An activist has filed an emergency court motion questioning whether Pontiac mayoral candidate Michael McGuinness is eligible to run for office under a state constitutional amendment inspired by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s corruption scandal.
Marcus Kelley, a lifelong Pontiac resident and community activist, submitted the motion in Wayne County Circuit Court this week, asking a judge to determine if McGuinness’s past felony convictions bar him from seeking public office. Kelley’s filing cites a 2010 Michigan constitutional amendment that prohibits former public officials convicted of a felony involving “dishonesty, deceit, fraud, or breach of the public trust” from holding elected office or a high-level public job for 20 years.
Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved the measure in November 2010, following public outrage over political corruption. The amendment was widely seen as a response to Kilpatrick, who resigned as Detroit’s mayor in 2008 and was later sentenced to federal prison for corruption and racketeering. Lawmakers said the change was meant to restore confidence in government and prevent disgraced officials from returning to power.
McGuinness, now president of the Pontiac City Council, served as chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party when he became involved in an election-fraud scheme during the 2010 campaign cycle. He was accused of forging documents and placing three Tea Party candidates on the ballot under a third party to mislead voters and draw votes away from Republicans in several 2010 local races.
In 2011, he was convicted of uttering and publishing and perjury in connection with the case and sentenced to probation, community service, and a $1,000 fine.
According to Kelley’s motion, McGuinness’s court records have since been sealed, and he’s asking the court to reopen them, arguing that “it is abundantly necessary to discover and learn the employment and the specific circumstances in that case … while the defendant was serving as the elected chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party.”
The motion argues that the unsealing of the court file “is in the public interest, as the voters for the City of Pontiac must know the underlying details of Defendant’s conviction.”
Kelley is represented by Detroit attorney Todd Russell Perkins, who says the case raises important questions about public integrity and transparency.
“These are not just felony offenses,” Perkins tells Metro Times. “These are felony offenses in which he tried to affect the outcome of an election.”
Perkins adds that it remains unclear whether serving as a political party chair qualifies as holding a position in local, state, or federal government under the amendment.
“Not only is it an issue of dishonesty or moral turpitude, it’s very interesting that at the time he was elected chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party,” Perkins says.
Perkins adds that the motion is not meant as a personal attack.
“He mentioned it was a dark time in his life,” Perkins says of McGuinness. “As an attorney, I look forward to people reconciling their pasts and reforming, and by all accounts it seems as if he has. But does he fall within this law? That’s what this effort is all about. It’s not to demean. It’s not to denigrate or bring McGuinness down.”
The motion says Kelley “is committed to ensuring that the vote in his community … is free from improprieties” and intends to seek further legal action depending on what the unsealed records reveal.
McGuinness did not respond to multiple requests for comment.