A day before petition challenges of two Harrisburg mayoral candidates were filed against Nate Curtis and Nevin Mindlin, Detroit Mayoral hopeful Mike Duggan celebrated his primary election victory after rallying supporters to obtain 53% of the vote from write-ins.

Like Curtis, Duggan moved back to his hometown of Detroit with plans to run for Mayor. Also like Curtis, Duggan's petitions were challenged alleging that he did not meet Detroit's 1 year residency requirement. Although the challenge backfired on Duggan's opposition, it successfully exploited a technicality that kept Duggan off the ballot.

Duggan's opposition argued that the one year residency requirement applied to the date his petitions were filed, not whether Duggan would meet the residency requirements by the filing deadline.

Although the Detroit Election Commission initially decided to allow Duggan's name to appear on the ballot, this ruling was challenged and appealed. Subsequent decisions ruled against Duggan and kept his name off the ballot.

When factoring in the cost and effort of a write-in campaign, Duggan decided his run for office was no longer feasible. On June 26, 2013, Mlive.com reported on Duggan's decision and the group of his supporters that refused to stop campaigning.

Shortly thereafter the decision was made to run a write-in campaign and continue the fight for Detroit's mayoral seat. As reported by Detroit Free Press, Bill Ballenger, the editor of Inside Michigan Politics credits Duggan's success to the opposition he faced in his attempts to get on the ballot. “People don’t like unfairness, and they think Duggan probably got a raw deal and he should have been allowed on the ballot, " Ballenger said.

In a subsequent article produced by Mlive.com, Duggan reiterated Ballenger's comments, "I think there was a sense across this community that the right of people to decide for themselves wasn't being respected."

It also didn't hurt that his supporters were also equipped with a catchy jingle to help people remember how to spell his name.

The end result was a write-in candidate that garnered 94% of the precincts citywide.

Although the outcome of the petition challenges against Nate Curtis and Nevin Mindlin remain to be seen, the similarities between Detroit and Harrisburg's race are certainly taking similar paths.

Nevin Mindlin's 90 minute hearing was held earlier this morning. Nate Curtis' hearing was continued until 8:15 am on Wednesday, August 14, 2013.

We caught up with Nate after his hearing this morning to ask him about his plans if this challenge is successful. Here's his response to the idea of running a write-in campaign.

When asked if he was being unfairly punished for serving his Country Nate expressed that he believes this is definitely veteran discrimination. Curtis expressed the same sentiment after being served at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore and linking the challenge to Eric Papenfuse.

Nate also responded to questions of these allegations, "If Papenfuse isn't behind this he needs to come out and tell his supporters that he does not support this."

Nevin Mindlin expressed the same feelings as to the individual behind these challenges, "There's only one individual here that gains by knocking all of us off the ballot in the Mayoral race and that is Eric Papenfuse." He continues, "There are political games going on here."

Mindlin says he felt confident about the way things went today and he's looking forward to going on with a serious campaign.

Jennifer Smallwood's hearing on her petition challenge for Controller will be held tomorrow. We'll keep you updated as events unfold.

Photos/Natalie Cake