Mayor Karen Majewski (right) has won her fourth term in office in Tuesday’s General Election.
By Charles Sercombe
In a stunning victory, Mayor Karen Majewski and her slate of city council candidates swept Tuesday’s election.
Majewski will now be entering her fourth term.
In the city council race, both incumbents Andrea Karpinski and Ian Perrotta will return with a new member, Fadel Al-Marsoumi .
Councilmember Mohammed Hassan lost his bid to unseat Mayor Majewski by a 2-1 margin. Hassan opted not to run for re-election and instead challenged Majewski.
He could not be reached for comment.
Karpinski was the top vote-getter in the August Primary Election and remained the number one vote-getter in Tuesday’s election. Perrotta moved up one notch from the primary election from third place to second.
Council candidate Nayeem Choudhury came in second in the primary election, but fell to fifth-place finisher in this election.
He has apparently come under a Michigan State Police investigation into election fraud over the handling of absentee ballots. No charges have been filed against him.
Despite the growing size and influence of the Bangladeshi and Yemeni communities, none of the candidates from those communities were elected. Council-elect Al-Marsoumi’s family is from Iraq.
Majewski credited her success to networking across ethnic lines.
Mayor Karen Majewski’s husband, Matt Feazell, holds up a campaign sign outside the Hamtramck High School Community Center, a polling location.
“I think the lesson of this election is that in order to succeed, whether through elected office or civic activism, one has to reach across borders to build relationships and a record of cooperation,” Majewski said in an email to The Review.
“That’s really a tribute to Hamtramck residents, who are looking for trustworthy decision makers who committed to serving everyone. That was truly the message of this election, and it should cause us to take heart.”
Perrotta echoed the same sentiment at a victory party at PLAV Post 10. He said the results showed this election “crossed a lot of lines.”
“It’s a show of maturity,” he said. “It’s a good day for Hamtramck.”
Now that Majewski has a slight majority on council, a question among some city hall observers was whether this means former city manager Katrina Powell will return.
Her employment contract ran out at the end of June. Hassan and Councilmembers Anam Miah, Saad Almasmari and Abu Musa blocked a contract extension with her.
Majewski, Karpinski and Perrotta wanted her to remain on the job. Majewski told The Review that search for a new city manager will continue.
“There will be no undermining or interrupting that process. I think we’re all pretty eager to see what candidates the firm brings to us for review, and we’ll base our decision on the backgrounds of and interviews with those candidates, whoever they may be,” Majewski said.