Genoa Township businessman John Conely and the Livingston County Republican Party are at it again, and they are determined to stomp out Democrats, even in a nonpartisan race.
In a story in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, a story on Conely’s latest exploits fails to mention his past activities. According to the article, six months before the next school board election in November, Conely is on his favorite kick and posting signs around Brighton. This latest sign calls for residents to elect "competent" members to the Brighton Public School Board who can "balance a checkbook and spend taxpayers' money wisely."
There are two seats up for election on the school board. Republican Bill Anderson is not running for re-election, but incumbent Joe Carney plans to run for another four year term. Carney is the former chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party, so Conely’s campaign is targeting just Carney.
Gee, no surprise there.
Back in February 2007, the county GOP was not content with controlling the entire county Board of Commissioners, the state Senate seat, the two state House seats and all but a few Township board positions, so they went after the nonpartisan school board elections.
In the spring of 2006 the county GOP started endorsing candidates, and Miles Vieau a former Brighton School Board member, a member of the GOP executive committee and an associate of Conely‘s, took the next step and began recruiting and training Republicans to run for school board. He also offered GOP volunteers to work on their campaigns.
Fast forward to the fall of 2008, and the Livingston County Republican Party and Conely ran an illegal campaign to try and stop a combined building millage and technology/bus bond that would equal about 1 mill.
Conely again used signs as one weapon, Bulldog orange signs that said, "Vote no on the Brighton School millage."
The millage failed, and it was revealed just two days after the election that a group calling itself "Parents Union Local No. 1" was pushing to reopen the teacher contract that was just approved in April 2008.
The so-called leader of that group was none other than Conely, and the rest of the group consisted of members of the county GOP executive committee; attorney and former University of Michigan GOP regent Neal Nielsen, county assistant prosecuting attorney Bill McCririe and Vieau.
The deadline for filing for school board seats is Aug. 11, and it remains to be seen if Conely will run for the board or if he is just clearing the way for other Republicans.
The bottom line is we need independents, progressives and liberals to run for school board to combat this naked GOP power grab. Nominating petitions and affidavits for anyone 18 or older wishing to run for a four-year term are available at their county clerk’s office, municipal clerk’s office or school board office.
8 comments:
You are such a liar. A total liar who cares not about his naked lies. The Livingston County Republican Party did nothing illegal about any school board election. You know it but continue to lie about it. That says a lot about the courage of your convictions...people secure in their opinions don't have to lie.
Miles Vieau and John Conely have every right to their opinions...as does Joe Carney. Since Carney was head of the county Dems, does that mean the Dems are illegally involved in school board elections? Of course not, but that's the reasoning you are using.
The teachers' union, in fact, does wrongly..if legally...influence school board elections. They like to elect school board members that they can control. Carney is an example. You can trace the district's financial decline to his election. He and Joyce, and now Beth Minert, make sure the teachers union is protected...Meanwhile the district is the financial laughing stock of the state.
If you keep lying about the Republican Party, I will be forced to reveal the information I found about child molesting on the sex offenders registry.
In your dreams, brett. The Livingston County Republican Party tried to influence a nonpartisan milage election, and that is a violation of campaign finance law.
First, we’re not talking about a school board election; we’re talking about a millage election. Second, political parties cannot try and influence a nonpartisan election anyway. The Livingston County Democratic Party was never involved in Joe Carney’s election. Have you ever seen the LIVCO Dems endorse in a school board race like the Republicans? The answer is no.
Wrong again, brett. Conely and his boys could have formed and registered a legal PAC just like the teacher’s union did, and it would have been legal. They didn’t, so the teacher’s union has done nothing illegal.
Wrong again, the recession that has hit every state and every school district in Michigan and across the country can be traced to the election of George Bush.
No, wrong again, brett. The union leaders protect the teachers, and that’s the way it should be.
“The district is the financial laughing stock of the state?” Where did you get that crap, brett? The district is in the same boat as school districts all across the state and country. You know what would have helped the financial situation improve, brett? If the millage the GOP and your boy Conely illegally advocated against had been approved.
It was a $15 million bond for buses and technology, and a separate capital projects sinking fund. With the bond funds, the school planned to purchase 1,600 new computers and 46 new school buses. While this is not entirely a new millage, it would have replaced an old one with a slightly higher millage. If approved, it would have cost the owner of a $200,000 house in affluent Brighton $100 a year or about 28 cents a day.
Let me say that again, brett 28 cents a day. What can you buy with 28 cents a day, brett?
Once again, brett, I’m not lying, and I have challenged you repeatedly to “reveal the information you found about child molesting on the sex offenders registry” both on this blog and on the Livingston County Dems blog. Yet, you keep using that false smear. I challenge you one more time to produce it.
are you that stupid...do you really not know the facts?
The recession that "hit" every other district somehow didn't put Hartland, Howell, Fville and Pney in the same dismal boat as Brighton.
Brighton has a $3 million, or $4 million, or $7 million deficit (they can't quite figure out the exact number) and they have NO money left...and they keep passing deficit budgets. Hartland actually increased its fund balance last year by -- and i know you find this concept hard to comprehend -- spending less than it took it in revenue.
Not a laughingstock? Well, maybe it's not so funny. But no less an authority than the state superintendent of education (appointed by Granholm) linked Detroit and Brighton as two districts in the state that were deficit districts that couldn't meet their payroll without a bailout. There are hundreds of districts in the state, and those are the 2 he singles out.
Then, of course, there are the "markers" that Brighton school invented when it couldn't pass its budget. The state educational community was stunned by that unethical move and, yes, many are laughing in disgust at it.
You are lying because the county GOP didn't break the law. You know it and you keep saying it. I'll produce the sex registry information when you show me the GOP broke the law. I can see why that challenge worries you.
The public voted down the millage and it did so emphatically. It's tired of a school system that rips them off and then asks for more money. You want to talk about illegal? How about the illegal teachers' strike?
So what is it: Were the vast majority of voters too stupid to understand? Were they sheep who were swayed by a few orange signs? Or maybe, just maybe, they wanted to send a message to a dysfunctional school board that thumbs its nose at the taxpayer?
You are so transparent. You are worse in your pandering partisanship than Rush Limbaugh. Oh, my, you are upset because Republicans got involved in a "non-partisan" election. There is nothing wrong with that. They are citizens and they can endorse and support and recruit whomever they want. Just like Democrats supported that Half-wit-away in the nonpartisan Supreme Court race.
Conely made no effort to hide his involvement in the millage election. I seem to recall his picture with a sign in front of his business. He clearly stated his position...and that bothers you because you only want your side to have that right.
If he or the GOP broke the law, then report it to someone...if you can pull yourself away from those videos long enough.
During the Granholm vs. DeVos election I sat in a school board meeting while our infamous GOP member told the audience to vote for DeVos if we wanted to see funding changed in our schools. Being a citizen and sitting as an elected official endorsing a candidate IS wrong.
She has become ineffective since she discovered Tea Parties and FB and now sits at board meetings with her nose in her laptop. I'm not complaining, we're all better off.
Neither, brett. Here are the facts, brett. The bulk of funding for Michigan public schools is through the per-pupil foundation grant. When enrollment goes down, the money going to each school is less, because of the Bush recession sales are down and there is less money for the foundation rant. In addition, the housing crisis has hurt schools all over the nation, as well as Michigan.
That is correct, brett, they are not a “laughingstock” because so many districts are in the same boat. According to the rightwing think tank the Mackinac Center, there are 24 public school districts in Michigan that are a deficit district.
Sorry, brett, the Livco GOP did break the law. The fact that we knew the partisan Secretary of State would not investigate or sanction them does not make it a violation. Are you serious, brett? “I can see why that challenge worries you?” I have challenged you repeatedly to “produce the sex registry information” so people will see what a scumbag you really are with this false smear. I’m still waiting, and we will continue to wait because it is nothing but a false, disgusting smear. But, not surprising when you consider that you belong to a party that routinely break campaign finance laws.
Nobody got ripped off.
What illegal teacher’s strike? It was more than a few orange signs. It was no coincidence that the signs were discovered in the GOP’s so-called victory center where they phone bank.
Yes, there is something wrong with a political party getting involved with a nonpartisan election. It’s a shame you can’t see it. Why not make it partisan if the Republicans are getting involved?
Man, you really don’t know much about election law, do you, brett. The nominations for Supreme Court come from the political parties at their convention. Comparing the two elections makes no sense. What’s wrong with Judge Hathaway, other than she was nominated by the Democrats? For her to unseat an incumbent Justice, it was more than just Democrats supporting her. I’ll ask you the same question you asked me: So what is it: Were the vast majority of voters too stupid to understand?
Conely has every right to support and not support who he wants for school board and to campaign for or against who he wants, and I have the same right to point out his motives. But, he still has to follow the law.
I think I know that school board member you speak of. She is also a founding member of an anti-gay hate group that made Howell Schools a laughing stock with her book banning crap.
I forgot. Here are a couple of links I forgot for the last post:
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749374
https://www.mackinac.org/print.aspx?ID=9620
I heard there were 27 red school districts in Michigan, but soon to be many more. With the projected cut of about $350 per child in funding for next year and a higher cut for the following year. Any districts struggling now will surely be in the red within a year.
Howell was the laughing stock of Livingston County because of that group of nuts.
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