One of the two front-runners in the Detroit mayoral race is off the ballot for the August primary.
Mike Duggan is the former CEO of the Detroit Medical Center.
He registered to vote in the city on April 16, 2012.
According to city law, a candidate for elected office must be a registered voter a full year before filing.
Duggan filed his nominating signatures for his mayoral run April 2, 2013 - fourteen days short of the requirement.
While Duggan argued that the year should be tolled from the time of the actual filing deadline - May 14 - one of his opponents, Tom Barrow, disagreed.
Barrow -- not widely considered a front-runner in the race -- filed suit in the Third Circuit Court, asking the judge to remove Duggan from the ballot. The judge agreed with Barrow and issued an order this afternoon.
Duggan issued a brief statement:
This ruling is contrary to the opinion of every election lawyer who has looked at the case. We're reviewing our legal options with our lawyers and will make a decision shortly on how we'll proceed.
If the ruling stands, it would likely help another front-runner, former Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, much more than Barrow.
