Incumbent Young and Rep. Conyers in Bitter Battle : Detroit Mayoral Race Is a Donnybrook

Despite a virtually broken economy, a tidal wave of drug-related crime and a massive population exodus to the suburbs, Detroit seemed poised to reelect Mayor Coleman A. Young to an unprecedented fifth term this year.

Although the 71-year-old Young’s popularity had plunged as voters started losing patience with conditions in the city, earlier this summer it appeared that he would easily fend off the weak field of candidates challenging him in next Tuesday’s primary. Despite his problems, he was still one of America’s most powerful black mayors, commanding an impressive inner-city political machine.

But then John Conyers Jr., a 13-term Democratic congressman from Detroit’s West Side and one of the city’s most prominent black politicians--and one of Young’s oldest allies--stunned both Young and Detroit by announcing his candidacy just before the filing deadline in July.

Now the campaign has turned into a real race, and Young is faced with his first serious political threat since he took office in 1973.

With the bitterness that only ex-friends can display, Young and Conyers are engaged in a bare-fisted brawl, dividing Detroit’s black community as never before.

And, since the top two finishers in Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary will face each other in the general election runoff in November, Young and Conyers seem likely to continue their bitter battle throughout the fall.

“It will be a hammer and tongs race all the way to the end,” says Jack Casey, a longtime Detroit political operative. “Young and Conyers know each other too well for it not to be.”

“It’s gotten ugly,” complains Young spokesman Bob Berg. “I think the challengers saw what worked for George Bush, and sort of borrowed the Lee Atwater playbook to develop their strategy for running against the mayor. There’s been a lot of name-calling, some of it pretty vicious.”

Already, Conyers has drawn Young’s ire for repeatedly describing him as “Big Daddy,” and criticizing him as an out-of-touch, imperial mayor who has cut himself off from the outside world. Conyers says that he entered the race at the last minute because he was worried the city was going downhill too fast, and that Detroit could not stand another four years under Young.

“Nothing personal but Young is burned out,” Conyers says.

Meanwhile, Young has tried to rally the black community to his cause through suggestions that Conyers and his other major opponents, all of whom are black, are being supported by the white media to get rid of Young. The Detroit Free Press has endorsed Conyers, while the Detroit News has backed Tom Barrow, a conservative black businessman who appears to be running third behind Young and Conyers.

A group called the “Black Slate,” which has endorsed Young, said in literature released this week that “the powerful white news media is fighting to re-establish white control of Detroit.”

Conyers responded by calling the tactics “the most hypocritical, cheap, discouraging kind of conduct. There is absolutely no justification to keep dividing black and white.”

Barrow, meanwhile, has charged that Young is waging a “desperate fight to bolster his support with outright racial appeals.”

Young spokesman Berg denies that the mayor has made race an issue, but still acknowledges that Young “has always said that his No. 1 opponent was the media.”

Berg also notes that many of Young’s supporters say they are fearful of “the fragmenting of the traditional unity in the black community” that has resulted from the challenge to Young.

Certainly, this year’s campaign does represent the first time that the black community, representing an estimated 70% of the voting population in the city, has not been solidly behind Coleman Young.

As the city’s first black mayor, Young can still count on the support of older black voters, who continue to see him as a living legend. But many younger blacks, who don’t recall Young’s early pioneering years, are turning to Conyers.

“I voted for Young before, and I was going to again until I heard that John Conyers was getting into the race,” says 32-year-old Venus Thues. “I’m interested in saving our neighborhoods, and I don’t think Young’s attention is turned to that.”

But Thues’ mother is voting for Young once again. “I think there is some sentimentality involved for the older people,” Thues says. “They feel like they don’t want to be disloyal.”