Pro-Snyder group refuses to reveal contributors

The pro-Snyder group Values for Michigan says it won’t disclose donors or supporters until it files its first required campaign finance report, which is due July 25.

Jon Patrick Yob, who runs the Republican consultancy firm Strategic National, tells Michigan Messenger in a Facebook chat that the group chose to be a registered political group rather than a stealth one, but it won’t reveal its contributors until required by law to do so.

“We will file our campaign finance reports the same time other political committees do, as legally required by the SoS office. We are set up as a political committee with the Secretary of State so we chose to use a vehicle that requires full disclosure, rather than a stealth organization,” Yob said.

Independent committees are registered with the Secretary of State and are required to file campaign reports three times a year. Those reports are due in Michigan July 25 and Oct. 25. The third filing date, Jan. 25, has already passed and Values was not created in time to file a report.

The Values group is pushing support for Gov. Rick Snyder’s controversial budget which includes eliminating the state’s business tax, creation of a flat six percent business tax, eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit, cuts to education funding distributions, cuts to local revenue sharing programs and a new tax on retirement pensions. Snyder and the GOP majority in the state legislature plan to pass the budget by June 1, weeks before the Values first campaign report is filed.

Value for Michigan is registered at the same address as Yob’s Strategic National. Yob was a top strategy adviser to Gov. Rick Snyder starting in the primary. He and his organization also advised Nevada Tea Party favorite Sharon Angle in her bid for the U.S. Senate this past fall. They are now advising her on her bid to become a Congressperson from that state.

The Values group announced earlier this week that it will launch a modest $10,000 advertising buy in the Lansing area television market. The group has two commercials it has launched, one featuring children asking their elders to support the Snyder proposal to levy taxes on retirement pensions. The second features college students attacking teachers.

And while Yob and his Values group are launching the commercials, he says he is still unwilling to disclose the donors and sponsors of the group.

“We will file them when they are due, as pretty much every other political organization in Michigan does,” Yob said.

The law is exactly the problem, says Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

“I’ve been complaining about our crappy lobbying and campaign finance laws for years. We just don’t require frequent enough reporting,” Robinson tells Michigan Messenger in an e-mail. “We should know the sources of money that are attempting to drive the policy process before policy decisions are made.”

David Holtz, executive director of Progress Michigan, went further.

“An 86 percent tax break for corporations and zero transparency for citizens — that’s the arrogant message we are getting from Governor Snyder’s political camp,” Holtz said. “We should assume there’s a reason they are not immediately disclosing the corporate and other donors behind these ads. But that reason doesn’t have anything to do with transparency or good government.”