If money talks, Mary Sheffield is serious about wanting to be Detroit's next mayor
Political candidates, and even those who aren't quite ready to admit they're running for something, say all kinds of things.
But in politics, as in much of life, it's the money that does the real talking.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that however much Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield demurs when asked whether she's really running for mayor, her campaign finance reports say she's all in. Sheffield's latest campaign finance reports — including the one for the city council seat she has said she won't seek again — reveal hefty six-figure balances. They also show that she has received fundraising support, including contributions at the maximum amount allowed by law, from donors who will raise the eyebrows, if not the ire, of some of the populist councilwoman's most progressive supporters … and maybe even a few pastors.
These are topics that Sheffield, who is generally pretty good about returning phone calls, doesn't want to talk about. Her responses, in an interview and in an exchange of text messages, also provide insights into the kind of candidate and mayor she may be.
So without further ado, let's the let the records — and the candidate — speak for themselves.
Rock the cash bar
On June 14, 2022, the Detroit City Council was scheduled to vote on whether to give an additional $60 million in tax breaks to Dan Gilbert's Hudson's site project in the heart of downtown.
On June 15, 2022, Sheffield held a fundraiser at the Madison, an event space off Grand Circus Park owned by one of Gilbert's companies. Campaign finance reports I recently reviewed show that the space was made available to Sheffield's city council campaign for free. Documents list the transaction as a $3,714 in-kind contribution to Sheffield's city council campaign by Rock Holdings State PAC, which is a fancy legal way of saying that Gilbert's political action committee didn't charge the Sheffield campaign for use of the facility.
That was a considerable benefit for Sheffield, because it helped her achieve her most lucrative fundraising event since she first ran for office in 2013. Sheffield, who was born in June, holds a fundraiser around her birthday almost every year. The fundraiser at the Madison raised $30,525 with an overall cost of $4,214, resulting in a net gain of more than $26,000. Sheffield's second-most successful fundraiser cost her $300 and yielded a haul of about $14,000.
While Sheffield's fundraiser at the Madison went on as scheduled, the city council delayed its vote after Detroit Free Press reporters Dana Afana, JC Reindl and I reported that five of the nine councilmembers had received large donations from Gilbert's Rock PAC in the past. We reported that Sheffield had not received any support from the Rock PAC, because there was no public disclosure of the fundraiser until Sheffield filed her campaign finance report on Aug. 5, 2022. Even then, I wasn't aware of the event until earlier this year, after I began reviewing Sheffield's campaign finance reports to get a sense of how her fledgling mayoral campaign was going.
Our report on Rock's contributions to council members broke a day before they were scheduled to vote on the tax breaks and caused a public outcry that prompted council to reschedule its vote until after members took additional time to study the deal — which is something reasonable people might have expected them to do before they scheduled the vote. While the council dithered, Gilbert's team provided multiple new incentives to increase affordable housing opportunities at their projects and to support Detroit entrepreneurs. When the council ultimately voted for the deal, Sheffield was among those who supported it.
When I asked Sheffield about the fundraiser in a phone conversation last month and in an exchange of text messages this week, she said the event was planned well before the city council scheduled its vote on the tax breaks.
"I'm not really sure what the angle of the story is or what you're trying to insinuate," Sheffield told me last month, when we first discussed the Madison fundraiser. "I guess I'm just a little confused about what the story is."
When I explained that reporters often ask public officials about things they run across, Sheffield said: "I've been doing some kind of fundraising around my birthday every year since I've been in office. ... It's nothing new. it just happened to happen around the same time period" as the Hudson's site vote.
Sheffield said she picks a different venue every year for her annual fundraiser and liked the Madison. She said her campaign contacted Rock about using the space and that it wasn't an event hosted by Gilbert's PAC.
She said Rock's decision to donate the rental fee for the Madison to her city council campaign had no impact on her decision to support the tax breaks.
"That's absurd to even suggest," Sheffield told me in January. "You can see by the public record the unprecedented community benefits that were secured."
Rock declined to comment on the fundraiser.
With friends like these ...
For many of Sheffield's progressive supporters, the name Moroun is practically a curse word.
The Moroun family, which owns the Ambassador Bridge and the Central Transport trucking company, developed a reputation as ruthless landowners who amassed a vast portfolio of properties that it either neglected or developed for industrial uses that outraged nearby residents. Patriarch Manuel "Matty" Moroun, who died in 2020, was vilified in southwest Detroit in particular as an insensitive businessman who did as he pleased and put profits over people.
But the Morouns also are influential players in Michigan politics, lavishing campaign contributions on candidates and political committees who they expect to support their agenda. They are allies of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, supporting his political endeavors as well as helping him assemble land the city needed to convince Fiat Chrysler, now known as Stellantis, to build a major manufacturing facility on Detroit's east side. And, if history is any indicator, whichever mayoral candidate they decide to support can expect to collect tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Matty's son Matthew, his family and executives of their companies.
While Matthew Moroun has cultivated a more accomodating and community-oriented persona than his hard-nosed father, I was still surprised to see that he and his wife each contributed $8,325 — the maximum amount an individual can contribute to a Detroit mayoral candidate — to Sheffield's mayoral campaign on Nov. 17.
My surprise came not only because Sheffield has spent the past decade building a reputation as a champion of the little guy — a rep that little guys will question when they learn that she's taking money from some of the biggest guys on the block — but because the contributions could be an indication that the Morouns have picked a favorite in the race before all of the candidates have declared their intentions. Sheffield has not formally declared her intention to run, but she has been quietly laying the groundwork, filing paperwork on Aug. 17 of last year establishing the "Mary Sheffield for Detroit's Future" committee. Under Michigan law, a candidate for elected office must create a candidate committee shortly after beginning to lay the groundwork for a campaign. That process can include hiring consultants or raising money.
I was not able to reach Matthew Moroun to discuss the significance of his family's contributions, but Sheffield made it plain she did not want to talk about it.
She also did not want to discuss the $8,000 her campaign accepted from Mark Savaya, the owner of marijana dispensary Leaf and Bud; or the $2,500 it accepted from John Shina, president of marijuana processor Flavor Galaxy LLC.
Those contributions are sure to lead to at least some tense conversations with Detroiters, including influential pastors, who remain opposed to marijuana even after it was legalized in Michigan.
The most Sheffield would say about her donors came in a text she sent Wednesday. It said, in part: "As far as donors from different industries, I meet nearly every resident, business owner, media personality and fellow elected officials by virtue of my position and over 10 years on council. Additionally and typically, fundraisers are put on by host(s) and they invite their family, friends, business associates and others who are interested in being supportive of work that I do to uplift Detroit.
"I know you want to create a narrative out of everyday run of the mill campaign donation scenarios, but there is nothing to sensationalize here. It’s unfortunate that politicians who look like me are constantly the target of these inquiries, especially in light of the fact we raise far less money from the same donors who give much more to other officials who actually negotiate and propose development deals."
There's a lot to analyze in that last passage: from accusing the media of having an agenda, to suggesting that reporters who question Black politicians are racists, to casting herself as less appealing to deep-pocketed donors than someone like Duggan.
Suffice to say, Sheffield's campaign finance reports show how serious she is about wanting to be mayor. And her comments show she still has a lot to learn about the level of scrutiny that comes with wanting the top job in a tough town like Detroit.
M.L. Elrick is a Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and host of the ML's Soul of Detroit podcast. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @elrick, Facebook at ML Elrick and Instagram at ml_elrick.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mary Sheffield's campaign report: Moroun, marijuana stand out