(WXYZ) - It’s another crowded ballot for Detroit city voters next Tuesday, so endorsements handed out by various groups could play a big roll in who wins and who doesn’t. Our chief investigative reporter Steve Wilson joins us with a look at how, when it comes to endorsements, things are decidedly different in Detroit.
If you’re running for office in Detroit and you want the endorsement of some local group’s Political Action Committee, their PAC that will put your name on the group’s slate of candidates they encourage people to vote for? Well, get out your checkbook.
Candidate (Identity Concealed): And when you get endorsed in other parts of the country you get the endorsement plus people and/or financial contributions from the PAC or the organization.
Wilson: They give you money.
Candidate: Absolutely.
Wilson: But here?
Candidate: It’s in reverse.
Wilson: You’re paying the money.
Candidate: You’re paying the money or you don’t get the endorsement or support.
It’s so taboo for candidates to speak about this publicly, only one voluntarily agreed to do it and then only then in shadow and if we replaced his exact words with another voice, which we’re doing.
None of the groups say they sell the endorsements they promote on their recommended slates: Ernest Johnson’s Community Coalition is endorsing 23 candidates, but guess what?
Wilson: Can you point out to me which ones of these have not written a check to your organization or somehow contributed money?
Ernest Johnson/Community Coalition: Nope. I can’t point that out. I hope all of them have made a donation, I hope!
It’s pretty much the same over at the 14th Congressional District Democratic Party Organization.
Wilson: Tell me who’s the last candidate that you’ve endorsed that gave you nothing?
Rick Blocker/14th Congressional District Democratic Organization: I don’t have that information in front of me right now Mr. Wilson, I mean, but…we keep anybody…
Wilson: Has there been one?
Blocker: I haven’t been the chair but for eight months.
Wilson: Have you ever known of one?
Blocker: Not to my knowledge.
“The mighty 14th has endorsed you!” says a letter sent to a Detroit candidate last year, and attached to it is how much the mighty 14th expects. Candidates for federal office: cough up twenty-five hundred. County posts: most are assessed fifteen hundred, like judges, except high court candidates? Twenty-five hundred from you, too, please, all “to assist in paying for printing costs.” And candidates dare not dally. If their money isn’t in by the deadline: “…your name will not appear on the slate.”
And this: “Congratulations! The Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee is pleased to endorse your election bid!" It demands an “endorsement fee to help defray the costs” of promoting all candidates on their slate. If not paid promptly: “We may be forced to withdraw our support.”
Candidate: They never say they took your name off the slate because you didn’t pay the fee but they spread it among the other candidates that this is what they did and this is why that person’s name isn’t included on the slate.
Saunteel Jenkins/Council Candidate: There have been a couple of cases where I’ve been told, "Well, if you don’t give a check then we can’t endorse you," but in those cases I said, "Well I can’t give a check." The check is never written first, Steve.
And if the check is never written at all, as Mayor Dave Bing failed to do after getting the Community Coalition’s endorsement for the primary, coalition leader Ernest Johnson admitted to us that’s why Bing was banned from the slate now. The leading vote-getter in the primary says the culture of Detroit politics leaves candidates are in a jam.
Charles Pugh/Council Candidate: This is a quandary you find yourself in as someone who’s trying to get his name out there and I don’t see it as paying for an endorsement, I really see it as paying for a service.
Brenda Jones/Council Member: I ask them, "What is this charge going to cover? I’m not going to give you my money if you cannot tell me what it’s going to cover," and if what it’s going to cover is not sufficient, you will not get any money.
The “service” candidates say they get from groups: expensive mailers like slick slate cards passed around town, and sometimes volunteers to campaign and work the polls on election day.
Wilson: Can you win without giving them money and getting on their slates?
Candidate: You can but it’s the thought of your opponents on those slates, appearing in those mailings…it’s all about having a strong presence as often as you can.
And says long-time political observer Nolan Finley:
Nolan Finley/The Detroit News: It does mislead voters who think those candidates were picked by these organizations solely on what they bring to the table, solely on their positions and ability to lead, their integrity, etc. and that may not be the case at all. They may have been endorsed because they wrote a check.
Wilson: And one more question. In how many cases did you say no and still get the endorsement?
Pugh: We didn’t say no.
We should make it clear some organizations say their primary concern is offering endorsements to the best candidates and it just happens they all respond with a donation that’s seldom disclosed publicly. How to stop it? Our candidate in the shadow says there ought to be a state law against it. We’ll let you know if anyone in Lansing agrees.
If you have a tip for the Action News Investigative Team, contact us at wilson@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
