Livingston Democrats choose new leader

The Livingston County Democratic Party has a new leader after the Executive Committee chose Hartland resident and University of Michigan grad Jordan Genson to succeed Judy Daubenmier at the county convention on Nov. 18.

The committee also chose Genoa Township resident Kelly Raskauskas as vice chair, and rounding out the officers are Annette Koeble as treasurer; Mary Evergreen, secretary; and Judy Volk, vice president for membership.

Judy has done an excellent job in the more than two years she has served as chair. She has planned some unique and inexpensive fundraisers to energize the surprising number of Democrats in the county – like the movie nights and ice cream socials, and she has honored the party’s core values with community events like blood drives, supporting area food banks, helping children and honoring veterans.

She also helped recruit a near record number of quality candidates for political office, and she served as a successful watchdog on the all-Republican County Board of Commissioners.

I don’t know a lot about Jordan Genson, but I’ll venture a guess that he is one of the youngest chairs the party has had in some time. I sat next to him on the floor at the Michigan Democratic Party Endorsement Convention in April, and I am looking forward to the energy he will bring to the job.

Kelly Raskauskas was an energetic county commissioner candidate this election cycle, and I see her at every party function I have been able to attend. She brings lots of energy and knowledge to the position, and she has done some excellent research on the mistakes and gaffes of the board of commissioners. She also has one of the most impressive resumes I have ever seen.

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.

County Democrats will get a chance to meet the new officers, as well as enjoy one of the great events I talked about, with the best food ever, put on by the party with the annual a holiday potluck set for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10 at party headquarters, 10321 Grand River Road, Suite 600, in Green Oak Township. All you need to do is to bring a dish to share and a donation for Gleaners Food Bank of either cash or food. I can personally attest to the fact that the food is phenomenal.

In addition to the potluck dinner, the party is also looking to help those in need in the community this holiday season. The party is looking for volunteers to help shop for winter clothing for needy children through the Warm the Children program sponsored by annarbornews.com. The program finds the needy children and provides enough funds to purchase $90 in winter clothing for each child. We provide the volunteers willing to help the families shop for the clothing at Target. If you would like to help, please contact Pam Green, coordinator the county’s Blue Tiger programs, at pgreen1210@sbcglobal.net.

The party is also participating in the Salvation Army's Adopt-a-Family program. We will be buying gifts for a needy family selected by the Salvation Army. If you would like to make a donation to the program, you may mail a check, made out to "Cash," to party headquarters. Contact Pam Green for more information, as well as to volunteer to help with the shopping.

Partisan board member attacks those who question airport finances

A letter to the editor in today’s edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus from a member of the allegedly nonpartisan Livingston County Aeronautical Facilities Board has more cheap, partisan political shots than facts.

You will recall that a couple of weeks ago the Livingston County Democratic Party pointed out that, according to county budget reports, the Livingston County Spencer J. Hardy Airport has lost $4.7 million over the last 10 years. The director of the airport Mark Johnson and board member Richard Pine objected to that claim, and promoted Pine, the wife of the former chair of the Livingston County Republican Party, to write the poison letter. At least he didn’t threaten to rip anyone’s “balls off.”

Pine claims, “Judy Daubenmier is wrong about the airport, which isn't surprising. While Democrats understand spending (that's how you buy votes), they don't understand investments anymore than they understand how to stimulate the economy.”

Someone should tell Pine that the Bush recession, the worst since the Great Depression, created this mess and how the stimulus is helping lift us out of it, despite the stalling tactics by members of his party. I disagree with him that you should “buy votes.”

The county and the airport was my beat for a few years beginning in 2000, and I actually agree with Pine when he says the “airport is a great asset for the future of this community.” However, I can assure you that many of his fellow Republicans on the Howell Township Board and people who live, actually once lived, near the airport, do not share that view.

This is a great statement from Pine: “Recognizing its potential, the federal government has invested about $30 million since 2000 to expand the airport. Those funds come from airport users, not taxpayers.”

Really; it’s not tax money? Great, then he should have no problem raising the gas tax because, after all, it comes from users, not taxpayers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I don’t necessarily object to the use tax, but it is a tax.

Pine also claims that “The decision to expand the airport back in 2000 wasn't made lightly, but it was made. It was an investment in infrastructure. Even with the present economic downturn, the airport generates enough cash to pay back its loan and then some. When economic conditions improve, the airport will attract business and the county will make money. That's what investments are about.”

So, how is that investment by county and federal tax payers any different than the loans to GM and Chrysler or the stimulus in general?

Now, that may be true, but there is absolutely no way of knowing that. Kelly Raskauskas, D-Genoa Township, a candidate for the Livingston County Board of Commissioners made an excellent point.

“If the airport received $30 million in federal and state grants over the last 15 years, why hasn't this income been shown in annual county financial reports,” she said. “The airport website has zero financial information. Why make it so hard for county residents to figure out what's going on with their tax dollars?”

The revelation by the Livingston County Democratic Party earlier this month that the county taxpayers may be on the hook for $101 million in bonds in danger of default because townships used the full faith and credit of the county for special assessment districts (SAD) to build sewers for developers. The county was not very forthcoming with the information, and the newspaper ignored the story, even though a national newspaper had the story. It was the county party that really broke the story locally.

Pine says “The airport expansion wasn't a partisan issue at the time, so it's strange to see it made a partisan issue some 10 years after the decision was made.”” Really? The airport wasn’t losing millions of dollars when this began. There was plenty of opposition then, and I fail to see how pointing out the wasting of taxpayer money is a partisan issue.

But here is where we really understand what Pine is really all about: “But if I were a Democrat, I would be looking to divert attention away from the present economic mess and the trillions of dollars Democrats have added to the national debt. Our national debt isn't an investment, and the only way it will be repaid is through higher taxes and/or inflation.”

He seems to forget that it’s the Democrats that are getting us out of worst recession since the Great Depression created by Republican polices, and that Bush took a budget surplus and created a huge deficit. The Democrats have added to the debt in trying to stimulate the economy, not on a useless and unnecessary war and tax cuts for the rich that did nothing to stimulate the economy. Funny, when sainted Ronald Reagan created a huge deficit it Dick Cheney that said “Reagan proved that deficits don't matter.”

Why do they matter so much now?

But perhaps Pine can tell us what this has to with local races for County Commissioner.

“The question voters have to ask themselves is this: Would we be better off if the federal government behaved more like Livingston County, or if Livingston County behaved more like the federal government?”

The answer is there is much more transparency in the federal government, a huge Capitol press corps in Washington to expose waste and a federal government trying to fix the problems caused by the party that controls the government in Livingston County.

Newspaper attacks Democratic Party for doing the job they didn’t do

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

Republican County Commissioner gets special treatment in campaign finance violation

HOWELL – In a perfect example of a double standard, Republican Livingston County Commissioner Carol Griffith failed to file campaign spending reports for nearly two years but the Republican Secretary of State Terri Land let her off the hook without a fine.

Griffith should have been fined thousands of dollars because she failed to file reports over the last two years, but instead was allowed to go back and retroactively amend her first report to show that she had spent beneath the minimum threshold for reporting, $1,000.

Griffith, who was elected in 2008 to represent District 7, filed a statement of organization for her campaign in April 2008. At that time, she did not request a waiver for reporting her campaign spending. Candidates for public office are required to file statements of the money they raised and spent before and after the primary and general election, as well as annually. But those reporting requirements are waived if a candidate expects to receive or spend $1,000 or less.

Griffith never checked the box on her statement of organization asking for the waiver. Because she did not receive the waiver, Griffith was required by law to file campaign spending reports. Judy Daubenmier, the chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party, said Griffith got special treatment, and called on her to reject the sweetheart treatment.

“Sometimes when one party has been in power too long there is a feeling that they don’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else, but the law is blind to that,” Daubenmier said. “Respect for the rule of law requires that those in charge of legislating for our county be expected to make a good faith effort to follow the law themselves.”

Land has gone to the mat in prosecuting Democrats for similar offenses. In April of 2007, Rep. George Cushingberry Jr., D-Detroit, had charges of lying about his compliance with campaign laws thrown out by an Ingham County Circuit Court Judge after a four day trial and dismissed two felony charges of perjury and one misdemeanor for failure to file reports

In December 21, 2006 former Rep. LaMar Lemmons III, R-Detroit, was found guilty for failing to file two or more campaign finance statements dating back to 2004, and he was ordered to pay fines and fees totaling $1,095.

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.

The SOS office assesses fines on a per day basis for late reports, starting at $25 per day for a report that is one day late, up to a maximum of $500 for a report that is 20 days late. Fines are higher for candidates that spend more than $10,000. If Griffith were to be assessed the full fine, she would owe $2,500 in fines -- $500 for each of the five reports that have not been filed.

In addition, candidates are required to file a late contribution report if they receive a large contribution within a few days of the election. Additional fines could be levied if Griffith received such contributions and failed to report them on time.

But Land decided Griffith’s mistake was a clerical error or an oversight and said she didn’t need to pay any fine. The special treatment does not fall within the reasons for waiving a late filing fee contained in the SOS’s Candidate Manual. The manual states:

“The Department of State and the county clerks throughout the state have the authority to waive a late filing fee for reasons of incapacitating physical illness, hospitalization, accident involvement, death, incapacitation for medical reasons or other unique, unintentional factors beyond the filer’s control not stemming from a negligent act or non-action. A request for a late filing fee waiver must be accompanied by documentation that supports the reason for the request.”

Ironically, Daubenmier said, the mistake might have been discovered earlier had the all Republican county commission on which Griffith sits had a greater commitment to transparency. The county commission could require that such documents be scanned and uploaded to the county website and could furnish the county clerk with the equipment to make that possible. Then the local Democrats might have found the mistake earlier instead of noticing it after visiting the Livingston County Courthouse in Howell after the recent May 11 filing candidate deadline.

Griffith’s 2010 statement also did not request a filing waiver but she also retroactively amended that after local Democrats pointed that out to the county clerk’s office.

According to Howell radio station WHMI that reported the story, Griffith declined to comment.

Griffith is being opposed by 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.

Fundraisers on tap this week

Campaign season is in full swing with lots of fundraisers, and I just wanted to give a shout out to some of my friends.

Livingston County Democrats had the most candidates file for the nine-member Livingston County Board of Commissioners since at least 1998, and Kelly Raskauskas is one of the most qualified. She is running in the 7th District, which includes the city of Brighton and part of Genoa Township. She has been a leader in the community, serving as president of the Friends of the Library in Brighton. She has a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

She has a fundraiser set for 6 p.m. Thursday, July 15. To RSVP and for directions, call (734) 878-6792.

My friends at the Monroe County Democratic Party are holding a campaign kickoff at 5 p.m. this Saturday, July 17 at UAW Local 723, 281 Detroit Ave. in Monroe. For $15 you get a steak dinner and soft drinks. Tickets can be ordered online.

Come out and enjoy some great fellowship and good food, and many of the candidates will be there. Monroe’s two House seats are under attack, and Republicans are targeting the seats in the blue collar, union town.

House Majority Floor Leader Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, is term-limited, and Bedford resident Mike Smith is running for the seat against a large field of Republicans. Rep. Kate Ebli, D-Monroe, is running against a well know Republican, and she can use your help.

We need your help, and I will see you there.

Don’t forget the fundraiser for Jim Delcamp, the Democratic candidate for the 66th h Michigan House District, that will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Brighton House Restaurant, 10810 Grand River Road, Brighton.