Several months ago I wrote in a post called Rick Snyder- Do Not Support that I didn't think people should support Rick Snyder in his race to be Governor of the state of Michigan because "he supports using human embryos to create stem cells for medical research, he promotes gay marriage, and that he supports race and gender preferences," because he donates his money to "socially progressive moderate candidates and John Dingell," and because he "is inexperienced." Click on the post above to see my sources.
I stand by those comments, but now have new reasons why I think people should not support Rick Synder for Governor of Michigan- because he paid college students to come to the Mackinac Policy Conference and then blackmailed them into voting for him in the straw poll.
The Detroit News reports today that Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Rick Snyder took first place in an exclusive Detroit News and WJR News/Talk 760 AM poll conducted this weekend at the Republican leadership conference on Mackinac Island. Out of 1244 votes cast, Snyder received 386, and his margin of victory over current Attorney General Mike Cox was 86 and over Oakland County Sheriff Micheal Bouchard was 88. That margin of victory was likely earned due to his underhanded and shady dealings with his paid help at the island.
This story is an exclusive and you won't read about it anywhere else on the web, but I heard the same story separately, unprompted, from over a dozen of Synder's own supporters on the Island, and then on the boat ride back to Mackinac City another dozen supporters verified the story when I asked them about it. And here is the story.
Synder paid his supporters to come up to Mackinac Island to support him and make it seem as if there was a groundswell of support for him in this state. Whereas most of the supporters for Cox, Bouchard, or even Congressman Pete Hoekstra were volunteers, Synder's were almost all paid supporters, who walked around the island trying to encourage people to vote for him in the straw poll. There was some sort of point system as well, where the more stuff they passed out the more points these young people would earn for some sort of prizes. This is bad, but is not the worse part.
But the worse part about Synder's behavior this weekend that was revealed to me was that Synder blackmailed his paid supporters into voting for him in the straw poll, threatening to kick them out of the street and out of their hotel rooms unless they voted for him.
Before these college and high school kids could get their room key after they had traveled up to Mackinac Island, they needed to show one of Synder's people a stamped and certified ballot that showed that they had voted for Synder. After these young people proved that they had voted for Synder in the straw poll, they would be allowed to have a room key and stay on the island. If they did not vote for him, they would be forced to purchase their own rooms at very high prices or sleep outside.
This was an organized underhand effort to win the straw poll through underhanded methods, and this type of behavior is deplorable, especially for a guy that is pretending to not be a typical politician and pretends to be above the usual partisan politics. This sort of behavior is underhanded, and was very demeaning and disrespectful to these young people who were just trying to earn a dollar.
These kids were disgusted with Michigan Governor-hopeful Rick Synder, and I am too- he should be ashamed of his behavior and how he treated these young people, and voters should not support his candidacy for office.
UPDATE: Although many people are trying to make me out to be some sort of slanderous extremist for my above post, I would just like to remind readers that I didn't go looking for this story- it found me. I'm just reporting what I was told separately by over a dozen Synder people. That's not to say though that my post totally captures Synder's behavior at the Mackinac Conference. In light of that, I would like to record some comments from Synder people who emailed me.
Apparently, the Rick for Michigan campaign did not pay its supporters to be there. The campaign covered the $100 registration for the conference and the $200/night hotel expenses, nothing more, nothing less. I'm not sure, but some of the other campaigns may also have done the same for their volunteers.
Synder's people did not treat everyone the same way with the voting. Some of his people received their hotel keys before they voted. They told us that we had to vote for Rick, but there were no threats to throw them out of the street if they voted the wrong way. The campaign relied on the honor system.
According to Synder's people, the point system that I described as being "bad" is actually an impressive use of technology. His website has more about it, and it does sound like an innovative way to use technology to track people and evaluate the performance of employees- but these were 'volunteers' and tracking people like sheep makes me a little leery of what view he has for the people of our great state.
UPDATE II: Via Red State comes this little interesting bit of information from The Oakland Press:
The following memo reached (Tim Skubick's) desk in which the Snyder folks look like their learned how to play politics in Chicago's Cook County which is notorious for questionable activity. In it Snyder supporters are advised that "you are in no way required to vote for any candidate, disclose or show your ballot to anyone."All nice and proper, with no gripes yet.All of you Synder people to wrote hate mail to me saying I made up the story and that Synder would never use people in such a manner- apology accepted.
But read on: "However, in order to remain eligible for Rick for Michigan receptions, ferry's (to and from the island) and hotel room, you must show your ballot to Rick's official representative at the ballot box…." And just to make sure none of the volunteers for Ricky didn't miss the point, they were asked to sign a document that was blunt: "I have read and understand that by staying in a Rick for Michigan sponsored hotel room and traveling on a Rick for Michigan ferry is contingent upon voting for Rick Snyder in the straw poll."
UPDATE III: Although I did not support Snyder in the primary and feel he is not a solid conservative Republican, he will make a considerably better Governor than Granholm and a way way way better Governor than the communist angry special-interest controlled Virg 'Job Killer' Bernero. So, consider everything I have said in the correct light- as bad as Rick is, Virg is a thousand times worse.
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