Word: pugh
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That doesn't sway some of the city's more committed voters. At a recent fundraiser in Palmer Woods, an upscale Detroit neighborhood, Pugh told the crowd of plans to create a room for the city council's president to hold press conferences, modeled largely after the White House press-briefing room. Never mind that Detroit is struggling to resolve a budget deficit of at least $275 million. "P.r. is part of the job," Pugh said. But the host, Mary Ellen Gurewitz, a respected Detroit attorney, pressed him on issues of procedural and financial matters, and was hardly impressed...
...city's jaded voters have had their share of politicians who are more style than substance, and Pugh's talk of bringing change to the city is sometimes vague and simplistic. He has suggested putting teams of volunteers on Detroit's streets to give residents various facts about the city. He has floated the idea of bolstering neighborhood-watch clubs to reduce crime. He has pledged to create a website to improve citizens' engagement with elected officials. "You walk through neighborhoods and people say, 'I've never seen the people I elect around here,' " Pugh observes...
...some respects, Pugh has already made his mark on Detroit. Pugh's rise in this majority-black city moderates some of the popular perception that African Americans are more homophobic than the general U.S. population. On the campaign trail, Pugh rarely discusses what it means to be gay, although some of his critics have made an issue of his sexuality - particularly his unabashed preference for younger men. (Pugh notes that his last partner was a 23-year-old entrepreneur, and says, "No one complains when an older man dates a younger woman...
...figure into a city councilor's portfolio. Still, he recalls one influential Detroit pastor saying, "We like you, but you pose a problem for the clergy: homosexuality is a sin in our book." Yet hardly any ministers have publicly denounced his candidacy. "People have whispered things about Charles Pugh's homosexuality that they wouldn't dare say in public, partly because they don't want to be singled out," says Gaddis...
...Pugh, who doesn't hide his ambition to be mayor someday, insists his homosexuality matters little to the electorate. "They don't care that I'm gay," he says. "People trust me. And they know I want what's best for Detroit...