George Cushingberry Launches Write-In Campaign For Detroit City Council

DETROIT (WWJ) - Mayor Mike Duggan did it and now an embattled Detroit City Councilman is trying to do the same -- win a write-in campaign.

City Council President Pro-Temp George Cushingberry, Jr. failed to win a spot on the November ballot, losing out to Roy McCalister and former State Senator Virgil Smith, who served time for shooting up his ex-wife's Mercedes.

"I'm confident that the citizens, when they find out who they have running on the ticket and how incompetent the election commission was in letting one of the candidates even make it to the ballot, that we will ultimately see that we don't want to take our city back -- we wan't to do forward," Cushingberry told WWJ's Vickie Thomas in a one-on-one interview.

Duggan himself gave some advice on how to run a successful write-in campaign, but Cushingberry said  it's all about the voters.

"The real thing is to see if the people are willing to do it. I represent an area where there's high readership and participation. And those people read so I've sent the message."

Cushingberry said he has a gut feeling his campaign will land him a seat on the council.

"I'm still the same guy trying to do good in the neighborhood, trying to make something new in District 2," he said.