Hill was chided by rival for appearing with lawyer in ad
October 26, 2001
BY M.L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Apparently Kwame Kilpatrick wouldn't mind Geoffrey Fieger's validation -- as long as it comes at the bottom of a fat check.
Fieger, smarting from remarks the Detroit mayoral candidate made during a radio debate, on Thursday played for reporters a phone message Kilpatrick left about two weeks ago.
"Geoff Fieger, how you doing?" Kilpatrick asked. "I hope everything's going well for you. I'm sure it is. Every time I turn on the television, you're making more money. I need some of it now. I need your support and your help in this campaign."
Kilpatrick went on to ask Fieger to consider hosting a fund-raiser and invited him to a fund-raiser with lawyers today.
Fieger said the appeal contradicted Kilpatrick's assertion during a Tuesday radio debate that he was "embarrassed" when he saw Fieger extolling rival Gil Hill's virtues in a television commercial. Fieger, who considered running for mayor, was neutral in the primary but endorsed Hill earlier this month.
Kilpatrick also said he couldn't imagine Mayor Dennis Archer or former Mayor Coleman Young "feeling the need to be validated by Geoffrey Fieger."
Fieger said he learned of Kilpatrick's comments Wednesday.
"I couldn't believe that Kilpatrick had said that," he said. "I knew that he had been soliciting me to do the same thing for weeks."
But Kilpatrick spokesman Bob Berg said the candidate was only after money.
"I didn't hear him asking to do a TV commercial," Berg said. "Part of a campaign is you make calls asking for contributions."
Kilpatrick said Thursday night that he would accept donations from Fieger but was not asking for an endorsement. "Donors give money to both parties all the time," he said.
Fieger said Hill and his campaign comanager Charlie Williams asked him to do the commercial. But Hill spokeswoman Teresa Blossom said it was Fieger who asked Hill.
Either way, his endorsement may have unintentionally aided Kilpatrick's efforts to expose supporters of Detroiters for Full Disclosure, which may have paid for one of the TV ads, a claim that Fieger disputed.
Kilpatrick has accused the group of being a front Hill used to attack him and circumvent campaign contribution limits. Hill has denied any link.
But state officials say, since the group is advocating a candidate, the group must open its books.
Fieger stirs up mayoral debate
Hill says he welcomes attorney's support, but Kilpatrick scorns lawyer's role in campaign
By Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau - 10/24/01
SOUTHFIELD -- Controversial attorney Geoffrey Fieger landed right in the middle of the debate between Detroit mayoral candidates Kwame Kilpatrick and Gil Hill on Tuesday night.
Fieger is featured in current TV and radio ads seated next to Hill and promoting his candidacy, based on the City Council president's experience as a police executive and councilman.
During a two-hour debate in the Southfield studio of WWJ-AM (950), one of the panelists of reporters asked Hill if he was taking a risk by having Fieger, a white non-Detroiter, promote him. Hill said, "No."
"I will take assistance from almost anyone who has a good reputation in this city," Hill said, noting that Fieger carried Detroit as the losing Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1998.
But Kilpatrick, a state representative from Detroit, snapped: "I was frankly embarrassed when I saw this commercial. I couldn't imagine Coleman Young sitting in that seat ... being validated by Geoffrey Fieger. I think that's deplorable."
Fieger appears in Hill campaign ad
10/19/01 - DETROIT (AP)
Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Fieger is appearing in television and radio ads for mayoral candidate Gil Hill.
Hill, the Detroit City Council president, is running against House Democratic Leader Kwame Kilpatrick to replace outgoing Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer. Both campaigns have been intensifying their efforts as the Nov. 6 election nears.
Fieger, who considered a run for Detroit mayor, told the Detroit Free Press that Hill is "a fine guy and he deserves my endorsement, and he asked for it repeatedly."
The Southfield trial attorney, known for winning large jury awards, pulled off a surprise win in the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial primary, in part by winning Detroit. Fieger later lost the general election to Republican Gov. John Engler.
On Thursday, Kilpatrick unveiled his own ad, criticizing Hill's leadership as a police officer in the 1980s.
Against a backdrop of a chalk outline of a dead body, Kilpatrick's 30-second television spot is critical of Hill's tour as head of the Detroit homicide section in 1985, when the rate of murder cases left unsolved rose more than 30 percent.
Hill campaign press secretary Teresa Blossom called Kilpatrick's ad a ploy of "desperation."