Fieger Mulls Mayoral Run, Says Detroit Needs White People

DETROIT (Talk Radio 1270) Geoffrey Fieger, metro Detroit's most recognizable attorney, came just shy of throwing his hat in the ring for the Detroit mayor's seat Tuesday on the Charlie Langton Talk Radio 1270 show.

And race played a prominent role in the discussion.

"I still think about it, certain white people can be mayor of the city of Detroit, I'm not sure Mike Duggan is that person, although he's obviously promoting himself to be that person ... He's really a closet Republican," said Fieger, who previously ran for governor.

Would Fieger run for the top job in the city that's 82 percent black?

"I'd consider it, I have considered it ... Bing is going to run again, apparently, he said he's going to run again. I don't know if he is or not," Fieger said.

Langton asked Fieger specifically if he would run against Mayor Dave Bing, a man lauded by many as bringing integrity back to the office after Kwame Kilpatrick left in disgrace and a flurry of criminal charges.

"I might, I might, see how big the primary is if he (Bing) decides to run again ... The way things are going, I like Dave Bing, I like him, I've talked to him, I just don't think he's what Detroit needs right now," Fieger said. "Detroit is at a crucible. Detroit really has to attract young white people. It's possible to do that. And that isn't a racist statement. It can't be a black city, it can't be a black city."

He complained about the years under former Gov. John Engler when he said the focus was taken off saving Detroit and onto bolstering already successful communities like Grand Rapids.

"In this state, there has been ... I'm not saying Snyder is guilty, but prior to that ... There was a concerted effort to really strip Detroit of its economic and political power and move it to Grand Rapids and that was crazy... You can't have a great state without a great city," Fieger said.

Weighing in on the emergency manager situation that has overtaken political discussion in Detroit, Fieger said it's wrong to have a state-approved board running the city's finances. Detroit entered into a consent agreement with the state to slash its $450 budget deficit by giving an independent board control of merging departments and taking other measures to balance the budget.

"Frankly, I do think this financial manager law that we have here is as bad or worse than anything Scott Walker did in Wisconsin," Fieger said. "What you do is go in the poor, black, urban Democratic cities, you strip them of their elected officials ... suppress the vote, get rid of the union contracts, you sell their assets. I think that at its core, it's unconstitutional."

He added: "Do you think it's an accident that all these cities, every single one that has an emergency manager, is black and urban?"

Fieger's revelations come on the heels of a new poll that found 50 percent of Detroiters would vote for a white mayor.

At the same time, Fieger, an avid Democrat, has a new TV ad where he weighs in on the presidential race in support of Obama and says, "if President Obama was white, do you really think there would be people questioning his birth certificate?"

The ad goes on to say: "It really bothers some of my white brethren that a black man is occupying the White House."

Fieger elaborated his presidential position on the Langton show, saying, "I know as a white man it's all code words for him being black, it's the sub-rosa, the under current ... These people who are saying these things ... are clearly racist and it's about time somebody said it," Fieger said.