The Tale Of Michigan Political Consultants

There comes a time in every person's life when you are pushed to the brink of no return.  For me, this happened almost 10 years ago when I uncovered horrors which no human should ever experience were happening to children, condoned by political operatives for the almighty dollar.

That brink for me was refusing to remain silent and expose it for what it is.

Qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur.

With that said, allow me to tell the tale of political consulting in Michigan.

For those who do not know, I sit on the State Advisory Group for the Michigan Democratic Party so I know the Congressional Members, the Labor Union leaders and the head of the Democratic Party, Mark Brewer.

For the last two years I have been privileged to witness the group's complete apathy for Detroit and its people, all under the direction of political consultants.

Political consultants have run the show in Michigan for the last 10 years.  Some will say it is the reason the state went red.  Some will say it is the reason why there was a precipitous economic downturn for the state.  

This is the tale of Michigan Political Consultants.

Campaign Coordination Kickbacks

When someone wants to run for public office in Michigan, it has nothing to do about the needs or the will of the people.  It has nothing to do with the issues or a cause.  It has to do with who can pay a political consultant out of Lansing.  If you can do this, the Michigan Democratic Party will refer you to his buddies for a hefty polling contract to see if you are a viable candidate to raise enough money to pay the monthly fee for the political consultant who will more than likely work for another campaign to take out a colleague, not on principle but on for money.

The Janus Consulting Effect

The Janus Consulting Effect is what I have termed as a political consultant who is in a contractual relationship with one candidate and will use that candidate's resources while still on payroll to work for another candidate, even if that candidate is an opponent.

I present to you the Michigan Congressional race in District 8 where, for the pure sake of making money, Main Street Strategies and political consultant, Jim Lancaster, at the ninth hour decided to contract with Michael Magdich to challenge Congressional Candidate Lance Enderle  in the Democratic Primary who has a strong standing in the General Election against incumbent Mike Rogers (R).

There are rumors that Magdich was a Republican plant to split the Democratic base of resources, but that is only hearsay yet another plausible assumption to question the intentions of Michigan, or should I say Lansing, political consultants.

Races are open to all candidates but the intention to have Magdich make the Primary ballot was not the most pristine.  These political consultants knew they could make a fast buck on the side because Lancaster was on payroll of John Conyers, Jr., at the same time, using his resources.  The point is moot because Magdich's political consultants' shoddy petition nomination signature collection was easily challenged and he was booted from the ballot.

 The Snake Oil Salesmen

The Snake Oil Salesman is the political consultant who uses fancy pictures and drops technical words to sell to his clients why he charges so much.

Below is a study on the Michigan 13th Congressional race done exclusively for Fox 2 Detroit.  The study forecasts incumbent John Conyers, Jr. to win with a 48.21% to 20.68%, a 27.53 point margin lead over his main challenger, Glenn Anderson.

This is snake oil and this is why.  My expertise is research methodologies, in the political arena.

After cursory review of the study, I found biasness and internal/external validity errors.  The study did a random number call to 36,771 adults. Would you please tell me how you know these were adults?  I am quite sure people have a cell phone in their name for a child.

Only 643 responded, a rate of 1.7%.  This is not a good response rate to generate reliable results.  The typical response rate should be at least 30%. 

It gets better.  It says the survey was conducted in the geographic region of Detroit, 28 other cities, 11 other political regions and congressional districts.  Yes, "Congressional Districts" is plural and not all of Detroit is in the new 13th Congressional District.

When looking at the sample questions, not once was it asked if the respondent was a registered voter, let alone was a registered voter in the new Michigan 13th Congressional District.  This becomes a plausible explanation to the poor response rate: the respondents were not all constituents of the 13th District and were probably more focused on their own District, but this was not even mentioned.

The simple fact that this telephone survey was conducted in cities outside the 13th Congressional District also indicates why there was such a low response to recognition of Bert Johnson and a significant undecided rate of 22%.

This study cannot even be replicated.

As this was a privately commissioned survey, I am sure it will make for sensational media attention with post-election analysis.

Michigan 13th Congressional District Democratic Primary Election Polling Study conducted Exclusively for Fo...

Mephistopheles Campaign Management Services

Mephistopheles is the character from the story of Faust who bewitched the people to do the bidding of Faust in exchange for selling his soul.  Comparatively, this is what certain types of campaign managers do, but certainly not all when a candidate asks for help to win an election.

For this I refer to William Isaac Robinson who has pilfered the political legacy of John Conyers, Jr. to inure his mother, Rose Mary Robinson's political campaign.  It should not be a surprise.

Just as Mephistopheles warned Faust of contracting his services, Robinson did the same; he announced to the District that he had all intentions of taking John Conyers, Jr. out of office.

Here is a public example of just one of Robinsons nefarious activities.  When Robinson, who was employed through the Congressional Office, sent Mr. Conyers' nomination petitions to the printed by Hess Printing, the petition sheets were printed with the wrong Congressional District.  It was labeled the "14th" instead of the "13".  Under the leadership of Ed Sarpolus, campaign manager for Conyers for Congress and owner of Target Insyght, these nomination petitions were approved because he lives and works in Lansing and rarely ventures into the politically neglected land of Detroit.

With the foulest of language I was able to successfully persuade Mr. Conyers not to file the petitions because he would be disqualified as a candidate.

Then, at the final hour, Robinson and Sarpolus scramble to secure enough nomination petition signatures for Conyers to be on the ballot.  Robinson had everyone he knew to go out and secure signatures.  Even a few of Conyers staff were collecting petition signatures as Robinson and Sarpolus were promising to pay $1.00 a signature.  1051 signatures were verified and submitted to the Wayne County Clerk.

Being one to rule out all my assumptions that there were, again, issues with the nomination petitions, I went to the County clerk to pull the petitions.  Oddly,  I was denied but allowed to physically review the petitions.  There I saw that the signature of the circulator of all 63 nomination petition sheets was none other than of William Isaac Robinson.  I began to wonder why he would sign his name to have circulated petitions when he did not.  I can only assume he secured the $1.00 per signature payment for himself.

Soon enough, the Conyers for Congress FEC filings were published.  Upon review, it was found that many persons, including a political consulting company received disbursements for the purposes of "petition signature collection services".

So how is it Robinson could have circulated petitions, and Sarpolus hire his own company, Target Insyght, to verify the petition signatures when he was already paid as the campaign manager, when the FEC filings document others circulating petitions?

I can only guess Robinson's prediction will come to fruition.

There is more I can say but we shall await the outcomes to be.  The book is also in its making.

All I can do is tell it like it is to keep it real.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©