Activist Defeats Pulitzer-Winning Reporter In Detroit City Council Race

DETROIT (AP) — A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who tried to go from the newsroom to Detroit city hall lost a race for an open council seat.

Latisha Johnson got 60% of the vote in District 4 and defeated M.L. Elrick, according to the city's election results.

Johnson served on the Detroit Board of Zoning Appeals and, like Elrick, has been active in community service on the city's east side.

"No chicken dinner," Elrick said on Twitter, posting a photo of the ballot and making a shorthand reference to the phrase, "Winner, winner, chicken dinner."

Elrick won a Pulitzer at the Detroit Free Press for exposing scandals involving Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned as Detroit mayor in 2008. Besides working at the newspaper, he has been a reporter at Detroit-area TV stations.