| In an update to a story I brought you last week, the Traverse City Record-Eagle has published an editorial calling on Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to launch a real (as opposed to toothless) investigation into alleged campaign finance violations in the Meijer-Acme fiasco.
From the Record-Eagle's editorial page:
Rodgers said that under the state campaign finance act, only the secretary of state can seek a criminal investigation of possible violations. But given Land's longtime links to Meijer and her seeming laissez-faire attitude about the whole episode, it would be a wonder if she pushed to know more than she's been told.
For the record, Terri Land has received $9400 from Meijer employees and PACs since 2001, and Mike Cox has received over $16,000.
Every indication is that Land will send out a sternly-worded press release about the sanctity of the election process and then levy a paltry -- and given Meijer's colossal income, anything less than a few millions would be paltry -- fine.
At which time we'll all be shocked...shocked, I tell ya.
Michelle McManus doesn't get off easily, either:
Incredibly, that's also the attitude of state Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, who uttered one of those totally inane assertions that serve only to change the subject: "Campaign finance laws are about transparency, they are not about criminal action," she said. Right. Except when they are about criminal actions, of course. That's why state law, as weak as it is, allows the secretary of state to ask the attorney general to conduct criminal probes of suspected campaign law violations.
Go. Read the whole thing. The Record-Eagle's editorial staff is awesome, and the editorial is worth a read. |
