Kilpatrick affecting mom's political fate

DETROIT, July 6 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick's re-election bid may be tainted by her son, imprisoned and indicted ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, observers say.

Cheeks Kilpatrick, who eked out a victory two years ago during the height of her son's text-message scandal, faces five challengers in the Aug. 3 Democratic primary who hope their message of change and her son's misfortunes send them to the general election in November, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.

"Every time the Kilpatrick name is raised in a negative fashion, it hurts Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick," said John Broad of Detroit, who is running for her 13th Congressional District seat.

The three best-known candidates -- Broad, state Sen. Hansen Clarke and the Rev. Glenn R. Plummer -- said they're running because they believe Cheeks Kilpatrick, a member of Congress since 1997, lost her effectiveness while acknowledging she's more vulnerable because of her son's indictment last month by a federal grand jury.

"Does that hurt her? It does," Clarke said of the indictment. "But it merely underscores the arrogant political culture in Detroit that I've been fighting against ... ."

A recent poll indicated she trailed Clarke 19 percent to 27 percent.

Steven Hume and Vincent Brown are also running in the Democratic primary.

Since Cheeks Kilpatrick scraped together 39 percent of the vote in the 2008 primary to advance to the general election, her son resigned as mayor and went to prison. She has had to testify twice before a federal grand jury in a continuing corruption investigation of City Hall, the News said.