posted on May 4, 2005 07:57:10 AM
Detroit mayor criticized for charging $210,000 on city credit card
May 3, 2005, 6:46 PM
DETROIT (AP) -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose city is struggling with a projected $230 million deficit, has charged at least $210,000 for travel, meals, an $85 bottle of champagne and other items on his city-issued credit card over nearly three years, public records show.
The disclosure Tuesday in response to a newspaper's Michigan Freedom of Information Act request was the latest in a series of blows to the 34-year-old first-term mayor, an earring-wearing, club-hopping former state House Democratic leader.
With an expected tough re-election fight this year, Kilpatrick already faced protests over massive layoffs and service cuts to close a 14-percent gap in the $1.6 billion general fund budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Detroit, a city of 911,000, has struggled with a steep population loss and economic decline since the 1950s and the resulting erosion of the tax base as businesses and affluent residents have moved to the suburbs.
Kilpatrick has cultivated an image as a fun-loving leader with a hip-hop lifestyle. He also has been dogged by complaints about wild parties, lavish entertainment and use of city vehicles for personal family travel.
The charge-card expenses came to light through a request submitted last year by the Detroit Free Press and cover the first 33 months of Kilpatrick's four-year term that began in January 2002.
Among the charges was one for $195 at Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' Atlanta restaurant Justine's on March 31, 2002. It included an $85 bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne and other alcoholic drinks.
"He just does not get it," said Detroit City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail, who is running to unseat Kilpatrick this year. "These are very immature, irresponsible actions ... charging lobster and crab legs and champagne."
Kilpatrick spokesman Howard Hughey said the mayor's travels and entertainment have been part of his effort to attract business to the city.
"As indicative of any first-term mayor, he has done so to meet with several potential public and private investors," Hughey said.
Earlier this year, Kilpatrick defended his lifestyle, saying, "When you're a young African American man with an earring, it's hard for people to believe you're a good husband and father."
An April poll showed Kilpatrick running neck-and-neck with McPhail and former Deputy Mayor Freman Hendrix among 402 likely voters in the Sept. 13 primary.
The poll, done by EPIC/MRA for WXYZ-TV, found 32 percent said they backed Hendrix and 29 percent each for Kilpatrick and McPhail. The results had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
Records of Kilpatrick's city-issued credit card show dozens of charges for meals, including a $283 bill at Danny's Grand Sea Palace in New York on Jan. 25, 2002, and a $456 bill at the Capital Grille in Washington on Sept. 25, 2003.
The mayor also spent a total of $611 on Jan. 23, 2002, at the Capital Grille and at Ozio restaurant while attending a U.S. Conference of Mayors' meeting in Washington.
Meals make up less than a tenth of the charges, with travel accounting for most of it, Hughey said. He said there is no city policy preventing the mayor from charging alcohol but said Kilpatrick generally has not done so.
Kilpatrick's immediate predecessor, Dennis Archer, said he never billed taxpayers for alcohol and normally paid out of his own pocket or from campaign or other private funds for meals above $40.
"The city really had no funds to entertain anybody," he told the Free Press.
posted on May 4, 2005 08:01:28 AM
A Halloween History of Republican Dirty Tricks
The Associated Press reported this weekend about yet another effort to confuse, deceive and intimidate African-American voters with a FAKE letter from the NAACP.
A bogus letter circulating in South Carolina, purporting to be from the NAACP, threatens the arrest of voters who have outstanding parking tickets or failed to pay child support. The NAACP said Friday the letter is a scare tactic and called for an investigation.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW A COPY OF THE ACTUAL LETTER.
The Rev. Joe Darby, vice president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he received the one-page letter - which had a Columbia postmark with no return address - at his Charleston home.
The letter also says voters must have a credit check, provide two forms of photo identification, a Social Security card, a voter registration card and a handwriting sample.
To read the full AP story click here or here and also here.
Of course, voter intimidation has a long and sordid history in South Carolina. As the following reports suggest:
Democrats in some areas of South Carolina would depend on the commerical taxi companies to supply transportation, but according to a GOP activist, "We'd tie them up by using our phone banks. We'd keep calling the taxicabs on the phone and get them to go to bogus addresses."
Larry Sabato, Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics, page 205.
In Dillon County, several days before election day, state Rep. Son Kinon, a white Republican, mailed out more than 3,000 brochures to black voters. On the outside, the brochure read, "You have always been my friend, so don't chance GOING TO JAIL on Election Day!"... "SLED agents, FBI agents, people from the Justice Department and undercover agents will be in Dillon County working this election. People who you think are your friends, and even your neighbors, could be the very ones that turn you in. THIS ELECTION IS NOT WORTH GOING TO JAIL!!!!!!"
John Monk, "In Dillon County, GOP effort on black vote backfires,"
The State, 11/20/1998
In 2002, Republicans in Jasper County were caught videotaping voters outside of the absentee voting precinct at the Jasper County Voter Registration Board. Operatives were filming voters as they entered the Voter Registration office, and filmed their license plates in the parking lot. Republicans had to be threatened with a court order before the videotaping ceased.
In the 2004 Greenville County Council Race, Republican Councilman Steve Selby's attorney Samuel Harms said on Tuesday that campaign observers will be at the precincts to "encourage poll workers to enforce the law." "If Democrats attempt to vote in the election, we're going to call upon the solicitor to start charging and indicting Democrats - it's a crime. If a couple Democrats go to jail for voting illegally, I'm not going to shed a tear."
