I'm wondering if he's like the new mayor of Detroit. Kwame Kilpatrick. He was former dem majority leader. His mom is a congresswoman and his dad works for Ed McNamara(in fact you probably remember him since he's been around forever). His mom Carolyn beat the racist Coleman Young ally Barbara Rose Collins in a primary. Kwame avoids most of the race baiting, and was even attacked for not doing so and being too 'nice' to the GOP in Lansing. He did do some race baiting while running for mayor, calling Michigan the "Mississippi of the North". I think he had to bait in order to win myself. Since then, I haven't heard any baiting from him.
However as far as I know, the Kilpatricks, while are a political dynasty, aren't like the Fords of Memphis, either posititve or negative.
calling Michigan the "Mississippi of the North".Dan, there is some truth to that statement. The cotton fields of Mississippi and western Tennessee could no longer sustain labor after the invention of the mechanical cotton pickers. The attraction of the auto industry lured both blacks and poor whites to Michigan during the forties and fifties.