Politics

Elrick: Political DNA From Kilpatrick Regime Lives On In Duggan, Napoleon Campaigns

October 31, 2013, 10:56 PM

Kwame Kilpatrick's career is dead and buried. He's serving 28 years in federal prison for his misdeeds in Detroit.

You might think those who worked for him are also in the political graveyard, but a lot of Kilpatrick's cohorts are now working for Detroit's current mayoral candidates - their political careers have been resurrected, M.L. Elrick, the reporter who did a lot to bury Kilpatrick, reports on Fox 2.

Elrick's story is notable not only for the content -- the disgraced Art Blackwell is advising Napoleon? -- but also for the way Elrick confronts Duggan and Napoleon and the ironically cheesy graphics that include Elrick appearing, ghost-like, throughout the piece and a graveyard named Kwameland Political Graveyard.

Elrick reports Duggan's campaign includes former top Kilpatrick supporters Conrad Mallett, Butch Hollowell, Malik Shabazz and Charles Beckham, but the biggest Kilpatrick supporter in Duggan's campaign might be Duggan himself.

M.L. ELRICK: You were a key adviser to Kwame Kilpatrick right up to the end.
DUGGAN: Right.
ELRICK: You provided him a lot of support, a lot of advice. What does that say about your judgment?
DUGGAN: It says that I believed in somebody and I was wrong.
ELRICK: Do you feel like you owe Detroit an apology for Kwame Kilpatrick?
DUGGAN: No, I don't.

Napoleon's campaign also has plenty of its own Kilpatrick connections. Campaign manager Eddie MacDonald helped get Kilpatrick elected. He was also a top Kilpatrick city hall appointee. Campaign spokesman Jamaine Dickens used to tangle with the media for Kilpatrick. Napoleon has even hired Kilpatrick's step-grandmother as well as Beverlyn Hilton, who is a long-time Kilpatrick family friend and former mayoral appointee.

One of Napoleon's advisers has been convicted of breaking the law. Long-time Kilpatrick ally and former Highland Park Emergency Financial Manager Art Blackwell pleaded no contest to safe keeping of public money after he was charged with embezzling from Highland Park. He was ordered to pay the city $264,000.

NAPOLEON: Let's cut it to the chase. Art Blackwell is a friend of mine, I'm not going to deny that and he has talked to me. Case closed.
ELRICK: But do you trust Art Blackwell?
NAPOLEON: Do I trust him? Why would I not trust him?
ELRICK: The people of Highland Park trusted him and he betrayed them.


Read more:  Fox 2 Detroit


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