Myth #12: Duggan is a Democrat


Mike Duggan is a Republican. 

Oh, you didn't know?

Let me say that one more time for you...MIKE DUGGAN IS A REPUBLICAN. 
He is perhaps the only city mayor in the nation to have a Super-PAC (something usually reserved for national-level candidates), and that allows him to conceal most of his financial backing. But we can look at the clues...and read the writing on the wall:
  • Duggan's current campaign attorney, W. Alan Wilk, is a registered member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and has done work for Republican Governor John Engler, President George Bush, and others [source]. He also just hired the Michigan House Republicans' attorney, Hassan Beydoun, as his senior advisor and counsel [source].
  • For 8 long and brutal years Duggan staunchly stood behind the "law & order" policies of James Craig, who as police chief answered only to the mayor. Duggan even stood behind Craig when he justified police running over nonviolent protestors, and made all those appearances on FOX News where he called them communists [source]. Craig recently "came out" as a Republican, but if you were surprised by that, you're a sucker.
  • Dan Gilbert, one of Duggan's biggest donors, is also a proud financial backer of Trump [source], and hosted the 2016 Republican National Convention at his stadium in Ohio [source]. Gilbert also funds Republican candidates in key states like Georgia [source], some of whom have been suspected of being tied to the KKK [source].
  • In 2017 Duggan’s most successful fundraiser was held at the Bloomfield Hills mansion of Yousif Ghafari, a staunch Republican who routinely donates tens of thousands to the Michigan Republican Party, and candidates such as Donald Trump, Rick Snyder, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney [source].
Actual photo of Mike Duggan and Chief Craig prior to their emotional breakup
  • Most of Duggan's smaller donors are also known for donating heavily (and exclusively) to Republicans. They include the Taubman family [source], the Maroun family [source], the Ilitch family [source], the DeVos family [source], and Peter Karmanos [source]. Roger Penske, another big Duggan donor who also donates to Republicans [source], even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump [source].
  • In 2018 it was revealed that Duggan-backed Democrat candidates for the Michigan Legislature were being bankrolled by wealthy Republican donors [source], as well as Duggan-backed candidates for the Charter Revision Commission [source].
  • Many of Duggan's appointees (such as certain board members of the Detroit Land Bank Authority) are not only Republicans, but they themselves make large financial contributions to Republican candidates nationally [source].
  • Duggan's father, a federal judge, was a Republican. In fact, Mike is the only member of the Duggan family who claims to be a Democrat [source]. Now if that doesn't smell funny to you, you need to get your nose checked.
  • Duggan has been xeroxing the Trump playbook on propaganda and manipulating the media [source].
  • Finally, a casual look at Duggan's track record on policy shows all the hallmarks of a strong conservative bias: austerity, water shutoffs, cutting bus routes, favoring corporations and developers over residents, emphasizing "jobs" and "law & order" over things like education or addressing poverty, supporting "emergency financial management," foisting a "trickle-down economics" view of how Detroit's turnaround should happen... and so on.
Don't get bamboozled, folks. All of the Republican donors that I listed above who have backed the mayor's campaign have one thing in common: the only "Democrat" they have ever given money to is Mike Duggan. 

Now I don't care for Democrats OR Republicans, and you may not either. And it probably reflects even more poorly on Democrats that it's so easy for a horrible person like Duggan to so easily blend in with them simply by putting the (D) next to his name...it goes to show just how little of a difference there is between the two parties, if people can't even tell. At this point does it matter that Duggan is a Democrat or a Republican? 

"A man is judged by the company he keeps"

These people in power are not your friend, and they will smile right in your face even as they're inserting that dagger in your back.

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