Last-minute mail attack targets
Park council candidate Laurie Arora

Laurie Arora must be making someone nervous in her campaign to gain a seat on the Grosse Pointe Park City Council. Over the weekend she found herself the target of an ugly mailing sent to voters, one that called her a "top advisor" to Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr., and explicitly linked her to Detroit's problems.

"Detroit has the worst-run government in the country," the text warned. "At the center of it all has been Ken Cockrel's fundraiser, Laurie Arora. Now she's running for city council to bring Detroit's style of government to Grosse Pointe Park. Don't let her!"

The postcard, postmarked Lansing, features a photo of Arora and Cockrel taken at a fundraiser.

"I was out campaigning and I got some calls from people saying there had been this racist mailing," Arora said Monday. "I couldn't believe it."

The postcard is signed, "Paid for by Concerned Citizens for Grosse Pointe Park," but no individual is named, and Arora said efforts to find who was responsible for the mailing have been fruitless.

"Naturally, no name has been attached or no one has taken responsibility other than some anonymous group …and no one within the city government is going to claim any responsibility for this, but clearly some direction must have come from somewhere," said Mike Trudel, a friend and supporter of Arora's.

One of Arora's opponents, incumbent James Robson, expressed dismay as well.

"When I saw it, I was very saddened and distressed by it. All of us in the Grosse Pointes run a very above-board campaign and this was a very negative piece," he said. I've never run a negative campaign. "The most I can say is I totally disassociate myself with that piece. We've got four good people in this race who have the highest integrity and it's just very unfortunate something like that was distributed."

Arora, who works as a consultant and fundraiser for politicians and non-profit organizations, said that while she has worked for Cockrel as a fundraiser, she was never an advisor, as the mailing claims. And she is not the only Park politician with links to the former interim mayor of Detroit.

"Earlier this year I personally contributed $100 to the primary campaign of Ken Cockrel at a fundraiser that was sponsored for him," said Palmer Heenan, mayor of Grosse Pointe Park. "And I hope it will be clear to everyone that attack campaigns are not appreciated by either side and are unwelcome in our city of Grosse Pointe Park."

With Election Day here, Arora can only wait to see what, if any, effect the mailing might have had. Her supporter Trudel believes the attack is proof she is a threat to the status quo.

"What is it in Ms. Aurora's candidacy that has caused these people to be so concerned?" he asked. "It's very troubling." 

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