LANSING, Mich., July 21,
2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- When Byrum and Fisk Advocacy
Communications and their employee, Thomas Morgan, were creating a
PowerPoint presentation on a government reform ballot proposal back on
November 21, 2007, at 4:08 p.m., little did they know it would come
back to bite them, reports the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
That PowerPoint
presentation -- entitled, "Government Reform Proposal: Changing the
rules of politics to help Democrats" -- was found last week by the
Mackinac Center for Public Policy on a United Auto Worker's Region 1-C
website. The creation date, time and author show up on the document
properties of the PowerPoint presentation.
The date the PowerPoint
presentation was created is significant, notes Bob LaBrant, Senior Vice
President of Political Affairs & General Counsel for the Michigan
Chamber, because this would have required Reform Michigan Government
Now! (RMGN) to both file as a ballot question committee in 2007 and to
file an annual report disclosing their contributors and expenditures.
"If the PowerPoint
presentation was the 'smoking gun' that blew away Diane Byrum's and
Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney's assertion that the ballot
initiative was somehow a bi-partisan reform proposal, the creation date
of the PowerPoint presentation proves conclusively that RMGN was
required to file as a ballot question committee in 2007, not as they
did on February 22, 2008 when their statement of organization was filed
with the Secretary of State," LaBrant stated. "If RMGN had registered
back in 2007 as required, they would have been required to file an
annual report that was due January 31, 2008 disclosing their
contributors and expenditures."
LaBrant noted that both
Byrum and Brewer have strangely refused to disclose who the funders are
behind the Reform Michigan Government Now! initiative, cynically saying
that they would be disclosed when the committee is required to report
in late September or early October ... "their post-qualification or,
increasingly likely, non-qualification report."
The PowerPoint presentation
contains a slide that discloses that the Washington, D.C. research firm
of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner did two statewide surveys and nine focus
groups between May and November 2007 testing out the various concepts
contained in the ballot proposal.
"A research project of that
scope has been estimated by other pollsters to cost at least
$75,000-$100,000 or more -- well over the $500 threshold that requires
registration as a ballot question committee," noted LaBrant.
The Michigan Chamber is
currently preparing a complaint on this campaign finance violation and
expects to file it with the Secretary of State later this week.
In recent media reports,
Lieutenant Governor John Cherry disclosed that both he and Governor
Jennifer Granholm invested some of their political money (Leadership
PACs? Candidate committees?) in developing the plan. "We participated
in an effort to do research, polling, focus groups, etc.," Cherry
recently told the Detroit Free Press, "We had some concern about the
direction it was going."
"Strangely, a review of JDC
Genesee Fund (Cherry Leadership PAC) or the Cherry for Lieutenant
Governor Committee, does not show any expenditure in 2007 or 2008 for
research," said LaBrant.
"U.S. Senator Howard Baker,
during the 1973 Watergate hearings, is most remembered for his repeated
question, 'What did the President know, and when did he know it?'" said
LaBrant. "Perhaps 'PowerPoint-gate' will lead to a similar question
being asked of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor: 'When and in what
amount did they contribute, and to whom did they write the check?'"
The Michigan Chamber of
Commerce is a statewide business advocacy organization representing
over 7,000 employers of every type and size in all 83 counties in
Michigan.
Paid for with regulated funds by Michigan Chamber PAC II, 600 South Walnut Street, Lansing, MI. 48933
SOURCE Michigan Chamber of Commerce
http://www.michamber.com
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