Secretary of State Candidate Ann Norlander (R) Falsely Claims Endorsement from two County Officials

by: Menhen

Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 20:05:06 PM EDT

The first thing that jumped out at me was that Norlander listed Patricia Manley (D) as an endorser.  Manley is Marquette County's Register of Deeds, although on Norlander's website she is also listed as "Marquette County Clerk."  This is not correct, as Connie Branham (D) is the Marquette County Clerk.  In 2008, Manley was re-elected as Marquette County register of deeds unopposed.  Suspicious about why she, a Democrat, would endorse Norlander, a Republican, I decided to contact Ms. Manley.

Dear Ms. Manley,

As you likely know, your name is listed on the website of Ann Norlander for Secretary of State as an endorser of her campaign.  Some of the endorsements on her website have been found to be incorrect or misleading, so I am writing to confirm that you did indeed endorse Ms. Norlander, who is a Republican.  I thought it strange that your name is on her website, as you most recently ran as a Democrat, although I have no problem with you endorsing her from across the aisle.  Please, when you have time, confirm to me that you did indeed endorse Ms. Norlander for Secretary of State.

This morning, I received the following reply:

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I do know Anne & certainly respect & admire her. I had stated support for her about 8 years ago when she was in the run with Terry Land. I will make sure I contact Anne. I am so thrilled with Jocelyn Benson, I will do everything I can to help her out. She will be an outstanding Secretary.

Indeed.  So my suspicions were confirmed.  Patty Manley did not endorse Ann Norlander for Secretary of State in 2009, but 8 years ago.  I would be inclined to give Norlander the benefit of the doubt say that she assumed that because Manley had endorsed her once, she would support her a second time.  I would be, if not for this.

Norlander actually lists a Date for the Manley endorsement.  And it's not a date in 2001, it's March 28, 2009.  Norlander's campaign falsely claims to be endorsed by Patty Manley, and even has the audacity to fabricate a date for this fictional endorsement.  

I assume that once Manley contacts Norlander, the endorsement will be removed from the website, so I took a screenshot of the endorsement page to prove that it exists, although at the time of the posting of this diary, the endorsement can still be found on Norlander's website. The image can be found here http://i564.photobucket.com/al...

As I continued to comb through the endorsement list for Upper Peninsula Counties, I found another endorsement that was misleading at best.  Norlander claims the endorsement of "Arlen Bright- Menominee Country Treasurer."  By this time, I was factchecking all of the endorsements, and I found that "Arlen Bright" is not Menominee County Treasurer.  Arlen Bright is not even an elected official in Menominee County.  He ran a badly losing campaign for Menominee County Drain Commissioner in 2008.  He lost the race for Drain Commissioner by a margin of 62-38.  Diane Lesperance (D) is Menominee County Treasurer, and she did not endorse Ann Norlander.  I can't imagine how Norlander gets "Treasurer" from "losing candidate for drain commissioner."  The image can be found here http://i564.photobucket.com/al...

There alone are two false or misleading endorsements, in the Upper Peninsula alone. I would encourage people to look at Norlander's endorsement list and do some factchecking of their own.