Snyder advisor calls on Cox to end GOP attack war

John Weaver, a political consultant for Rick Snyder’s bid for the Republican nomination for governor, is no stranger to political hack attacks. He helmed the McCain 2000 campaign during the South Carolina primary in which Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was savaged with push polls and whisper campaigns. McCain lost that primary, and George W. Bush went on to win the nomination and the presidency.

So it is with no small fanfare that Weaver’s letter to Attorney General and primary opponent Mike Cox is being released to the public. Snyder has been the target of robocalls, and candidate Mike Bouchard, the Oakland County Sheriff has been the target of an advertising campaign and website questioning his leadership skills. Both attacks are linked to the group Michigan Civic Education Fund.

The group has also launched a series of attack radio ads claiming Bouchard had an affair with an employee of the Oakland County Sheriff’s office and that Snyder is responsible for the “implosion” of his former company, Gateway, the Macomb Daily reports.

Now, the Daily is reporting a small unknown political action committee, Macomb Business United, lists the same address as MCEF. That group has donated $16,850 donation to the Cox for Governor campaign and has hosted at least one fundraiser for the candidate.

Cox, however, denies there is any tie between the PAC and his campaign.

That is not stopping Weaver and the Snyder campaign from demanding Cox end the negative attacks — or tying the MCEF directly to Cox.

In a letter (pdf) sent to Cox Tuesday, Weaver notes that one of the men behind the MCEF, Cecil St. Pierre, is not only a Cox donor, but also an employee of the Attorney General’s appointed to handle probate issues in Macomb and Oakland County.

“It appears Mr. St. Pierre sort of works for you,” writes Weaver.

While Weaver is polite about St. Pierre, he holds back nothing in his attack on Joe Munem, the GOP operative who launched robocalls attacking Snyder three weeks ago. In the letter, Weaver calls Munem “a hack” and references a Detroit News editorial that called him “a poison-pen hired gun of Macomb County politics.”

Weaver concludes his letter:

“Stop your supporters from funding these attacks, or, if you insist on going this way, at least have the Michigan Civic Education Fund disclose all its contributors and disclose all the contributions to and payments from the non-profit organizations you control. You have campaigned as someone committed to transparency — I think it would be best if you kept your word.”

Interesting, however, that Weaver has not issued a similar letter to Bouchard, who has hired the consulting team of Scott Howell and Company. Weaver has dealt with those operatives before, in the bitter 2000 Bush/McCain primary in South Carolina.