ge 10-Thursday, September 15, 1977-The Michigan Daily
Narciso, Perez face
possible life sentence
Young, Browne to
vie for black vote
(Continued from Page 1)
white candidate and another perceived
as the black candidate.
Coleman Young succinctly summed
up the irony in his emphatic victory
speech Tuesday nightwhen he asked his
supporters, "Is there any difference
between 1973 and 1977?"
The answer from the spirited crowd
gathered from at the Detroit-Cadillac
Hotel was a resounding "No!"
IN 1973 YOUNG ran against John
Nichols, an anathema to the black
community which perceived him as a
-Nazi-storm trooper bent on ruling the
city with a policeman's blackjack.
Many liberal whites agreed.
It is certain that the black community
does not look upon Ernest Browne with
the same disdain. However, it is their
perception of Browne that will be the
key to November's election.
Tabulations of Tuesday's results
show that Browne received 10 per cent
of the black vote, while Young received
about five per cent of the white vote.
Many observers feel Coleman Young's
white vote total will probably remain
constant.
BUT WHILE BROWNE'S share of
the black vote will be minimal, the
main thrust of his campaign between
now and November will be made in the
black community.
As Browne said himself on Tuesday,
"Now that the primary is over, we'll
have to concentrate more, but not
totally, on the black people in this
community."
The fear that a second black can-
didate in November's election might
erode some of Coleman Young's sup-
port in that community was on the min-
ds of many of Young's supporters and
campaign workers Tuesday night.
IT IS NO secret that the Young camp
was rooting for the white candidates,
Wayne State University Law Prof. John
Mogk and suburban contractor Thomas
Dailey.
During the night as election re-
turns trickled in, mostly from absen-
tee ballots, Young supporters, gath-
ered around a television set, grum-
bled when they saw Browne in second
place. "I hope Dailey comes up and
beats him!" shouted one.
Mac Blount, a Young district
coordinator, said he thought too that
Dailey or Mogk would make it out of
the primary. "Browne never had the
black vote."
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BLOUNT MAY HAVE been artict-
lating a very real fear among Young
supporters - that if Browne won the
primary, the former councilman
might steal some of Detroit's heavy
black vote, which was formerly Cole-
man Young's uncontested strong-
hold.
The registered voters in Detroit
are just about half black and half
white. Young was gambling on a
white candidate coming out of the
primary, so that the race in Novem-
ber would indeed be a remake of the
1973 mayoral election. %
Now he has to face a black opt-
ponent one-on-one, and a black can-
didate stands a chance of picking up
some of Young's black votes. Said
Browne campaign director Ron
Hammer, "If we get 91 per cent of the
white vote (the percentage that
Nichols received in 1973) and 20 per
cent of the black vote, how can Cole-
man Young win?"
BUT IF TUESDAY'S primary is
any indication, Browne, with the
backing of Detroit's white police and
fire department unions, may not
receive that coveted 20 per cent.
In fact, police union backing may
actually cost 'Browne some black
votes. For example, on a city bus
sporting a Browne campaign poster,
someone scrawled, right over the
picture of Browne's face, "The
DPOA's Boy!"
Another problem just ahead for
Young is Browne can expect to pick
up the backers of primary losers
Dailey and Mogk. Both conceded to
Browne the second place spot and
asked'their followers to support the
councilman.
STILL, YOUNG yesterday finished
first with 57 per cent of the vote, so
even the combined Browne, Dailey
and Mogk vote would not be enough
to upset him.
Young campaigned aggressively
on his incumbency. His green and
white bumper stickers read simply
"Mayor Young," and one radio spot
add told listeners in a stern voice
"You put him there, keep him
there."
The incumbent has been called "a
bigot" (by Browne campaign man-
ager Hammer) and told he has "gut-
ter values" (by Browne). Browne
has said that Young is a bad influ-
ence on Detroit's children and has
tried to associate the mayor with
East side hoodlums and thugs.
YOUNG IS a scarred veteran of union
politics and the Wayne State University
soap-box circuit. Elected to the State
Senate and considered a radical leftisL
in the Michigan Democratic Conference,
Young had to forego his 1969 bid for
mayor because he was not allowed by
law to hold on to his Senate seat
simultaneously.
Young's chance came in 1973, when
he emerged as a darkhorse candidate
from a crowded primary.
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