Mike Duggan
Mike Duggan | |
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75th Mayor of Detroit | |
Assumed office January 1, 2014 | |
Preceded by | Dave Bing |
Prosecutor of Wayne County | |
In office July 11, 2001 – July 16, 2004 | |
Preceded by | John O'Hair |
Succeeded by | Kym Worthy |
Personal details | |
Born | Michael Edward Duggan July 15, 1958 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Lori Maher (div. 2019) |
Children | 4 |
Parent |
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Education | University of Michigan (BA, JD) |
Website | Campaign website |
Michael Edward Duggan (born July 15, 1958) is an American businessman and politician of the Democratic Party, currently serving as the 75th mayor of Detroit, Michigan. When first elected in 2013 he received national attention, in part for being the first white mayor of the majority-black city since Roman Gribbs in the early 1970s, when Detroit's population still had a white majority.[1][2] Duggan won a second term in the 2017 election. Prior to becoming mayor he held a number of other political offices, including from 1987 to 2001 as deputy County Executive of Wayne County in which Detroit is located. He has received an approval rating of over 68%, the highest rating of any mayor of Detroit.[3]
Early life and education
Duggan was born in Detroit on July 15, 1958, to Patrick J. Duggan and Joan Colosimo.[4] His paternal grandfather was from County Kilkenny, Ireland moving to Detroit at the age of 18, and his paternal grandmother was the child of Irish and German immigrants.[5] Duggan spent his first six years at a home on Stansbury Street on the city's west side before moving to nearby Livonia in 1963.[6] He graduated from Detroit Catholic Central High School, and then received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1980, followed by a Juris Doctor degree from its law school in 1983.
Early career
As a Democrat, Duggan has served as an appointed and an elected official in Wayne County, Michigan, beginning in 1986 as Wayne County's assistant corporation counsel. He was deputy County Executive from 1987 to 2001 under Edward H. McNamara, and was elected prosecutor in 2000.[7]
Beginning in 2004, Duggan was president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). He was in this position when the formerly nonprofit DMC was sold to publicly traded Vanguard Health Systems in 2010.[8]
Mayor of Detroit
2013 election campaign
In 2012, Duggan resigned his position at the DMC and moved from the suburb of Livonia to the city of Detroit, intending to run for the office of mayor the following year.[9] However, he failed to qualify for the ballot because he filed less than a year after establishing residency in the city; if he had waited two more weeks to file—which still would have met the filing deadline—he would have qualified.[10]
Instead, he mounted a write-in campaign, and received 52% of the vote in the August primary election.[11] Under Detroit's two-round system, the two highest vote-getters run against one another in the general election, which meant that Duggan ran against second-place finisher Benny Napoleon, who had won 29% of the vote.[12] Duggan ran with the campaign slogan, "Every neighborhood has a future", on a platform of financial turnaround, crime reduction, and economic development.[13] He received 55% of the vote in the general election in November, becoming the first white mayor of the now-majority-black city since Roman Gribbs, who served from 1970 to 1974.[2]
First term
Duggan focused, during his first term, on improvements to emergency services response times and bus services.[14] He also saw a demolition program that was ambitious, but controversial.[15]
Duggan also focused on relighting the city's streetlights, a task in which he saw significant success and built upon efforts initiated by his mayor predecessor Dave Bing.[14][15]
Duggan had pledged to create a municipally-owned insurance company, dubbed "D Insurance".[15] He advocated hard in 2015 for a bill that would create such a program, but it failed to pass in the Michigan Legislature.[15]
Duggan drastically increased the number of parks that receive regular maintenance, which increased from 25 parks in 2013 to 275 by 2017 per reporting by the mayor's office.[15]
Detroit's unemployment rate by 2017 shrunk down to 7.5%, the lowest it had been since 2000.[15] Duggan worked to create Detroit at Work, an online portal launched in 2017 which connects job seekers with employers and with job training.[15] Duggan also created the "Grow Detroit’s Young Talent" program, a youth summer employment program that employed thousands of youth.[15]
In 2017, the city began issuing Detroit ID, a municipal identification card, which helps enable residents without a social security number to access city services and some banks.[15]
Despite his pledge to quickly reverse the trend, Detroit had continued to see overall depopulation.[15]
During his first term, Duggan developed a reputation as a capable technocrat.[15]
In October of 2017, conservative political commentator George Will wrote an article in the National Review, hailing Duggan as, "one of America's most successful politicians", and likening him to former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia.[16]
During his first term, the municipal government's authority was limited by state oversight, with emergency manager Kevyn Orr overseeing the city's bankruptcy and finances.[14]
Second term
In the 2017 Detroit mayoral election, Duggan was re-elected in a landslide, taking 72% of the vote to challenger Coleman Young II's 27%.
In the spring of 2018, the city of Detroit was released from state oversight, giving its municipal government full control over its operations for the first time in four decades.[14]
Duggan encountered a controversy after, in December 2019, the Detroit Office of the Inspector found that three top municipal officials, including his chief of staff Alexis Wiley, had ordered public employees to erase emails having to do with to the nonprofit organization Make Your Date. Michigan Secretary of State Dana Nessel launched an investigation into this. In September 2020, Investigative Reporters and Editors awarded Duggan and the city the dubious honor of the "Golden Padlock Award", recognizing them as the most secretive United States agency or individual.[17]
Duggan is running for a third term in the 2021 Detroit mayoral election.
Personal life
Duggan was married to Mary Loretto "Lori" Maher. In May 2019, Duggan and Maher released a joint statement confirming that they planned to end their marriage.[18][19] The divorce was finalized on September 17, 2019.[20]
See also
References
- ^ "Poll: Mike Duggan Leads Race For Detroit Mayor". The Huffington Post. March 5, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ^ a b Smith, Jay Scott (March 5, 2013). "Mike Duggan: A White Candidate For (Gasp!) Detroit". Newsweek. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
- ^ Dovere, Edward-Isaac. "How Detroit's Mayor Became Unbeatable". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
- ^ Fletcher, Michael A. (November 4, 2013). "Mike Duggan: The New Face of Detroit's City Hall?". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
- ^ Ferretti, Christine (March 18, 2020). "Retired senior judge Patrick J. Duggan, father of Detroit mayor, dies". The Detroit News. Gary Miles. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ Burns, Gus (November 20, 2013). "Mayoral candidate Mike Duggan visits childhood home in slipping Detroit neighborhood". MLive.com. Advance Publications, Inc. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ Kosmetatos, Sofia (July 27, 2007). "Tough Medicine: DMC's Comeback Is Latest Success for Duggan". The Detroit News.
- ^ "Vanguard Set to Acquire Detroit Hospitals". The Wall Street Journal. December 31, 2010.
- ^ Helms, Matt (November 8, 2012). "Mike Duggan to Step Down as DMC Chief in Pursuit of Detroit Mayoral Bid". Detroit Free Press.
- ^ Staff (June 28, 2013). "Mike Duggan Will Run for Detroit Mayor as Write-In Candidate". Southfield, MI: WJBK-TV. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ^ "Write-ins Dominate Detroit Voting". Politico. Associated Press. August 7, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
- ^ "How Underdog Story Propelled Mike Duggan to Top Vote-Getter in Detroit Primary". Detroit Free Press. August 7, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
- ^ "Detroit Elects First White Mayor in More than 4 Decades". CNN. November 7, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Ferretti, Christine (June 21, 2018). "Mike Duggan: Mayor instrumental to Detroit's turnaround". The Detroit News. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pratt, Chastity (September 28, 2017). "Promises, meet reality: Measuring Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's first term". www.bridgemi.com. Bridge Michigan. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ Will, George (October 7, 2017). "Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan: One of America's Most Successful Politicians". National Review. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ Neavling, Steve (September 25, 2020). "Duggan, city of Detroit awarded 'Golden Padlock' for deleted public records". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ "Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's wife Mary Loretto Maher files for divorce". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
- ^ "Mike Duggan and wife file for divorce". WXYZ. May 3, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
- ^ Lengel, Allan (September 24, 2019). "'Breakdown in the Marriage:' Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's Divorce Is Final". www.deadlinedetroit.com. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
External links
- 1958 births
- 21st-century American politicians
- Living people
- American people of Italian descent
- American people of Irish descent
- American people of German descent
- Lawyers from Detroit
- Mayors of Detroit
- Michigan Democrats
- People from Livonia, Michigan
- University of Michigan Law School alumni
- University of Michigan alumni