The Horrendous Campaign Finance Mess of Another Republican Candidate for the 80th House District Seat
This is, without a doubt, the single most convoluted political mess I have ever encountered.
Allegan County Commissioner James M. Storey was one of the first to announce for the special election in the 80th District of the Michigan House of Representatives and one of the last to file. Just before he actually filed, several media stories explained that Mr. Storey was late to file because he discovered outstanding fines against his campaign committee assessed by the Secretary of State. Mr. Storey “discovered a forgotten 33-year-old open campaign account with the Michigan Secretary of State’s office stemming from Storey’s failed 1982 state House bid to represent the eastern UP.”
Mr. Story “said he agreed to amend the reports for that committee and pay a $2,500 fine to the Secretary of State as a result.” His actual predicament is far more recent than his statements suggest and his old ‘Jim Storey for State Representative’ committee still exists and still is noncompliant with Michigan election finance law.
Mr. Storey’s unextinguished State Representative committee did indeed incur an initial $ 25 fine for failing to file its 1998 annual statement (covering 1997) which eventually grew to $ 1,000 in 2001 when it was finally paid. This may have occurred because Mr. Storey moved from Saginaw to his present Holland residence during this time frame. He might not have filed an address change with the Secretary of State and missed their notices. Understandable, but expensive.
However, he filed his committee’s 1999 statement (covering 1998) on time from his current Holland residence, but then failed to file his 2000 statement (covering 1999). Somehow the Secretary of State’s Bureau of Elections overlooked this failure to file for 14 years.
Mr. Storey’s real problems with Michigan’s campaign finance law began in 2012, the year he ran for the Allegan County Commission’s 2nd District, a race which he won. He filed his 2012 annual statement (covering 2011) late, then fails to file his next four required statements until the eve of his 80th District filing.
The filing he did make with the Secretary of State in 2012 referenced 105th District state representative race. Then on 15 September 2015 he created the ambiguous ‘Jim Story for Allegan County’, referencing his 80th District State House candidacy.
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Benson has been intimately linked to a 2010 election fraud scheme that resulted in nearly a dozen felony charges and two convictions. Benson, who was running an unsuccessful campaign for Secretary of State even then, employed a campaign manager named Jason Bauer. That year, Bauer pled no contest after being charged with multiple felony counts in connection with a voter fraud scheme. Bauer and Michael McGuinness, Jocelyn Benson’s then operations director, were busted forging records to set up dummy candidates in an illegal effort to siphon votes away from Republican candidates in metro Detroit.
