Never before in Michigan history has an incumbent city councilman been allowed to run for re-election while simultaneously seeking election as mayor in a separate line on the ballot. Why? Because the state Legislature has altered Michigan’s recall statute to allow this possibility to happen for the first time ever.
Kincaid is already on the November ballot for his seat in Flint’s 9th Ward. He won an Aug. 8 primary challenge in a landslide. He says he could potentially win both the council race and the mayor’s race.”If I win the mayor’s race, then I would have to just resign from the city council,” says Kincaid. “And there’d be a special election and then we’d go through that process.
Kincaid says he expects a legal challenge to his running for two jobs, but thinks he can overcome it. He says he was unaware that there would be a recall election at the time he filed to run for re-election for city council.
Kincaid has served on Flint City Council for 32 years. He ran for mayor once before, in 1999, against then-Mayor Woodrow Stanley, and lost narrowly.
It will be tough to unseat Weaver because of recent changes in the state’s recall election law. All she has to do is win a plurality of the vote (not necessarily a majority) over all the challengers against her. If all her opposition — even if it’s a majority of Flint’s population — splits up its vote among multiple opponents, while Weaver gets her “base” support to turn out, Weaver wins simply by getting at least one more vote than the runnerup.
What Kincaid has to hope for is that few other candidates will be on the ballot besides him and Weaver — maybe none! Even then, it could be a nailbiter. More excitement that only Flint, Michigan, continues to provide.
Follow this closely mr. Ballinger… this race is going to get really really good 🙂
Can’t disagree with you on that!
There is no way that law can be read to say “if you don’t know there’s going to be a recall election then you can run for two offices.” Kincaid believes the law doesn’t apply. He should withdraw from the council race.
I could be wrong but I believe Michigan law lets political candidates withdraw after winning a party’s nomination only if they move out of the state or are “physically unfit”.
In the case of a mayoral recall, there is no “party’s nomination” to be won. There is simply one non-partisan election for all the candidates who have filed. In the case of Flint, that would apparently be 19. Whether one or more of them can withdraw after they are certified as candidates is an open question that has never been challenged under the state’s new recall law, as far as I know …