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City Council Is Race to Watch in Detroit DETROIT, MI (Michigan Radio) - The mayor's race is typically the most-watched municipal election in Detroit. But this year is different.

Most political observers expect a lopsided victory for Dave Bing, reflecting a similar result seen in the August primary.

That's helped bring attention to the city council race, which has turned into the most competitive election in recent memory.

There are nine seats on the Detroit City Council. And next Tuesday, voters will fill them from a field of 18 people who made it out of the primary.

Bill Ballenger publishes the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics, and he's commissioned a series of polls tracking the council race.

"Well, I think there is a feeling on the part of the electorate that it's time to turn the page, and let's throw the bums out, no matter whether maybe some of them are maybe not as bad bums as some others, and let's bring in some new people," said Ballenger.

And that would be just fine with voters like Kevin Young.

Young says he has one desire for next Tuesday's contest:

"That we have absolutely not one incumbent left," he said. "Not one."

Young says the current council has done too little to bring the city's spending in line with its shrinking tax base, and he's ready for a housecleaning.

"It doesn't mean that they're bad people, it's simply too much has happened with the current leadership," Young said. "And I think if you love the city, as I believe all the candidates do, and on your watch you had an opportunity to do some things you didn't do. So if we're going to do new blood at the mayor's level, then we need to do new blood at the council's level."

Young says he thinks there are talented people in the race who have fresh ideas for how to run Detroit - even if they don't have the name-recognition that typically comes with a successful bid for city office.

But other voters say change for change's sake might not be such a good thing.

"Most of the new people, they've never worked in city government before," said Matilda Bland. Bland has attended several of the candidate forums, and some of the challengers do seem well-informed. But she says she's still wary.

"You know what they say they're going to do, you know what schools they graduated from," she said. But "you don't have any documentation that they've worked in municipal government before, and how well they produce."

Bland is supporting incumbent JoAnn Watson. But questions about Watson's property tax bill - which for years was thousands of dollars less that it should have been - could cost even a popular politician like her this time around.

Inside Michigan Politics editor Bill Ballenger says poll numbers point to the possibility that Watson and Alberta Tinsley Tilabi could lose in Tuesday's election.

"That will mean only three incumbents will be re-elected," Ballenger said. "And that would be surprising. That would be historic in modern terms."

No matter what, there will be a big turnover on the city council come January. Voters have already bounced one incumbent. Former Motown singer Martha Reeves failed to survive the primary, despite her famous name. And two sitting council members bowed out before the primary. That leaves five incumbents hoping to keep from joining the swelling ranks of the city's unemployed.

Contact Sarah Hulett at sarahhu@umich.edu © Copyright 2012, Michigan Radio