Dearborn — Two of the top candidates to be Michigan’s next governor, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, repeatedly clashed Monday night over how they’ve raised money to support their political ambitions.
The exchanges, which might preview the race ahead this fall, played out at a forum organized by the United Auto Workers inside a union hall in Dearborn. About 150 people were in the crowd for the event that featured Duggan, a former Democratic prosecutor and current independent candidate for Michigan’s top office, and two Democratic contenders, Benson and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.
Asked about accepting money from political action committees tied to corporations, Duggan noted a PAC connected to Benson had received $1.5 million from Kenneth and Jennifer Duda of California. Kenneth Duda leads a company that works in networking for data centers.
The former mayor referred to Kenneth Duda as the “Babe Ruth” of data centers.
“You took a $1.5 million contribution from Ken Duda, the man who builds the data warehouses and connects them across America,” Duggan said.
However, the former three-term mayor also acknowledged that his campaign is taking contributions from groups tied to corporations.
“I am going to build a bridge across business and labor and represent everybody,” Duggan said. “I am not going to pretend like I’m not going to take corporate money when I am.”
Benson, a second-term Democrat from Detroit, has touted the fact that she’s not accepting money from corporate PACs for her campaign for governor.
“The fundamental question that’s going to be facing voters this year is who does your governor work for,” Benson said at the forum.
Benson presses Duggan on donors for nonprofit group
Later, during the event, she pressed Duggan on who was funding a nonprofit organization that hasn’t disclosed its donors but has spent more than $10 million supporting his bid for governor.
Duggan didn’t respond to Benson’s remark about the group Put Progress First at the forum. But last year, he declined to publicly direct the nonprofit organization to report the names of its donors to the public.
After the event, the secretary of state said she had never met Kenneth and Jennifer Duda, and their contributions to her PAC were about supporting pro-democracy candidates.
“I appreciate the distraction that was attempted to try to take away from the fact that the independent candidate is actually not independent,” Benson told reporters. “He’s a corporate candidate.”
Benson also labeled Duggan “bought and paid for by corporate interests.”
Swanson, the other candidate on stage, told reporters he previously hadn’t seen Benson and Duggan confront each other like they did Monday.
“They traded blows back and forth,” Swanson said. “That’s between them.”
The Genesee County sheriff is trying to win the UAW endorsement in a bid to upset Benson in the Democratic primary. In February, he got the endorsement of the Operating Engineers Local 324.
“I’ve got your back,” Swanson told forum attendees at one point.
In response to another question about taking money from DTE Energy’s PAC, Swanson said he “absolutely” hadn’t. Benson pledged to ensure “unfair rate hikes” end and said she hasn’t taken money from DTE as a candidate for governor.
Duggan cited information he found that Benson had previously accepted money from the utility in past campaigns.
“Maybe ChatGPT is wrong,” Duggan said.
Duggan didn’t address contributions he had received from DTE. Benson noted Gerry Anderson, the former CEO and chairman of DTE Energy, has been helping Duggan develop his campaign’s policy proposals.
The UAW is expected to make a decision on which candidate it will support in the coming weeks.
UAW President Shawn Fain said the forum featured “good banter” among the candidates.
On there being multiple questions about fundraising sources, the union leader said that fact reflected where the world stands.
“Our political system has been bought and paid for,” Fain said.
Steve Noffke of Ann Arbor, a UAW member, said Benson and Swanson came off as more straightforward than Duggan at the forum.
“I think the question for me is … , who do I trust the most?” Noffke said. The UAW also invited two Republican candidates to attend Monday’s forum: U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township and businessman Perry Johnson of Bloomfield Hills. But they didn’t participate. Two seats were left empty on stage next to Duggan, Benson and Swanson, to highlight their absences.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: UAW forum generates heated exchanges between gubernatorial opponents
Reporting by Craig Mauger, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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