Duggan runs for governor as independent: 'People feel left out of both parties'

Duggan's run for governor as an independent shakes up political landscape

The Detroit mayor's decision to run for governor was not really a surprise - but the big news came in that he was doing it as an independent.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's decision to run for governor was not really a surprise - but the big news came in that he was doing it as an independent.

"In the last three or four weeks there have been a lot of people who I think, feel left out of both parties - feel like they don’t have a place where they belong," he said.

Duggan says it’s time for a change in Lansing, and his run for governor as an independent will be a seismic change for a system that only knows Democratic and Republican options for the state’s top job.

"I’ve watched what’s happened in Lansing and it has gotten worse and worse - the partisan environment is more and more toxic," he said. "Republicans bring something up all the Democrats are against it. Democrats bring something up and all of the Republicans are against it."

Duggan is touting his role in leading Detroit’s turnaround, using his three terms as mayor taking a city reeling from bankruptcy to what his team calls record job growth, reductions in violent crime, and an increase in overall quality of life.

Duggan is no stranger to out-of-the-box political strategy, having run and won as a write-in candidate for the 2013 primary.

But political spectators say Lansing is a different animal all together.

FOX 2: "How do you break through the special interests that will be coming at you in Lansing from all directions?"

"I’ve been up against special interests my whole life," he said. "So that doesn’t trouble me too much but we will see what happens."

Mayor Duggan says if he can get the Detroit City Council to work together, anything is possible.

"I know the far left is against me. The far right’s against me. They always have been. They’ve been against me for 11 years as mayor," he said. "But we’ve been able to get a lot done because 75 percent of the city doesn’t want to hear about the far left and far right theories, they just want their neighborhoods safer, they want affordable housing - they want to be able to play in the parks."

In the meantime, experts like Prof. Dave Dulio of Oakland University says, Duggan will face challenges due to making such an unorthodox political move.

"One thing that he won’t have, is help from a political party organization that has foundational elements in place, that infrastructure, so he’ll have to build that out himself. I think we take it for granted that while he’s well known here in Southeast Michigan, that’s not the case in other parts of the state.

"So he’s going to have to do a good bit of work to build his name-recognition in out-state areas on the west side and up north."