Troy Voters Deciding Whether To Recall Mayor

TROY, Mich. (WWJ) - When voters in Troy go to the polls  Tuesday, they'll be considering a recall effort against Mayor Janice Daniels, who made national headlines for an anti-gay Facebook post and efforts to refuse federal dollars for a train station project that was supported by local business leaders.

For some voters, the flap over Daniels is very much on their minds and they're not mincing words.

"She's a bigot," one man said.

Another resident doesn't see her remarks or actions in council as grounds for her removal -- at least not by a recall.

"The majority decide she's not doing the job ... When she comes up for re-election, you know, we'll vote her out," he told WWJ's Ron Dewey.

At least one voter said it makes him wonder how well-informed people are about candidates before they elect them. Others said they haven't paid attention to the recall effort, or were not aware of it.

Will her words come back to haunt her tomorrow?

Daniels, elected a year ago as a Tea Party favorite, allegedly likened homosexuality to a mental illness during a talk at a school and posted on her Facebook page in the wake of gay marriage legalization in New York that she couldn't carry an "I Heart New York" tote bag anymore since "queers" could marry there.

Daniels defended herself during a interview on the Charlie Langton show on Talk Radio 1270, saying she did not call homosexuality a mental illness, bud did say, "That I would bring a doctor into a meeting that would say that the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous ... Had I been with a group of smokers I might have said I would like to bring a doctor into this meeting to say that smoking is dangerous."

She also alluded to the idea she's not homophobic because as a former real estate agent she had worked on a loan for a man who she "suspected" cold "potentially be gay," and they "got along famously."

Tea Party backers are now helping fight the recall, and recall supporters Sunday night posted a photo on Facebook of Daniels and an associate carrying yard signs that call for her removal. She reportedly removed the signs from a Kroger store because they were incorrectly on public property.

Organizers of the recall campaign delivered 9,300 supporter signatures, well over the  7,985 required to force the recall.