Tag: Campaign Finance

Protecting Michigan Taxpayers today announced the filing of multiple campaign finance complaints against personal injury lawyer and failed gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Fieger and his law firm, Fieger & Fieger, P.C. in connection with hidden spending by the firm in support of Proposal 2, the government union boss power grab overwhelmingly rejected by voters on Tuesday.

"Geoffrey Fieger may be a high-powered personal injury lawyer but that doesn't mean he is above the law," said Jared Rodriguez, Spokesman for Protecting Michigan Taxpayers.  "His decision to flout campaign finance law and to illegally hide his spending on behalf of Proposal 2 from voters raises serious questions about the real amount of money spent by big labor on this failed, divisive attempt to put union bosses above the members they claim to represent."

Violations of Michigan's campaign finance law committed by Fieger and referenced in today's complaint include:

• Violation of Section 24 of the MCFA by failing to file a Statement of Organization with the Michigan Department of State;
  
• Violation of Section 34 of the MCFA by failing to file the pre-general campaign statement due October 26, 2012; and
  
• Violation of Section 47(4) of the MCFA by failing to indicate that advertisements paid for by Fieger were paid for "with regulated funds."

High-dollar political donors associated with Michigan's labor movement are encouraged and instructed on how to hide limitless, undisclosed campaign contributions in secret slush funds, according to a leaked letter and PowerPoint presentation being distributed by Andrew Nickelhoff, the union lawyer behind Proposal 2 and 4.

The leaked private letter and PowerPoint stands in stark contrast to hypocritical public statements from supporters of Proposal 2, Nickelhoff's employers, who have insincerely and hypocritically called other organizations "shadowy."

"The scheme by Proposal 2 and 4's attorney to solicit secret, undisclosed campaign contributions is another example of Prop 2 supporter's continuing pattern of deception and hypocisy," said Nick De Leeuw, Spokesman for Citizens Protecting Michigan's Constitution.  "Nickelhoff infamously told voters they'd simply have to "guess" what his deceptive ballot proposal would do; now he is caught instructing donors how to hide their contributions."

In a letter dated May 9 and distributed to potential donors, Nickelhoff solicited and outlined in detail how high-dollar donors could contribute potentially millions of dollars to a secret slush fund without ever disclosing their identity.

There's a very interesting and disturbing story in Bloomberg News that hits close to home with me. I've long been preaching about how important it is to get a good and trustworthy treasurer if you are running a campaign or forming a PAC. Some of my previous posts on this area are as follows.

Shameless business plug for my company, posted in 2009

2006 - What not to do. This was one of the inspirations of me forming the business.

From 2008 - Report on an embezzlement

From Bloomberg

Representative Susan Davis' latest letter to supporters said: "We have been robbed!!"

Davis, 67, is one of several California Democrats whose campaign accounts were allegedly looted during the past year by their treasurer, Kinde Durkee. On Sept. 10, Davis sent out the appeal to begin rebuilding her account.

Five days after Durkee's arrest in Burbank on Sept. 2, Representative Frank LoBiondo's former campaign treasurer was sentenced to 30 months in prison for embezzling more than $450,000 from the New Jersey Republican's campaign committee.

As candidates raise more money for their campaigns, there is greater opportunity for nefarious treasurers to embezzle campaign cash from politicians accustomed to putting their careers in the hands of consultants, aides and volunteers, said Michael Toner, a former Federal Election Commission chairman.

Here's the front of the postcard with the name and address retracted.

The post primaries were due yesterday. After this broad shot fired across the board, I'm here to show in spades that those in glass houses should not throw stones. Whether it was due to malfeasance or just incompetence, Judy Daubenmier's crew screwed up. If you are going to fire off, you better be clean, because I can find where the skeletons are buried.

This is a personal blog post not tied to the business, so I'll go into a little more detail and bluntness here which I did not post on the business website. There is an excellent FAQ there that can answer many questions.

Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land announced this week that Schauer has been hit with the largest punishment for campaign finance violations in the history of the state of Michigan!  According to the Lansing State Journal:

The campaign fund of former Democratic state Sen. Mark Schauer of Battle Creek is paying the state $208,250 for improperly donating money to help elect Democrats to the Senate in 2006.

Thus concludes a story we've been discussing here on Right Michigan since all the way back in December.  Of 2007.  The Battle Creek Enquirer reported at the time:

Schauer chaired the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and oversaw the Senate Democratic Fund, for which his bombastic chief of staff, Ken Brock, took over as treasurer.

The fund raked in $440,000 above the legal limit of $20,000 per person - which the Dems don't deny. Twelve senatorial candidate committees did, with Schauer's as the worst offender at $187,000.

The moolah was instantly pumped into the campaigns of four key candidates, three of whom were trounced anyway.

For state races, this is a staggering chunk of change. The grievance is pretty cut and dried (some might call it money laundering). When seven candidates got wind of the GOP's secretary of state complaint, they ostensibly demanded a refund. Marky-Mark did not.

Here's how Schauer's illegal scheme worked.  The Congressman, then a state legislator decided to go ahead and raise a bunch of illegal campaign cash.  He received illegal money from Democrats including Carl Williams, Alexander Lipsey, Bob Schockman, Gretchen Whitmer, Mickey Switalski, Buzz Thomas, Liz Brater, Mike Prusi, Gilda Jacobs, Glenn Anderson and Mark Slavens and then pitched in $187,000 himself.  Mind you, the limit is $20,000.  

Once the Democrats realized they'd been discovered each of the folks who were still working in the legislature went ahead and asked for refunds.  

Essentially they said "oops, our mistake, don't punish us for it!"  Prusi, Whitmer, Switalski, Brater, Thomas, Slavens and Jacobs all took their illegal cash back, admitting they'd been caught with their hands in the cookie jar and trying to make things right (well after the fact).

But no such change of heart from Mark Schauer.  When he breaks the law he stands by his criminal activity!  And he stands by his man, too.  Ken Brock, the anti-Semite who's racist comments drew the ire of everyone in Michigan except Mark Schauer, was the Senator's treasurer on this particular money laundering operation and signed all of the papers.  

Until this week there was no backing down from either of them.

Still, the settlement with the Secretary of State winds up being a peach of a deal, compared with the penalties that COULD be exacted.  Each violation of this particular statute brings along a penalty of as much as 90 days in jail and / or serious monetary fines.  Schauer admitted to twenty-two violations.
That's nearly 5 ½ years in jail.  

By comparison, I'd say Congressman Schauer got off pretty easy.  Only time will tell, though, how seriously his constituents frown on an admission from their Representative in DC that he broke the law twenty-two times.