'Giggles the Pig' a write-in candidate
'Giggles the Pig' a write-in candidate for mayor in Flint
Posted: May 07, 2015 8:36 PM PDTUpdated: May 07, 2015 8:48 PM PDT
By Randy Wimbley, Fox 2 News
FLINT, Mich. (WJBK) -If you thought Detroit politics were bad, drive an hour up north to Flint witness the outlandish.
A clerk's mishap is keeping mayoral candidates' names off the ballot so everyone has to run as a write-in candidate.
That leaves room for a pig named Giggles. Pigs may not ever fly, but they will run for office.
Meet Michael Ewing, a Flint defense lawyer putting up his pig as a write-in candidate because he's fed up with the lack of good choices in the Vehicle City.
"No it's not in jest, I'm running her for mayor," he said. "We have one that's a convicted murderer."
"He was talking about me," said city councilman Wantwaz Davis
"We have another guy that was convicted last year of driving drunk down the highway the wrong direction, on three flat tires," Ewing said.
Councilman Eric Mays beat most of the charges surrounding that incident except one.
"The one impaired guilty," Mays said. "This is the appeal bond, $15,000 bond and a tether."
"I thought this is ridiculous and when I read the article," Ewing said. "And next to me was Giggles the pig and I said to her 'You would be a candidate than these people running for office.'"
And so he launched a campaign. The Giggles the Pig for Mayor Facebook page already has more than 1,200 likes.
FOX 2: "Are things so bad in Flint that you need a pig to run for office?"
"They must be," said resident Cathy Jackson.
"When you compare it to a convicted murderer and someone who's likely to spend election day in jail for drunk driving," Paul White said. "It doesn't seem that obscene to have a pig."
"Giggles the pig totally has my vote."
But not everyone is smiling.
"We don't need to be a laughingstock," said Rebecca Look. "We don't need a comedy trip because they want a pig to be mayor."
"He's making a mockery of the candidates and it's also a mockery of the city," Davis said.
Be that as it may it won't stop Ewing from trying and he's dead serious about doing so.
FOX 2: "For a write-in candidate you have to be a registered voter?"
"Well I don't know that that's what the federal law says," Ewing said. "Local ordinance says that or the charter says that. The federal law supersedes that and I don't think that's required under federal law."
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/29...mayor-in-flint
