A Republican state Representative from Jackson County is coming under fire for accepting tax breaks and government loans for his company and then laying off more workers.

Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clark Lake) received a tax abatement in 2005 from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for his non-union company, Orbitforms. The abatement was part of the creation of a Tool and Die Recovery Zone under the state’s Renaissance Zone program. According to the MEDC Dec. 22, 2005 announcement the abatement would “allow companies to operate free of virtually all state and local taxes for up to 15 years, thus boosting their efforts to compete in the face of global competition.”

City of Jackson Office of the Assessor records show the property on which Orbitforms is located — 1600 Executive Drive — has a state taxable value of $655,400.

As part of the deal, Shirkey told MEDC officials he believed the abatements would allow him to create as many as 12 jobs. Instead, Shirkey’s factory, which manufacturers various industrial fasteners, laid off nine workers, reports the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

In addition to the tax breaks, in 2010 Shirkey’s company accepted a $2.6 million loan which was guaranteed by the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, reported the Jackson Citizen Patriot in April. He accepted this money even though during the 2008 presidential campaign Shirkey posted a telephone message on his company’s phone system in which he attacked then-candidate Barack Obama. That phone message said:

“It is the blatant socialism approaching communism attitudes and values of Barack Hussein Obama that scare the living daylights out of me.”

“If anyone even contemplates voting for this clown, the first thing they should do is have someone test the Kool-Aid they are drinking. Because someone has likely put some idiot juice in it.”

Shirkey is a vocal proponent of “right to work” laws for Michigan, and Democrats and organized labor say that his receipt of ARRA money as well as tax breaks are “hypocrisy” and proof he has “no authority” to speak about job creation in the state.

“This guy is the guy trying to advance so-called ‘Right to Work’ and he doesn’t even know how to create jobs,” says Jonathan Byrd, legislative representative for the Michigan Laborers’ Council. “It’s absurd to me.”

Byrd says that the information undermines Shirkey’s credibility, arguing, “He has no moral authority with this in whatsoever for advancing Right to Work.”

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer echoed Byrd’s criticisms.

“He’s a real hypocrite,” Brewer said. “It’s atrocious. I think he has no principles to discuss Right to Work.”

Shirkey did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

When announcing he would co-sponsor legislation to be introduced after the summer break, Shirkey had this to say:

“We’re going to take a different approach. We’re going to spend a lot of time on the education process, a lot of time in hearings and testimonies and a lot of time out in the public. I’m not underestimating how passionate the labor movement feels about this issue and that’s why we have to work very hard at winning the messaging side of it. One of my goals is to convince them that I think this is good for Michigan, good for jobs, good for families and good for unions.

I want unions to be absolutely free to make their free market case that they have a valued proposition to deliver to prospective union members and letting those prospective union members choose to belong, not forced to belong.”

Proponents of Right to Work say the laws open up the marketplace, making it more competitive in drawing new employers to a region. They say it is also about the right of workers to associate as they choose. In this instance, that would mean requiring a person desiring to be part of the union to directly pay the union his or her dues.

Critics say the laws drive down wages, bust unions and ultimately allow some workers to benefit from the union’s collective bargaining without paying the cost of the negotiations.

“Right to Work advocates do not want to pay their fair share,” says Byrd. “Their cause is — quite frankly — morally bankrupt.”

Brewer called the move toward Right to Work “punitive” and an “ideological attack” on workers.

Bryd and Brewer were not alone in condemning Shirkey. David Holtz, executive director of Progress Michigan, also chastised the state representative.

“Mike Shirkey’s hypocrosy and greed is there for all to see,” said Holtz. “In Representative Shirkey’s world, taking taxpayer subsidies to create jobs then laying people off and championing legislation to crush unions and workers’ rights is just another day in the life, which is unfortunate for the lives of Michigan’s struffling working families.”

While the Michigan Democratic Party announced this week that it would hold a caucus rather than a primary to select delegates for the Democratic National Convention in 2012, but the state GOP is apparently leaning toward holding a traditional primary.

The MDP has publicly called on the Republicans to hold a caucus rather than a primary because it will save the state millions of dollars, and the Detroit News reports that there are many in the state GOP who prefer a caucus as well.

Many Republicans from the party’s conservative tea party wing, who support candidates such as Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota or Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, prefer a caucus — based on party meetings at the precinct level — to determine the presidential delegates and believe a primary favors frontrunner Mitt Romney, who appeals to a broader political spectrum.

But the party is likely to go with a primary instead because of the advantages it may provide them over the Democrats:

But the prospect of holding a handful of recall elections for GOP and Democratic state lawmakers at the same time as a presidential primary expected to draw far more Republicans than Democrats is a recent development that’s making the primary more attractive.

“That works against the Democrats by a four-to-one margin,” said attorney Stu Sandler, a state party consultant who recently stepped down as interim executive director and is organizing recall efforts against more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers.

Of course, one reason the Democrats can go with a caucus instead of a primary is because President Obama is the incumbent and there will likely be no serious Democratic challengers. That makes any primary fairly pointless.

The Michigan Democratic Party today refused to confirm a report that party chair Mark Brewer has ruled out supporting efforts to recall elected officials and repeal the Emergency Manager law.

Eclectablog reported today:

I have received information that Michigan Democratic Party chair, Mark Brewer, met with at least some Benton Harbor City Commissioners this week. By now, you’ve probably hear that these Commissioners have been relieved of duty by Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) Joseph Harris.

At that meeting, I am told, Brewer stated that the MDP will not be supporting any of the recall efforts around the state to recall vulnerable Republicans and Governor Rick Snyder or the effort to citizens’ effort to repeal the new EFM law.

MDP spokesman John Tramontana would not confirm that report.

“Historically the Michigan Democratic Party has not been supportive of any recall effort against any elected office holder,” he said. “We think it should be up to the voters, we are focusing on issues.”

Tramontana said the Democrats believe recall “should be restricted to misfeasance in office.”

“We have been on record against the EFM legislation that the Republicans passed.”

“In terms of moving a ballot initiative or litigation,” he said, “we don’t discuss strategy moving forward.”

Tramontana would not say whether the state Democrats have any plan to address the new law that allows the governor to appoint people to take over local governments and schools.

In a letter to Federal Election Commission yesterday the Democrats noted that federal law prohibits congressional candidates from using non-commercial aircraft during a campaign and pointed out that Benishek has acknowledged traveling in a plane that is reportedly owned by Steven Zurcher, an Upper Peninsula Republican delegate.

“Benishek has admitted on his Facebook page and to the Petoskey News-Review that he has used private aircraft at least three (3) times during his campaign for Congress, and we suspect he has done so many more times,” MPD Chair Mark Brewer said in a statement. “… Ignorance of the law is no defense. Dan Benishek is a millionaire doctor who can certainly afford the legal advice to make sure that his campaign is complying with federal law.”

In a statement to the Detroit News Benishek Treasurer Joe Shubat characterized use of the plane as a mistake by a political outsider.

“The candidate has never run for office before, and our operation was not aware of the recent change in regulations regarding air travel.”

This is not an easy task. They need to find someone willing to jump into the race with only two weeks left before the election, preferably someone with some name recognition to have some chance of being competitive.

“It allows the Center and voters to keep candidates honest on the campaign trail,” said John Bebow, executive director of the Center for Michigan, a non-partisan think tank founded in 2006 with the mission to “assist our state through its current period of wrenching economic trouble and to lay the foundation of informed hope for a better future Michigan.”

The Michigan Truth Squad website came online in June, before many of the primary contests in the state really started heating up. But as the Aug. 3 primary draws closer and the pressure goes up, Bebow says he expects the things to “get nasty.”

Not that they already haven’t. The group’s two referees, freelance journalist and former business columnist Rick Hagland and syndicated columnist Susan Demas, have scored 26 commercials, fliers, websites and other forms of political communication.

Demas says the writers spend several hours researching each advertisement for honesty, reviewing news reports, court and other official records. Then they score the claims with a rating of no foul, warning, technical foul, foul or flagrant foul.

Those categories are defined as:

Flagrant Foul: A statement that distorts or incorrectly states a fact involving an individual. It’s one thing to point out differences between candidate’s records. It’s another for a candidate to attack an opponent with false information or to inaccurately present his or her own political record.

Technical Foul: A statement that implies something that isn’t quite true and deserves additional explanation, or that is entirely false.
Foul: A statement that distorts or incorrectly states a fact involving policy.

Warning: A statement that could easily be misconstrued, but is generally truthful.

No Foul: Not every tough political ad is a foul. Sometimes the Truth Squad will review an ad and find that it is, indeed, totally accurate, even if it is not nice.

Of the 26 political ads reviewed by the team, 17 have been labeled as some sort of foul — breaking out as four technical fouls, 10 fouls, and 3 flagrant fouls. They have also issued five warnings, and four no fouls.

Both Demas and Bebow pointed to many of the negative spots flooding the airwaves in the Republican gubernatorial race, primarily from third party groups rather than from the campaigns themselves, as examples of ads that distort reality.

Demas pointed to ads by a group called Americans for Job Security. The two spots the group has run, both aimed at Rep. Pete Hoekstra, have been labeled “foul” by Michigan Truth Squad, and the first ad — “Disappointed” — was withdrawn from three West Michigan television stations.

The organization shares the same Virginia mailing address as WWP Strategies, which is a paid consultant to the Cox campaign. That address is also shared by Crossroads Media, which created the ads. Despite those coincidences the Cox campaign denies any involvement with Americans for Job Security.

“That’s another thing we’re trying to do with the Truth Squad, is track these [independent] groups down,” says Demas.

“Those are out of state groups inserting themselves in our elections,” says Bebow. “If you’re not ticked off by those ads, then you’re not paying attention.”

Another example of an independent group engaged in the campaign is the Michigan Civic Educational Fund, which has launched a website and radio commercial attacking Republican Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. The radio commercial, which has since been removed from the airwaves, alleges Bouchard had an affair with an employee of the department he manages. The Truth Squad labeled the ad a flagrant foul, calling it “one of the worst kinds of political sleaze.”

That group also has shadowy ties to the Cox campaign, and again the Cox team denies its involvement in the ads.

But some of the distortions are not about a candidate’s opponents; some of them are about the candidates themselves and their track record.

The Truth Squad called a foul on Republican Secretary of State candidate Michelle McManus for her own website. On the site she labels the massive Service Employees International Union(SEIU) and the disbanded Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) “extremists” that have “broken election law.” Neither group has been charged or convicted of election fraud, the Truth Squad reports.

But it is not just Republicans or independent groups acting in the Republican primaries the group is taking on. In a June piece, the Truth Squad took on the Michigan Democratic Party and press releases it send out about state Sen. Cameron Brown (R-Fawn Township) and Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson, both Republican candidates for Secretary of State. The Truth Squad called a foul on those press releases.

These releases from the MDP contain personal attacks and catchy quotes. They criticize Johnson and Brown on important policy questions, but do not provide any information on early voting proposals or Driver Responsibility Fees. The releases feature fleeting references to policy as a means to tear into Republican candidates.

Demas says that with greater volume and variety of political advertisements these days it is increasingly important to have independent groups fact checking the claims. She pointed to the role of groups like FactCheck.org on the national level. And she noted that the Associated Press does a generalized review of ads in its Ad Check program. But the Truth Squad is focused on the Michigan election only.

Bebow says the group will rate an advertisement a day until the November election. The group is asking Michigan residents to tip them off to misleading ads, and is offering prizes for the tip of day, tip of the month and a grand prize for the best tip this election.

Comedian Judy Tenuta makes fun of Scott Withers at fundraiser (Photo by Todd Heywood)

Withers, 37, is a high energy, balding man. Michigan Messenger caught up with him Sunday in Flint at a fundraiser featuring comedian Judy Tenuta.

To give you an idea of how much institutional weight his opponent has behind him, Withers said that on May 12, the day after he filed to run, he received a call from Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer.

“On Wednesday, Mark Brewer called me and immediately asked me to drop out,” Withers said. “I had never met him before and he said, ‘You need to drop out, we need to protect this seat for our incumbent Congressman.’”

Brewer spokesman John Tramontana declined to comment on the call.

The 5th district includes rural Tuscola county, Genesee County (including Flint), Saginaw and Bay City, making it a truly diverse district with economic issues from rural agricultural to Flint’s auto industry.

Kildee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website, raised just over $300,000 this cycle, and has $734,109 on hand rolling into the August primary. Of that $300,000 raised, the website notes, 54 percent came from Political Action Committees, 40 percent in individual donations, and another four percent in the “other” category.

Withers, on the other hand, raised just under $9,000. Of that money, 60 percent came from individuals, 27 percent from Political Action Committees, and 13 percent from Withers’ own pocket. He had $1,280 on hand as of campaign report filings March 31, 2010.

Withers acknowledges the struggle against Kildee is a David v. Goliath scenario, but he also notes the clear differences between the two candidates. First on that list: Withers is pro-choice.

“This will be the first time in some people’s lives where they have had the choice to vote for a pro-choice candidate in this district,” Withers said.

Withers is the first out gay man in Michigan to seek a Congressional seat. If he wins, he would join Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Jared Polis (D-CO) as openly gay legislators in Washington. Withers said he was hoping for strong support from the LGBT community in the primary.

Once in office, he said, he hoped to push the Obama administration to take stronger action on a range of issues that impact LGBT people, including repealing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and advocating for a more forceful reaction to Uganda’s proposed anti-gay law that would result in many homosexuals being put to death.

But don’t expect his sexuality to be the core issue on the campaign trail. Withers says he is focused on jobs for the district and addressing the economic crisis Michigan continues to suffer through. During a wide-ranging interview Sunday, Withers talked about the need for a nationwide foreclosure moratorium, program incentives to allow city and township employees to purchase homes with low down payment costs and loans, foreclosed properties, and the need to diversify Michigan’s economy.

“It’s gone, and it’s not coming back,” Withers said of the auto industry. “Michigan needs to not only be putting up wind turbines, but we need to be building them too. We have to think outside the box.”

And that kind of thinking is exactly what has motivated him to run for Congress, he said. He noted that he supports term limits for Congress — saying if “eight years is good enough for President, why not for Congress?” Withers said such a move would foster innovation, new thinking and that proverbial “outside the box” set of solutions.

The winner of the August primary will go on to face the winner of the Republican primary in the November general election. The GOP primary features former auto executive Rick Wilson squaring off with John Kupiec. Kupiec has not filed any campaign reports as of yet, while Wilson’s shows he has raised $18,888. Of that, $1,379 came from individual donors, the rest was donated by him. He had $5,787 on hand as of March 31, 2010.

The secretary of state vote was overwhelming for Benson, a 32-year-old Detroit resident and Wayne State University law professor, who swamped Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey by a 95%-5% margin.

But the race for attorney general was far closer. Leyton, 56, a Flint Township resident and Genesee County prosecutor, beat Richard Bernstein, a member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors, by a 52%-47% margin.

These are not the official nominees for those seats for the party; the official nominations will not be decided until the regular party convention in August. But the opponents of the winners for both positions — Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey for secretary of state and Richard Bernstein for attorney general — agreed to step aside and allow Benson and Leyton to focus their efforts on defeating the Republican opposition for those seats.

These allegations first came to light with an article in the Daily Caller last week, which we reported on at the time. The Michigan GOP denies any wrongdoing in the matter, but now the FEC will presumably open an investigation reach its own conclusion.

The Daily Caller cited an unnamed source within the GOP:

“It was a known secret that a deal had been struck on the topic,” a former RNC official confirmed to The Daily Caller.

“I think the benefit to them was them getting guaranteed money,” the source said of the Michigan GOP, “and the benefit to the RNC was getting higher fundraising numbers.”

The article also noted that FEC reports showed that a group of Michigan donors all maxed out their contributions to the RNC in the last days of 2009, donating nearly half a million dollars collectively. The RNC then transferred that money back to the state party in two payments in early 2010.

Gerry Hebert, one of the nation’s foremost election law experts and executive director of the Campaign Legal Center told the Michigan Messenger, “As for the chances of success, it seems to us as if it’s a violation of the statutory prohibition on contributions in the name of another (the original source donors making contributions to the state party committee in the name of the RNC) to circumvent (and in violation of) the $10,000 state party contribution limit.”

“I just want to make sure everyone is aware the U.S. Census is not to come out until March and it is a 10 question survey,” Byrum said. “It is imperative everyone fill out the survey so we don’t miss out on any federal dollars.”

This issue has been raging all over the country because the document contains elements that could cause confusion. As MSNBC points out, the questionnaire is sent out in plain white envelopes marked “Do Not Destroy, Official Document” and is labeled “2010 Congressional District Census.” It also includes a “Census Tracking Code.”

But there are clear differences as well. The document asks questions such as what a person’s political affiliation is, what media outlets are watched, and whether the Obama administration is working. Those questions, Byrum said, would not be found on the real census form.

“It will be a 10 question survey asking how many people live in the house, whether you own or rent, that sort of thing,” Bryum said. “Not political questions.”

Calls to the Michigan Republican Party’s spokeswoman Jennifer Hoff were not returned, but the RNC has defended the mailer, telling MSNBC that the document “clearly indicates that it is an RNC mailer.” The U.S. Postal Service has also concluded that the mailer did not violate the law.

But whether it’s a technical violation or not, Byrum worries that some less attentive people might fill out the false census form for the GOP, then be less likely to respond when the actual census documents arrive from the federal government. That, she said, would cost Michigan tens of thousands of dollars per person.

The Census is used by the government to apportion Congressional seats and distribute funds for programs such as health, housing and transportation. The higher the census numbers are, the more money the state becomes eligible for under federal funding formulas.

And her concern does not appear to be merely hypothetical. Byrum said that at one of her district coffee hours last Friday, she had an elderly woman approach her with the RNC document. “She was honestly a bit confused. She didn’t know if she was supposed to fill it out,” Byrum said of the constituent. “I think she was skeptical.”

The GOP document is the only census related situation Byrum said she knew of, but worried that unscrupulous people could run scams using the idea in the future. “This could be the tip of the iceberg,” she said, noting that the GOP mailer asks the respondent to provide bank account and credit card information. That information could be used by scam artists to steal some one’s identity.

Byrum encourages anyone with questions about the U.S. Census to visit the website at 2010.census.gov.