Dark cloud money limit12/20/2023 Many dark money funds operating today are swimming in cash. “What does one give $50,000 to a politician for, unless one wants something?” Marsden asked. Reached by phone, former fund president Steve Linder said he had no comment about how the fund operated. The bill got to the Senate floor, but did not pass. Rick Snyder and build a new hospital in Independence Township.Īround the same time, they dumped six-figure donations into the Jobs and Labor Foundation, the non-profit linked to senate Republicans. In 2014, Marsden says McLaren Health was pushing for legislation to go around then-Gov. “You can’t show a $700 dinner out bar tab on your campaign finance report,” Marsden said, “because someone like me who does opposition research would love to see that.”ĭonors to the fund, according to Marsden, were “folks with very special interests, certain interests.” Just like donors, expenses are not required to be disclosed beyond reporting totals spent in broad categories once a year. “What I think began to happen with the (non-profits) is they began to be used for more personal use than they were for messaging use,” Marsden said. “This is a way that corporations and businesses can completely circumvent the campaign finance system, yet still benefit politicians all out of the public eye,” Schuster said.ĭuring the end of Marsden’s tenure in Lansing, while working for Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, he said the use of non-profit funds grew exponentially. Schuster of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network say that secrecy allows donors to have unseen access to politicians. Unlike campaign funds, non-profit funds like these don’t have to disclose who their donors are, and all but a select few do.Ĭampaign finance watchdogs like Simon D. ![]() ![]() The fund’s president was Lansing fundraiser Steve Linder and it reported taking in nearly $2.8 million in anonymous donations between 20. Related: Duggan once ripped ‘secret funds.’ Today, he ducks questions about his own.ĭuring the end of Marsden’s time in the Senate, he says he was troubled by how a fund used to benefit senate Republicans, the Michigan Jobs and Labor Foundation, operated. That’s not the way Lansing used to work.” This is just the way it works,’” Marsden said. “If you’re a 33-year-old or 34-year-old person elected to office and you hire a consultant that tells you ‘Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it. ![]() Once novel, Marsden says the funds are now a valuable tool in lawmakers’ toolbox. They started to pop up in 2010 following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed for unlimited, anonymous donations to political non-profits. Today, non-profits like the Peninsula Fund can be found all over the state capital, used by Democrats and Republicans alike. ![]() “Over my time in Lansing, I began to watch the 501(c)(4)s begin to morph into something that was a little less above board,” Marsden said in a recent interview with 7 Action News.įor seven years, he served in the offices of three different Republican senate majority leaders and was something of a fixture in Lansing politics. Related: Questions swirl over how ex-Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield used PAC funds While Chatfield raised significant funds through campaign accounts and political action committees, the Peninsula Fund-a 501(c)(4) group categorized as a social welfare organization-disclosed taking in nearly $753,482 in anonymous donations in 2020, spending $142,266 on travel and entertainment for public officials alone.Ĭhatfield’s attorney says her client believes the fund followed the law. The longtime Michigan GOP insider has watched the allegations against Lee Chatfield by his sister-in-law first that he raped her when she was a minor, and later that the former lawmaker had “misappropriated funds from a number of regulated sources,” according to her attorney. (WXYZ) - Swirling questions over whether Michigan’s former House Speaker misused funds from a shadowy non-profit fund are disappointing to Matt Marsden, but not surprising.
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