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What are Michigan House Democrat staffers / petition blockers afraid of?By Nick, Section News
Update [2008-1-15 16:21:14 by Nick]: Got a call that the male blockers were back and up to no good at the polling place so I jumped back in the car and went to ask them who they worked for... one of them was more than willing to "talk" to me and the other wouldn't say a word.
Interesting, though, that the line of defense changed once the questioning got to "central staff." The mute in the maize and blue scarf is apparently named Brian. The talkative "gentleman" with the raging hormones identified himself as Sven Carlson after calling me a "sphincter" and deciding that he was really really clever. Yeah, yeah. I'm an a-hole. Got it. Welcome back to the third grade. Other than a bit of schoolyard bullying these cats were generally well behaved. I did get a flying middle finger from the talkative chap as a school bus let it's kids off a few feet away but that's sort of par for the course with Democrats in Michigan these days. There was no real physical confrontation with the petition gatherers to speak of either, though they were attempting to get the gatherers to rotate who held the clipboard so they could later attempt to invalidate the signatures by arguing that they witnessed someone else gathering this particular signature or that. Dirty, but I can appreciate the intricacy and the nuance of the attempt. The real problem arrises when you consider the employment issue. If these folks DO draw a government paycheck they sure as heck didn't want anyone to know about it which begs the question... are they on the clock? Are these our tax dollars at work via Andy Dillon's House of Representatives? If that's the case it doesn't get much more crooked.
So if you know the woman in the earlier video or either of these men, give me a shout!
 After reading Leon's piece and getting a phone call or two on the possibility of some rather unfriendly and potentially violent petition blockers at Grand Rapids polls I excused myself for a minute or two and shot out to the site of the fracas, a polling place in Grand Rapids only five minutes away. As I pulled in Grand Rapids WZZM 13 was just unloading their own cameras and two young men quickly retreated to their car. Didn't realize why until a moment later. Standing across the drive from the building's entrance were two people, a petition gatherer and a man holding a sign. A gentlemen walked up to them and asked for the clipboard when another woman rushed over to them, interrupted and began speaking authoritatively to the voter. He shouldn't sign the petition, she insisted, because the folks asking him to sign it weren't even from Michigan. And something about how the tax hike was already law and by recalling Robert Dean we'd only be spending more money. The voter kindly told the woman that he thought recalling him would also send a strong signal at which point the woman noticed the TV camera and not being one to interrupt myself I finally drew mine. While the woman was happy to talk to voters and interrupt their conversations she wasn't particularly interested in talking to me.
Now, first things first, her claim that the petition gatherers weren't from Michigan? The woman you see towards the end of that video is named Kendra. I went to high school with her. So she's been from Michgian as far back as 1995 at least and she even had her drivers license on her clipboard to prove to voters she still lived in the city. I spoke with Kendra after the cars pulled away and she said that the woman identified herself as the other men's "legal counsel" before I arrived. And it's tough to see thanks to my cold-inspired amateur cinematography but the license plate holders on the gentlemens car was from Ypsillanti. That's not exactly a hop skip and a jump from Grand Rapids. House Dem staffers up to no good in Grand Rapids? They'd better not be on the clock! We'll have to see what we can see... and in the meantime, if you recognize this woman I'd love to put a name with the face!
What are Michigan House Democrat staffers / petition blockers afraid of? | 58 comments (58 topical, 0 hidden)
What are Michigan House Democrat staffers / petition blockers afraid of? | 58 comments (58 topical, 0 hidden)
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