Mayor Mike Duggan is scheduled to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in Detroit on Wednesday night hosted by a wealthy businessman who donated $100,000 to a Donald Trump political action committee and has been linked to multiple corruption scandals involving city contracts.
The invitation-only event, billed as a “Special Friends and Family” gathering for Duggan’s gubernatorial campaign, will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the rooftop lounge of The Godfrey Detroit hotel in Corktown.
The event, co-hosted by Anthony Soave, prompted the Michigan Democratic Party to launch new billboards across Detroit, accusing him of being bankrolled by MAGA megadonors and Trump loyalists.
The billboards read, “MAGA Money ❤️ Mike Duggan.”
Although Duggan has long claimed he was a Democrat, he is running as an independent in the gubernatorial election, and many of his backers have donated to President Donald Trump, Michigan GOP leaders, and conservative power brokers with vested interests in state policy.
“Pro-Trump, anti-labor Republican donors love Mike Duggan and they’re bankrolling his campaign because Duggan will gladly sell out our state to Trump and Republican special interests, just like he’s sold himself out,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said Wednesday. “Detroiters deserve to know that the same big money donors who spent millions to elect Trump now have Duggan in their pocket. It’s clear that Duggan cannot be trusted to stand up for Michigan families.”
The fundraiser starts at $1,500 a person, with tiers rising to $8,325 for co-hosts.
In a written statement to Metro Times, Duggan campaign spokesperson Andrea Bitely didn’t directly answer questions about Soave’s role in the fundraiser.
“It will be yet another strong bipartisan week for the Mayor with a major endorsement coming from a traditional Democratic union and a fundraiser hosted by a traditional Republican donor,” Bitely said.
Soave’s role in the fundraiser raises serious questions about Duggan’s growing support from prominent Republican and pro-Trump donors. Soave’s name surfaced repeatedly in federal corruption investigations involving former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who received roughly $400,000 worth of private jet trips, luxury gifts, and other perks from Soave while he was receiving lucrative city contracts. He was never charged and has continued to do business with the city under Duggan.
Duggan’s relationship with Soave dates back to the 1990s, when he served as deputy Wayne County executive under Ed McNamara. At the time, one of Soave’s companies was under an FBI investigation over a trash-hauling contract in Warren. Since then, Soave’s ventures have benefited from city dealings, including an eyebrow-raising land swap tied to the Fiat Chrysler assembly plant project that allowed one of his companies to trade contaminated parcels for more valuable property.
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Soave also owns a major Detroit towing company that has continued to receive city business, even as Duggan’s administration has aggressively banned other towers under a new debarment ordinance. Several of those banned companies allege they were unfairly targeted to benefit Soave.
In a July 6, 1993 Detroit Free Press story titled “King of the Heap,” prosecutors in Macomb County alleged that Soave, working through reputed mob figure Vito Giacalone, arranged for an associate to firebomb a Warren garbage dump in order to secure a $16 million trash collection contract. The associate, John Pree, later entered the federal Witness Protection Program and testified that Giacalone asked him to carry out the attack on Soave’s behalf. A week after the firebombing, a Soave subsidiary took over the lucrative city contract.
Soave was never charged, and both he and his attorneys denied the allegations, dismissing Pree as a desperate, convicted felon who fabricated his testimony.
The Michigan Democratic Party’s billboard campaign follows Duggan’s recent comments downplaying Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts, which could strip coverage from hundreds of thousands of Michiganders. Duggan said last week the cuts “are not as bad as they look.”A Metro Times review of Duggan’s campaign finance records found that a sizable share of his fundraising comes from Republican power brokers, Trump donors, and corporate executives with interests in state policy. Those include former Michigan GOP Chair Ron Weiser, charter school investor JC Huizenga, and top aides to former Gov. Rick Snyder.
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