An ad using video footage of Obama expressing his support in May 2007 for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was created by the right-wing independent group Freedom Defense Fund. Kilpatrick resigned in 2008 after a sex scandal. According to E.J. Dionne, in a Washington Post column on September 19 about the importance of Michigan in the electoral vote, "Obama is counting on a huge African American vote in Detroit, but the city's politics are in turmoil following Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's departure from office yesterday as part of a plea agreement related to perjury charges...a pro-McCain group has run an ad, clearly aimed at white suburban voters, linking Obama and Kilpatrick."