Report: $23 million in campaign ads unreported

Michigan voters were subjected to almost $23 million worth of anonymously-funded television advertisements during the 2010 election, according to a new report by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

The Michigan Secretary of State does not require disclosure of the funders of an ad unless it explicitly tells someone how to vote.

For the last ten years MCFN has gathered records of ad buys from television stations in order to track spending on campaigns.

In the 2010 gubernatorial and state Supreme Court races, the group found, most of the spending went unreported.

Three candidates won television-driven statewide elections in 2010 without buying broadcast advertising of their own. They are Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Virg Bernero. All three were totally dependent on their political party for their advertising campaign, and the parties reported nothing about the Johnson campaign or the Bernero primary campaign. The Michigan Republican Party reported $650,000 of its $3.4 million television campaign supporting now-Justice Kelly and her fellow Republican nominee, now-Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr.

Disclosure is necessary to control corruption and to help voters evaluate the messages they receive during a campaign, MCFN Director Rich Robinson said in a statement.

“Disclosure is particularly critical in Supreme Court campaigns, so all parties can be sure that their due process rights to an impartial court hearing have not been usurped by some unreported campaign expenditure by an unidentified participant in their case,“ he said. “With over half the money flowing off the books in our Supreme Court campaigns, the exposure to that sort of problem is enormous.”

The full report, $70 Million Hidden in Plain View, details undisclosed campaign spending from 2000-2010 and is available here.