Gov. Whitmer says officeholders' secret fundraising 'ripe for scrutiny'

Delta Township — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the top elected official in Michigan, said lawmakers' secret fundraising through nonprofit organizations was "ripe for scrutiny' on Monday, six days after criminal charges were unveiled against former House Speaker Lee Chatfield.

In brief question and answer session with reporters after a press conference in Delta Township on infrastructure investments, Whitmer, a Democrat, didn't specifically endorse or reject the idea of forcing nonprofits tied to officeholders to disclose their donors. But Whitmer said she wanted to see "what we could get done" on the topic.

"I'm always eager to see if we can improve a system so that people can have a better idea of what's really going on," Whitmer said.

Whitmer's comments were significant because her positions often drive policy decisions in Lansing, where Democrats control the state House and Senate, and because she is connected to the largest officeholder-associated nonprofit account in Michigan.

The Whitmer-aligned organization named Road to Michigan's Future reported raising $12.9 million in 2022 from contributors whose names didn't have to be disclosed publicly. The 2022 tax filing from Road to Michigan's Future is the most recent currently available from the group, a 501(c)(4) organization regulated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Last week, Attorney General Dana Nessel, who's also a Democrat, announced 13 criminal charges against Chatfield, a Republican from Levering. Chatfield allegedly got kickbacks from his associates and used $132,000 from his nonprofit organization, named the Peninsula Fund, to pay off his personal Chase credit card, Nessel's office said.

Chatfield and his wife, Stephanie Chatfield, who was also charged last week, became the fourth and fifth Michigan political figures to face criminal allegations in the last five months for misusing nonprofit money.

The others are Rob and Anne Minard, staffers who worked for Chatfield, and Heather Lombardini, a prominent Republican fundraiser in Lansing who worked with former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake.

The Minards and Lombardini have pleaded not guilty. Lee Chatfield's lawyer, Mary Chartier, has denied that her client did anything illegal. Chatfield is scheduled to be arraigned May 2 on the charges in Ingham County District Court.

For years, Michigan's elected leaders on both sides of the aisle have allowed themselves to raise unlimited contributions through nonprofit social welfare organizations without having to report specifics about how they use the money and whether the individuals giving it have ties to policies before them.

More:How Chatfield aides allegedly used secret political cash for Hawaii trip, Gucci, meals

More:In Lansing, Michigan lawmakers face reckoning on their secret fundraising

More:Nessel: Secret donors are influencing policy decisions in Lansing

Nessel, Michigan's top law enforcement official, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's top elections official, have both called for reforms in recent days.

Nessel told a state House committee on Thursday that her office's investigations had made it clear that "powerful interests" had avoided disclosure while working to sway elections and public policy. Nessel argued that in a state where no one can monitor the movement of political money, there are no guardrails.

"Retail fraud crimes rose dramatically when stores removed cashiers from checkout lanes and replaced them with self-checkout systems," Nessel said. "The temptation for customers to steal with no one to check if they were paying for their purchases or to stop them if they failed to was simply too great.

"So here we are with the honor system for our Michigan campaign finance laws that have been implemented."

cmauger@detroitnews.com