There is little doubt that Dave Bing will be re-elected as Mayor of Detroit. He represents a clear break from the past represented by Kwame Kilpatrick. Even Detroiters have a limit when it comes to stupidity at election time.
From The Wall Street Journal:
By ALEX P. KELLOGGStill, you have to marvel at the city's unions who find nothing wrong with supporting someone like Tom Barrow. Birds of a feather....
Detroit voters will cast ballots Tuesday for a record fourth time in eight months, a reflection of the city's the troubles and lingering controversy connected to former Democratic Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Incumbent Dave Bing, a Democrat and Hall of Fame basketball player who took office in a special election this spring, is widely expected to win.
Mr. Bing, who founded a group of auto-supply companies after playing for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association, wants to reduce spending at a time when the city's tax base is shrinking rapidly. He is staring down a $300 million budget deficit and hoping to balance the budget, in part, by gaining concessions from the city's unions.
The challenger is Democrat Tom Barrow, an accountant who lost an August runoff election to Mr. Bing by a big margin and has a 1994 conviction for bank fraud and filing false tax returns on his record.
Mr. Barrow has the support of the city's unions, which largely abandoned Mr. Bing after his attempts to get savings from them. Mr. Barrow has gained some traction by painting Mr. Bing as an outsider who is overwhelmed by the myriad of issues the city faces. Mr. Bing lived in the suburbs until he ran for mayor.
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