Janice Daniels, the mayor of Troy, Mich., was recalled Nov. 6 by a vote of 52 percent. The recall effort was centered around Daniels’ views on gay marriage and her opposition to a transit center.
According to the Detroit Free Press, in response to her recall Daniels said, “I’m going to have a great burden lifted off of my shoulders because I won’t be faced with this relentless, merciless, vicious, unwarranted attacks on my person that would have probably gone on for the next three years had I won the election, so it’s probably for the best.”
Andrew Abad, a Troy resident and Eastern Michigan University junior with a double major in political science and communications, supported Daniels’ recall.
“Mayor Daniels was a Tea Party candidate who did not represent Troy’s populous well. While our city is generally considered to be conservative because of our business interests, we place high regard on education and public development, something that Mayor Daniels did not understand when she made some very hurtful comments to some high school students and rejected federal funding for our new transit center; a project that has been planned for years prior to her term of office.”
Daniels said, in the Detroit Free Press, her recall is the result of an unbalanced news media that twisted her words.
On Dec. 2, 2011, shortly after Daniels was sworn in as mayor, a Facebook post of hers from June 2011 containing a gay slur was found—prompting a recall effort.
“I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there,” the post said.
EMU sophomore and business management major Trevor Philip Todor said, “I did vote for her to be recalled, because I felt what she said really embarrassed the city I call my home; the city I grew up in. Government officials all over the state were surprised to learn that she made headlines for her comments regarding homosexuality.”
EMU senior and psychology major Michelle Paul had similar views about Daniels.
“Our former mayor, Janice Daniels, embarrassed our city nationally with her bigoted comments. I hope our city can move past this and go back to working towards our betterment without this as a distraction anymore.”
Daniels also drew criticism because of her opposition to a transit center in Troy, a project that began in 2000.
In January 2010, the project was selected to receive a $8.4 million federal grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, and Daniels put a halt to the project at the Nov. 21, 2011 Troy City Council meeting. She said that the transit project needed further study and investigation into opposing viewpoints.
Those who did not support the transit center listed an increasing federal deficit and money that would come from Troy taxpayers to fund the maintenance of the building as reasons for opposition of the project.
Two Troy residents, attorneys John Kulesz and Matt Binkowski, started the campaign to recall Daniels and gathered almost 9,000 signatures on a petition to get the recall on November’s ballot.
Todor said, “For the city to move forward in the right direction, we had to let her go. We couldn’t work around this. The best solution for the people of Troy was to dissociate ourselves from former Mayor Janice Daniels.”
Huffpost Detroit said the campaign listed four reasons for her recall:
1. Referred to the Troy City Charter as a “whimsical document” in a Detroit Free Press interview on Nov. 21, 2011.
2. Declaration of the homosexual lifestyle as dangerous during a Jan. 9 office hours forum.
3. Attacking city employees publicly while reading a position paper into the records at a City Council meeting Jan. 9.
4. For voting against the Troy Transit Center project on three occasions—Dec. 19, 2011; Jan. 17; and Feb. 20—therefore denying a more than $8.4 million investment in the City of Troy.
Maureen McGinnis, the city’s mayor pro tempore, occupied the office until Councilman Dane Slater was selected as the new mayor by Troy’s City Council.
Slater will be sworn in as mayor at the next Troy City Council meeting Dec. 3 and serve until November 2013, when residents will vote in a special election to fill the remaining two years of Daniels’ term.
Abad said, “Mayor Daniels, in my mind, was a radical mayor and a big mistake for the City of Troy, which I am glad to see that Troy voters have remedied last week.”
