Detroit elects first white mayor in years - and reasons go well beyond race
Source: Detroit Free Press
For the first time in 40 years, predominantly black Detroit elected a white person as mayor.
Community leaders, political observers and voters provided a number of theories on how that happened. But among them was a theme: The election was about much more than skin color, even in a region where race has been a foremost issue for decades.
They said Mike Duggan beat Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon in the city whose population is 82% African American because of a more organized, better-financed campaign. Others sensed desperation among voters — a thirst for change in a broken city that led to a measuring of the whole candidate against the other.
“Voters tend to vote more out of pragmatism than symbolism,” said Kenneth Cooper, a Boston political journalist who has researched how black mayors are elected in cities of varying minority populations. “What will work best for the city? Who will work best for the city? There’s no guarantee that a black majority will elect a black candidate. Black voters do not reflexively vote for black candidates. It’s not automatic.”
Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20131106/NEWS01/311060037/Mike-Duggan-Detroit-s-1st-white-mayor-decades-reasons-go-beyond-race
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