This is starting to have the makings of a great video -- "Detroit Mayoral Race" -- where a booming-voice character named Tom Barrow, and a community activist named Robert Davis, use every weapon possible to try and demolish opponent Mike Duggan and keep him from running for election. The dynamic duo pulverize Duggan once, but Duggan suddenly resurfaces from the dead with a new weapon: A write-in ballot.
Barrow's latest attempt to keep Duggan from running seems to be failing -- so far.
The state’s elections director has rejected a bid by community activist Robert Davis and Tom Barrow to block Duggan’s write-in campaign, Matt Helms of the Detroit Free Press reports Wednesday afternoon.
Elections Director Chris Thomas wrote in a letter to Davis that the state lacks authority to remove write-in candidates.
Duggan celebrated within minutes, in effect, by tweeting:
"Need info on how to obtain an absentee ballot? Visit the City of #Detroit Elections Center online: http://ow.ly/mPtcE. #WriteInMikeDuggan."
Barrow earlier voiced brash confidence that he'd prevail, as shown with the headline atop a Tuesday news release (right) about his latest county court filing to challenge Duggan.
In his news report, Helms writes:
Thomas’ letter, sent late Tuesday to Davis and the Duggan campaign, said that Detroit’s city charter requires no qualifications for write-in candidates except that they file a declaration of intent to run by the city’s July 26 deadline. Duggan filed his declaration July 1.
Thomas wrote that, while he is aware that a Wayne County Circuit judge ruled Duggan ineligible to appear on the ballot and a Michigan Court of Appeals panel upheld that ruling, “it goes without saying that a write-in candidate’s name is not printed on the ballot.”
Barrow and Davis have also challenged Duggan's right to wage a write-in campaign in a lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court. The Duggan campaign, according to the Freep, thinks a ruling on that could come Monday.
Stay tuned: Updates to the video are in the making.
