DETROIT, May 6 (UPI) -- Former NBA great Dave Bing promised to bring integrity to the Detroit mayor's office after winning Tuesday's special election.
Bing picked up 52 percent of the vote in the election to fill the term of ousted Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick while Interim Mayor Ken Cockrel received 48 percent, the Detroit Free Press reported. Turnout for the election was light with about 14 percent of the city's registered voters participating.
Bing pledged "efficiency, transparency, honest and integrity" after the corruption scandal that resulted in Kilpatrick's indictment last year and removal from office.
"What I want to ask you for is just a little bit of patience," Bing told his supporters Tuesday night. "As I bring my team into city government, we are going to make the changes that you voted us in to make."
The Free Press said Bing's victory over Cockrel, the president of the City Council, surprised many Detroit political leaders and observers. The one-time star with the Detroit Pistons runs a steel company in Detroit that supplies the auto industry.
Bing will likely be back on the campaign trail soon. His terms ends at the end of the year and he will have to run in the Democratic primary in August and then the general election in November in order to secure a full four-year term.
