Kwame Kilpatrick recall (2008)

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Detroit Mayor recall
Officeholders
Kwame Kilpatrick
Recall status
Resigned
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2008 Recalls in Michigan Michigan recall laws Mayoral recalls Recall reports

Kwame Kilpatrick, the mayor of Detroit, Michigan, faced a recall campaign against him prior to his resignation.

In order to initiate a recall election, 56,970 signatures were required. The signatures needed to be collected in a 90-day period that fell within a 180-day windown that started on April 28 when Wayne County elections officials approved the recall language.

The primary organizer of the Kilpatrick recall effort was Angelo Brown, a security guard from southwest Detroit. The language on the approved recall petition said, "Kwame Kilpatrick is too preoccupied to be effective as mayor of Detroit with felony perjury charges."

In the News

Whistle-blower scandal

Kilpatrick earned the ire of Brown and others because of an $8.4 million payout the city of Detroit made to settle whistleblower lawsuits in 2007. During his testimony in the suit, Kilpatrick denied an extramarital affair with chief of staff Christine Beatty, but explicit text messages later confirmed the relationship. On September 4, 2008, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and resigned from office.

Corruption Conviction

On March 11, 2013, a jury found Kilpatrick guilty on 24 counts, including charges of extortion, racketeering, and fraud. Some of the charges related to allegations that Kilpatrick used his position as mayor to illegally direct $76 million in contracts to friend and contractor Bobby Ferguson, taking bribes, providing fake jobs to friends and family, and using a nonprofit fund for personal expenses. Prosecutors determined that while serving as mayor, Kilpatrick spent $840,000 more than his mayoral salary could cover. In addition to Kilpatrick and Ferguson, more than 30 other people were convicted in connection with the "Kilpatrick enterprise," as prosecutors called the network of corruption. On October 10, 2013, federal judge Nancy Edmunds sentenced Kilpatrick to 28 years in prison, as requested by the prosecution. Edmunds stated that restitution would be settled at a later hearing.

See also

• Recall campaigns in Michigan

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