Most people have no problems with a simple mistake, especially if they learn from it. But, when the same person makes the same mistake five times and an elected official elected to uphold the law covers for that person, most people lose patient.
Republican Livingston County Commissioner Carol Griffith failed to file campaign spending reports for nearly two years, but the Republican County Clerk covered for her, and the Secretary of State Terri Land let her off the hook without a fine or even a warning. But even worse, the Republican editorial board of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus saw fit to write an editorial calling campaign finance reports and falsifying legal documents “trivial.”
The editorial entitled “Dems don't help themselves by picking silly fights” takes the Livingston County Democratic Party to task for daring to bring this to light, saying, the “party doesn't help itself when it keeps picking silly fights, such as the complaint it aired last week over a trivial campaign-filing violation.”
Tell that to Rep. George Cushingberry Jr., D-Detroit, who had to have a court trial to clear himself of the same thing and Rep. LaMar Lemmons III, R-Detroit, who was found guilty for failing to file two or more campaign finance.
Griffith should have filed five reports over the last two years – a report before the August 2008 primary, a report after the August 2008 primary, a report before the November 2008 general election, a report after the 2008 general election, and an annual report for 2009. None of those reports is on file with the Livingston County Clerk’s office.
Here’s the real irony here: this violation of campaign finance law and case of special treatment never would have been discovered and would continue if the Democratic Party had not discovered it.
It was not too many years ago that newspapers, including this one, was the watchdog for government malfeasance. What it comes down to is that instead of doing their job, the newspaper attacks the Democrats for doing the job they should have been doing.
It’s time to restore some honesty and transparency to the all Republican County Board of Commissioners so violations of the law will not be shoved under the rug.
You can start by voting for Griffith’s replacement, Kelly Raskauskas, D-Genoa Township. Raskauskas holds a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a BA cum laude in International Relations from the School of International Service at American University. Raskauskas serves as the President of the Friends of the Brighton District Library, a non-profit group that supports programming, special events and equipment for the BDL throughout the year. She is also a volunteer at the Greenhills School in Ann Arbor.
If you don’t live in Raskauskas’s district, you still have a choice. Vote for one of these qualified people.
District 2 Thomn Bell
District 3 Dane Morris
District 5 Dave Berry
District 6 Keith Tianen
District 8 Amir Baghdadchi
District 9 Barry McBride
3 comments:
It's Bush's fault.
Again, anonymous coward, I’m still waiting for you to back up your outrageous lie that we were “nearly shoulder to shoulder once.”
Father of the best burger flipper in Michigan I have to inform you because one president leaves the problems he creates doesn't go with him.
Another thing father of the greatest burger flipper in Michigan is that again you're displaying right wing hypocrisy one when 9.11 happen under Bush watch, you had conservative commentators trying to blame Bill Clinton.. And 2 anytime Bush's economic policies failed he blame Bill Clinton even tho Bill Clinton left him an surplus and a decent economy.
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