It's hard to make the case that anyone can turn around the image of Detroit, at least in the short run.

But the case can also be made that, after the embarrassment of Kwame Kilpatrick, it can only get better.

Two candidates are running in tomorrow's special election hoping to create a new Detroit.

Kilpatrick, of course, was the two-term mayor who was forced out following published text messages between him and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, that seemed to assert what they both had denied, under oath: that they were having an affair.

The view here is that the private lives of politicians should, for the most part, be off-limits. In fact, allegations aimed at Kirkpatrick went far beyond the affair. But apparently Kilpatrick used city funds to facilitate their relationship and used city officials to cover up the affair. In March of 2008, Kilpatrick and Beatty were hit with a 12-count of indictment, charging perjury and obstruction of justice. That same month, the City Council, by a vote of 7-1, passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the mayor to resign.

In September, after months of denials, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts, resigned as mayor and briefly served time in prison.

He was succeeded as mayor by Kenneth Cockrel, the City Council president. Cockrel faces businessman Dave Bing, the former NBA great with the Pistons, in Tuesday's nonpartisan runoff election. Cockrel is thought to have a slight edge, while Bing, more of a political outsider, has been endorsed by the Detroit News and the Free-Press. In the initial, multicandidate primary in February, Bing led Cockrel by about 2,000 votes.

Tags: All Politics Is Local