(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/08/2023) Amid 21 charges leveled against Anne and Robert Minard, the specter of 501c4 nonprofits has conjured up the ghost of allegations from election cycles past, including a complaint against two organizations backed by former Majority Leader Mike Shirkey.
The initial complaint against Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility and Michigan! My Michigan!, was filed by campaign finance attorney Bob LaBrant and former Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer. The complaints have been handed over to the Attorney General’s Office, which reported Monday that it expects to see a resolution within the next few months.
“If Shirkey and his c4s get away with this, that’s going to become the model for the way people fund ballot questions in this state and then all that is going to disappear. We’re never going to see who’s funding ballot questions in the state,” Brewer said.
The complaint alleges Shirkey used the two 501c4s to gather money from unknown sources that was then sent to fund Unlock Michigan during the 2020 election. Brewer said the issue became criminal when the people behind the nonprofits refused to disclose who the donors were during an agreement with the Secretary of State.
“That’s the bottom line,” Brewer said. “Disclose the donors because that’s what should have been done from the very beginning”.
MIRS reached out to Shirkey and Heather Lombardini, who was also named in the complaint, but did not hear back by publication time.
LaBrant said it was similar to what happened with a mysterious woman that donated $1 million to the Reproductive Freedom For All ballot question. He said she put the funding behind a limited liability corporation and was ultimately told she had to disclose who donated, create a ballot question under the eyes of the campaign finance disclosure and pay fines related to not filing campaign finance reports.
“It might be difficult for a legislator to go to some lobbyist and say ‘Hey why don’t you give money to my LLC rather than my 501c4,’ but guess what, a lot of people don’t know how to say no and as a result that can be a conceivable way that people will want to raise dark money and have zero – absolutely zero – insight as to who might be playing in this arena,” LaBrant said.
There were complaints filed against former House Speaker Lee Chatfield that his 501c4 was being used improperly. Those complaints led to the charges against the Minards.
“As it related to Chatfield, I mean that was basically a glorified slush fund to allow him to have frequent flier miles and nice hotel stays and wine and food,” LaBrant said.
Brewer said what enforcement of campaign finance laws has happened has been even-handed and there wasn’t anything that needed to be changed with the current laws. However, he said, there needed to be a step-up to the enforcement.
“They should go to jail, because that’s how you send a message, as well. There’s a wide variety of penalties here that I think if enforced, will provide the incentive to not break the law,” Brewer said.
