Before August, Janice Daniels was a relative unknown in political circles.
The Troy real estate agent had never been on the City Council or served on any civic committees.
"But she was at 90% of our council meetings, for years, and she always spoke," Troy Mayor Pro Tem Maureen McGinnis said.
Then, four days before the August filing deadline for Troy's mayoral election, after seeing that an incumbent councilwoman was running unopposed for mayor, Daniels decided to run.
"I have a strong marketing, negotiating and communications background, and I immediately decided -- winning was the only acceptable option," said Daniels, a tea party activist and upset winner in November.
Daniels works at a small mortgage firm and is a single mother with a 19-year-old son. She said she prides herself on being determined and resilient. She sometimes walks Troy's neighborhoods on the weekends, ringing doorbells to meet the citizens she represents.
"It's something I did during my campaign, and I definitely thought it made a difference. I'm a good communicator," she said.
The personal touch paid off, as Daniels captured 52% of the vote in an election with a 28% turnout.
What she also quickly captured was a storm of critics, from gay people and diversity advocates, to business leaders and national pundits -- on the Internet and in the mainstream media.
While being sworn in, Daniels changed the oath of office, dropping language that says the mayor shall enforce the city charter. She riled business leaders by blocking federal funding of a bus-rail transit center -- a project Gov. Rick Snyder endorsed. She inflamed gay people by not backing down when they found she'd called them "queers" on her personal Facebook page before she ran for mayor.
And, last week, Daniels triggered a secondary burn among gay people when she told teen leaders from Troy High School's Gay-Straight Alliance that she'd recruit "a panel of psychologists" to discuss the dangers of homosexuality at the Troy Community Center.
Still, Daniels said that, overall, "things are going as well as I could expect them to go."
In a nutshell, Daniels' goals mirror the broad outline of the tea party platform: smaller government with less spending and fewer intrusions on personal liberty and traditional values.
Daniels' critics said it's hard to balance such ideals with a firebrand mayor who, within only a few months of taking office, has managed to draw such ire.
"We've become the joke of the Midwest," said Sharon MacDonnell, a co-founder of Troy Residents United for a Strong Troy, or TRUST, founded last year to support the campaign to pass a library millage in the city.
The escalating furor led bloggers nationwide to pillory Troy as a symbol of backward thinking. Tonight, the Troy City Council could reverse some of that publicity by approving the bus-rail transit center that Daniels tried to shelve last month.
Councilman Wade Fleming said the project could pass in a revised form that took shape in hurriedly called meetings over the holidays when Daniels has said she was in Japan visiting her son, a Marine stationed in Okinawa. He is to be deployed to Afghanistan on Jan. 24 -- two days after his 20th birthday, she said.
Upset by the turn of events, Daniels let fly at last week's council meeting, criticizing Fleming and Councilman Dane Slater for holding the meetings without her, criticizing city staffers for letting them do it, further assailing them for opening her city mail without permission and telling City Manager John Szerlag that she had "no confidence in (his) ability to continue to perform the duties granted to him."
That remark sent Szerlag scurrying to his office to write a rebuttal letter. It had Community Affairs Director Cindy Stewart shaking her head.
But Daniels' supporters said much of the criticism has been unfair.
"Some people from the liberal side have tried to smear her and ended up smearing the whole city," said Bill Murray, 66, who said he's a strong fiscal conservative for whom " 'tea party' is not a dirty word."
Although Troy has endured a bitter political divide for years, perhaps even decades, "what is different is this time, it hit the national news, and it's being reported in a very hysterical, twisted manner," retired nurse Mary Ann Bernardi said.
Slater acknowledged Monday that there has long been deep division in the city, but: "Obviously, the mayor's comments aren't helping." Slater spoke soon after watching the city's annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at Troy Athens High School, which Daniels did not attend.
"I think it's the first time in the city's history that our mayor didn't come to this," Slater said.
Accountant Debbie DeBacker, 56, said Troy's new mayor is doing exactly what she was elected to do. It's even what supporters hope will be a model for the state and the nation, DeBacker said.
Contact Bill Laitner: 586-826-7264 or blaitner at freepress.com
More Details: Janice Daniels
Professional: Mayor of Troy; works at a small mortgage firm; former real estate agent
Political party: Tea party
Age: Declined to give
Personal: Son in the Marines