Democrats Have Scandals, Too

Tales of Entitlement and Expensive Coffee Pots

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In recent years, stories about political corruption in Lansing mostly have involved Republicans. Think former Senate Majority Leader Rick Johnson mumbling “I am a corrupt politician,” before going to federal prison for taking bribes.

Then there’s former Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, who, with his wife Stephanie, has been charged with multiple counts of embezzling state funds. His sister-in-law said he also sexually molested her when she was underage, but prosecutors declined to charge because of a lack of evidence.

But some Democrats also are no strangers to corruption, as a weird scandal unfolding in Oakland County north of Detroit has revealed. Oakland is Michigan’s richest and second most populous county, with more than 1.2 million people. Once a Republican stronghold, Oakland has become strongly Democratic as college-educated voters and professional women fled the GOP, and Democrats now solidly control the county commission, 12-7.

In recent months, Sheetz, a Pennsylvania-based firm which operates large gas station and convenience store plazas, has been trying to expand into suburban Detroit, despite the opposition from many residents who think they are not needed.

Some communities have turned them down, but the city of Royal Oak approved a Sheetz plaza for a crowded intersection, despite opposition from angry residents. That city is represented on the county commission by that body’s chair, Dave Woodward, a Democrat. After the vote, it was learned that Woodward is a paid consultant (he calls himself an “ambassador”) for Sheetz.

That looks to many like a clear conflict of interest, and not just Republicans. Two Democrats on the commission resigned from the Democratic caucus in protest, not only over the Sheetz issue but over the chair’s refusal to approve stronger ethical guidelines.

Not surprisingly, Woodward, who makes $82,000 from the county for what is really a part-time job, claims there is no conflict of interest, and so far, he has been unwilling to either step down from the commission or give up what seems to be really a lobbying job for Sheetz. Nor does there seem to be any way he can be sanctioned or removed. Michigan has been cited repeatedly in national surveys for having among the weakest ethical standards in the nation. Politicians of both parties make pledges to adopt stronger standards, but somehow, it never happens.

Michigan’s state senate did pass a bipartisan package of ethics reforms earlier this year, but when they reached the GOP-controlled house, Republicans seem to have lost interest.

There’s another scandal brewing that could spell potential trouble, or at least embarrassment, for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Fay Beydoun is a major Democratic donor who received, apparently with Ms. Whitmer’s approval, a $20 million grant from MEDC, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Governor Whitmer and Fay Beydoun

The grant was for a nonprofit company Beydoun runs, called Global Link International, and was to be used to drum up international business. But last year, reporters discovered Beydoun used some of the money to buy new office furniture and buy herself a $4,500 coffee pot. She was paying herself a salary of $550,000 a year, and spent $11,000 on a first-class plane ticket to Hungary. In June, after media pressure, MEDC canceled the grant, noting a number of other required procedures Beydoun did not follow, such as appointing a board of directors.

The state had so far given her the first $10 million, and Beydoun was ordered to repay $8.2 million of that. She apparently promised to so, but never did. Finally, in July, Governor Whitmer said she was glad the grant was canceled, was “very troubled” by the reporting on this, and said she hoped Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel would help recover the money.

The attorney general’s office then raided MEDC headquarters looking for records, but it’s not clear what they found.

The governor also claimed that the $20 million grant was put in the state budget by the Republicans, though she approved it.

According to Bill Ballenger, a former legislator and a political pundit for decades, the governor’s office has been telling legislators that the lawmakers have no right to “claw back” money appropriated in an earlier fiscal year. Ballenger sharply disagres.

“Heck yes, it can!” he wrote in his weekly newsletter, the Ballenger Report, adding that according to the Michigan constitution, “the Legislature has the power of the purse, and ultimately determines how government money is spent.”

How this will finally play out is unknown, as is the degree of long-term political damage it may do to Whitmer, who will leave office at the end of next year and may be running for president.

The governor’s emails, by the way, aren’t subject to public scrutiny. What is clear is that Michigan needs much stronger ethical standards. What’s not clear is if, or when, it might adopt them.