Don't elect Duggan the "gangster?"

I don’t know if I’m behind the curve on this one, but an anti-Duggan ad that ran this morning on Channel 7, created by the Detroit Forward PAC, ended with this tagline: “Detroit doesn’t need another gangster.”

Wow.

The Detroit mayoral campaign ad refers to fines, “kickbacks” and job losses at the Detroit Medical Center while Mike Duggan was serving as CEO. It says that Duggan left that position with a $1.5 million bonus. It also implies that Duggan threatened opponent Benny Napoleon in a recent campaign debate when he said Napoleon will come to regret some of his anti-Duggan rhetoric.

OK. That’s hardball politics. But to make an obvious comparison between Duggan, a former prosecutor, and Kwame Kilpatrick, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in U.S. history, is way, way out of bounds.