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Dirty Politics Can't Stop Taxpayers

By John P. Krudy 

Petitions provide citizens an important check on elected officials, forcing politicians to abide by the will of the people instead of the will of the government. But voters trying to recall the Michigan House speaker by petition have found their opponents aren’t so concerned with the democratic process.         

“They’re using lies and any means necessary to stop us,” said Rose Bogaert, Chair of the Wayne County Taxpayers Association. Bogaert and her friends began an effort to recall Representative Andy Dillon (D-Redford Township) of the 17^th District after he and his partners in the Michigan House approved the Michigan Business Tax in 2007.         

Michigan currently leads the nation in unemployment and outward-bound moves. Residents perpetually face outsourced jobs, low wages, and poor job markets. But rather than act to improve business conditions in the state, Michigan Democrats decided to penalize the corporations that sign the checks. The new law raised the state income tax from 3.9 to 4.35 percent, and business taxes by 22 percent.         

Bogaert said Dillon had told her personally that he would not vote to raise taxes.         

“After he did, we sat and talked again,” she said. “But I didn’t feel the reasons he gave were adequate, so we decided to start the recall petition.”         

“It’s gone better than what one would expect, given the intensity of the blocking,” said Leon Drolet, president of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance (MTA). Bogaert asked the MTA to assist after petition work became too intense for her small committee.         

Bogaert described the opposition’s tactics as “really rough,” employing “blockers” to disrupt efforts to gather signatures or dissuade citizens from listening to the circulators.         

“We’ll have some people on a sidewalk or at a storefront, and a bunch of blockers will show up with signs, getting in our way and complaining to the store owner,” she said. “Or we’ll go to a door to circulate a petition, and a blocker will try to jump in front of us and give [the resident] a flyer.”        

The flyers are as desperate as the hooligans passing them out. Emblazoned across the top are the words ‘WARNING: YOU MAY BE BREAKING THE LAW’; later paragraphs allege that circulators are likely ineligible to gather signatures, and list the myriad of fines and jail terms signers could receive.         

But those allegations, Bogaert says, are unfounded. While some outside groups are providing assistance for the petition drive, the circulators themselves are perfectly eligible to canvass.        

“The people who are collecting signatures are citizens registered to vote in the district,” she said.         

In fact, the blockers’ identities tend to be more intriguing. One has a confirmed criminal record. Some are, by Dillon’s admission, House staffers, though he has said they’re working on their own time. Dillon’s press secretary did not return repeated calls for comment.        

Drolet has stories of police behavior that are even more troubling. He said some circulators were canvassing for signatures in front of a party store in Redford (with the owner’s permission), when a police car rolled up, parking across the street. Then another arrived, followed by a third, and a fourth.         

“One of the officers walked over and asked our people what they were doing,” Drolet said. “He told them, overly nicely, to ‘have a nice day,’ but he didn’t seem to mean it.”

Drolet said that Dillon staffer Joan Gebhardt and four other blockers showed up five minutes later.         

Coincidence? Drolet thinks that Dillon supporter Miles Handy, a Redford Township supervisor, is using police to spot for the blockers.         

“It’s as though the cops are calling the robbers, to help them out,” Drolet said. Handy failed to return repeated calls for comment.         

Other citizens in the 17^th District got robo-calls from Rich Weiler, president of the Michigan Association of Police Organizations. The calls are short, but intimidating and inaccurate; Weiler’s stern and gruff voice curtly tells the listener that “extremist” groups are circulating a petition, and repeatedly stresses “Michigan troopers’ and officers’” support for Dillon. (Drolet pointed out that his team has had no problems with police in cities besides Redford.)         

It would seem that all these efforts might curtail the gathering effort. But they haven’t. While Drolet admits the canvassers might have gained twice the signatures had they not faced such intimidating tactics, his group was able to turn in the 8,724 required signatures on May 1, within 90 days of the drive’s start in February.        

While the busy work of gathering signatures is over, the summer promises no rest for Bogaert, Drolet, and the interested taxpayers of the 17^th District. They now face a two-front battle, proving the legality of their petition in the inevitable court actions Dillon supporters will bring, and also working to defeat Dillon on the August 5 primary ballot. (Drolet said his group has pushed to force a decision on the August 5 ballot, since it will minimize costs to taxpayers.) But they’re not worried.         

“If we stick to the truth,” Drolet said, “then we win. They have to distract and block and sue to have any chance of winning.”