News from
THE MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                      
Contact: Liz Kerr
517-371-5410
April 28, 2008

Recalls Raised Almost Half of Money From Out of State, Only $5 from Dillon’s District

Recall campaign gave more than $77,000 to signature firm with record of fraud

LANSING — Out-of-state forces provided nearly half of the money raised for the group leading the effort to recall House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford), according to campaign finance reports released Friday.

The recall campaign only raised $5 from Dillon’s State House district.

Michigan Recalls Organization, led by Leon Drolet, raised $103,191.76 between Oct. 29, 2007, and April 20, 2008, according to Secretary of State records. Of that, $46,000 came from high-powered interests from outside Michigan.

Leading the list of contributors was Michael Dunmire, an investment banker from Woodinville, Wash., who gave Drolet $25,000. Other big-money donors from outside Michigan include Leigh Rodney of Zephyr Cove, Nev. ($10,000); Paul Farago from Asheville, N.C. ($5,000); and Ethelmae Humphreys of Joplin, Mo. ($5,000).

“The people of Andy Dillon’s district need to know that deep pockets from outside Michigan are meddling in their community and trying to take away their voice,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Andy Dillon’s family has served this community for two generations — he doesn’t take orders from out-of-state moneymen, and neither do voters in the 17th District.”

Three-quarters of Michigan Recalls Organization’s money was given to National Ballot Access, a Georgia-based signature gathering firm whose owners have been involved in numerous fraudulent signature drives.

National Ballot Access’s owners, Andrea Pauline Verougstraete and Mary “Edee” Baggett, have a “long history of allegedly engaging in initiative fraud,” according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group (www.stopballotfraud.com). Verougstraete was heavily involved in the fraudulent effort to get the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on Michigan’s ballot in 2006.

Brewer said Verougstraete and Baggett are up to their old tricks and continue to break Michigan election law by busing in petition gatherers from outside Dillon’s district.

“This all goes to show there’s a serious lack of support for this recall among the voters of Redford Township, Dearborn Heights and Livonia,” Brewer said of the recall campaign, which is paying signature gatherers $6 per signature. “Voters in the 17th District will not stand for outsiders coming into their neighborhood and telling them what to do.”

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Paid for by the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee, 606 Townsend St., Lansing, MI  48933. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.