed to the quality of life of folks in Detroit.”
Napoleon has been trying to paint Duggan as the favorite among Detroit's big business. Duggan's got the backing of Quicken Loans’ Dan Gilbert, former Compuware Corp. chairman Pete Karmanos and auto mogul Roger Penske. Napoleon landed the prestigious endorsement of the United Auto Workers.
But Duggan has picked up support of such unions as Service Employees International Union Healthcare Michigan, which represents workers including janitors.
The News reports:
Political analyst Eric Foster described the Duggan labor endorsements as indications the race “is starting to split the solid base of support Benny had in the primary.”
Bill Ballenger, editor of the Inside Michigan Politics newsletter, said the primary results pose a challenge for Napoleon, who risks losing support from some labor and other groups that could become leery of putting more money behind a candidate who could lose the Nov. 5 general election. -- Allan Lengel
