(Cross-posted in slightly different form at Daily Kos)

If you haven't been following the MI Gov race the past few days, Dick DeVos (R-Amway) is trying to distance himself from a company he owns. Why? Bad, bad, bad stuff.

In the debate this week, he claimed he was just an investor controlling 1% of the company. But as I noted at Daily Kos yesterday, that just isn't credible. The company's own bylaws surrender virtually all control to DeVos. And yet he took steps to insulate himself from the company. Maybe he didn't know about the abuse? Maybe he didn't want to know. And he sure didn't want anybody else to. But it turns out there is a potential campaign finance scandal hidden in plain sight.

DemWave at Michigan Liberal calls attention to the fact that not only is DeVos friendlier with the Alterra crowd than he wants us to think, the former chair of Alterra is the current president of the DeVos family's RDV Corporation -- his name is Jerry Tubergen -- has donated the maximum amount allowed to DeVos's campaign. Which is fine, he can do that.

But curiously, when he hit HIS max, he didn't stop. He got his "homemaker" wife and three "student" daughters to max out as well. And they all listed as their address... RDV Corporation's address. Yet Jerry Tubergen listed his HOME address. Does anybody really believe that these "students" donated their own money? Does it even seem likely they SAW the checks that went out under their own names? As DemWave asks: "How many students do you know with $3,400.00 in their pocket who would willingly choose to spend it on some 50 year-old Republican running for governor?"

The donations are available on the SoS page. Here I've put them all together in one place:

This is HIGHLY suspicious. IANAL and neither is DemWave it seems, but Michigan campaign finance law does address what it sure looks like is happening here:

169.231 Contributions or expenditures controlled by another person; bundled contribution.

Sec. 31.

(1) A contribution that is controlled by, or made at the direction of, another person, including a parent organization, subsidiary, division, committee, department, branch, or local unit of a person, shall be reported by the person making the contribution and shall be regarded for purposes of contribution limits as a contribution attributable to both persons.

(2) A bundled contribution or a contribution that is delivered as part of a bundled contribution shall be regarded for purposes of contribution limits as both a contribution attributable to the bundling committee that delivered the contribution and a contribution attributable to the individual making the contribution.

I am not sure what constitutes proof here. It certainly has the appearance of impropriety, though. This is a question reporters at Michigan newspapers should be asking the DeVos campaign. Will they?

Beats me. I've sent e-mails out to several of them, and if you've got a moment, please do the same.

Detroit News
David J. Butler, Editor & Publisher:dave.butler@detnews.com
Susan Burzynski, Managing Editor: sue.burzynski@detnews.com
Don Nauss, Deputy Managing Editor/ News: don.nauss@detnews.com

Grand Rapids Press:
Mike Lloyd        Editor    mlloyd@grpress.com     (616) 222-5506
Joe Crawford      Editorial Page Editor      jcrawford@grpress.com              (616) 222-5483
John Barnes      Metro Editor      jbarnes@grpress.com    (616) 222-5457
Jeff Cranson      Deputy Metro Editor       jcranson@grpress.com   (616) 222-5476

Detroit Free Press
City/Metro desk: dfpcity@freepress.com 313-222-6600; fax: 313-222-5981
Lansing bureau: cchristoff@freepress.com 313-222-6609

More than a few make email forms available, or go to generic drop boxes. You can find them here:

WOOD-TV

WDIV-TV

WJBK-TV

WLNS-TV

MLive

Meanwhile, there's more from DemWave already. Stay tuned.

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It's a big day in Michigan politics, because tonight Gov. Granholm goes toe to toe, head to disembodied head with Scamway scion Dick DeVos, for the first of several meetings.

As I noted in my diary about this last week, the man claims to be quite a debater, but if you've seen his cringe-inducing  "video blogs" on YouTube, you know otherwise. One imagines he's probably prepared pretty well for this, but our J. Grho still remembers a thing or two from her Hollywood days. It never pays to be overconfident, but it should still be a great show.

It should be about an hour long, so pop some pocorn and cozy up with your laptop -- because the Disembodied Head himself has a challenge for you... If you're not local, you can catch the debate (on tape, alas, not live) on CSPAN tonight, starting at 10pm.

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Next Monday is the first of several just a few debates between Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos (R-Amway) and it's a good time to start, for a couple reasons.

According to the WSJ/Zogby poll released this week, Gov. Granholm is at 49.9% while DeVos is at 40.8%. As they say in politics, all you need is 50% plus one -- and J. Grho is inching closer and closer to that. It's the best lead she's had since the start of the year. That poll was mostly conducted after the "intelligent" design report was breaking, and might reflect some of that. I wouldn't be surprised if the next poll was even better -- that is to say, worse for him.

So, the first debate is Monday Oct 2 at 8pm Eastern. In Michigan it will be on MSU's WKAR, on public TV around the state and should be available to Fox affiliates. For those of us outside Michigan, keep an eye on C-SPAN, since they usually run big debates, often live but if not, certainly taped. If live, it'll also be on the web.  

Information on the other debates:

• Tuesday  Oct 10, WOOD-TV and NBC affiliates. Panel format with questioners from WOOD, Detroit's WDIV, and the Detroit Free Press.


• On Thursday Oct 12 they will both be at Detroit's Economic Club, but there won't be any TV and it doesn't sound like it's an actual debate -- they'll just be giving speeches.


• Monday Oct 16, WXYZ in Detroit, Chuck Stokes moderating. This one can be seen on CBS and ABC affiliates around Michigan.

The expectations for DeVos SHOULD be high. He's been a front man all his life, on the doing motivational speaking for Amway (although most everyone who attended them were destined to live in a van down by the river). I believe he was also trained in debate, and has appeared with Gorbachev in public speaking situations. So he's an experienced pro, right? Hah. If you've seen his pathetic YouTube videos, you would never know it. For awhile he was doing "video blogs" supposedly "from the road" -- and they're nothing short of godawful. Truly, unintentional comedy.

And if you look at the videos uploaded by his team, you'll notice that commenting and rating has been disabled. Weak! That's a Dick DeVos government for you -- no feedback wanted.

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[Cross-posted from Daily Kos.]

SteveinMI and kidfury already covered the announcement by Dick DeVos (R-Scamway) yesterday [at dKos], but the story continues. Below the jump, I've got astounding world-is-flat A=B doublespeak insanity from the Scamway king himself, plus a round-up of Michigan GOP events this weekend. If you're in the area, why not go ask him to clarify his bullshit position? On camera.

Now, as of last night or this morning, the DeVos campaign is sending around a "correction" to the "inaccurate" AP story. It goes like this:

"I've always believed that our children should be provided with more knowledge, not less.  Lots of intelligent people can disagree about the origins of life.  In the end, I believe in our system of local control.  Local school boards should have the opportunity to offer evolution and intelligent design in their curriculums."

And that "inaccurate" AP story? It says:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos says he thinks Michigan's science curriculum should include a discussion about intelligent design. ... "I would like to see the ideas of intelligent design that many scientists are now suggesting is a very viable alternative theory," DeVos told The Associated Press this week during an interview on education. "That theory and others that would be considered credible would expose our students to more ideas, not less."

In other words, how dare you quote me accurately!  

Also: Credible? ID? How about this: would this make the state's schools more credible? At a time when education has never been more important, when Michigan is fighting to remain competitive in the global economy, he finds it important to point out that he thinks schools should be able to ignore the science he doesn't like. Despicable.

Coming the same day as news about a 3.3 million year old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis, over 100K years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton, it just looks all the more foolish.

And it reminds me of the big Rolling Stone article this week on the "dominionists" among whom DeVos counts himself. They're the theocrats DarkSyde and Mark Crispin Miller and others have argued represent the truly frightening theocratic vanguard of the religious right. Falwell is a piker. DeVos is the real deal -- this should be a Christian nation governed by Christian laws, dammit, he says. And you don't have to be an atheist to find that vision of America disturbing.

Anyway, the good news is DeVos will be out in public around the state this weekend, as will Mike Bouchard, Saul Anuzis and the rest of the rogue's gallery. If you're in proximity, you might think about walking up and asking them what they think. If you've got a camera handy, you might think about posting the results on YouTube. This could be an awesome chance to do for the MI Gov and MI Sen races what the innovators in Connecticut did during the CT Dem primary - and what made George Allen synonymous with a small South Asian monkey." 

Here are the events I'm aware of, copied from the Michigan GOP emails I'm sure glad I signed up for. But I'm sure there's more:

• Also, you are invited to join Dick DeVos, Mike Bouchard, Congressman Mike Rogers, Saul Anuzis, Betsy DeVos, State Rep. Candidate John Knowles, and Lt. Govenor Candidate Ruth Johnson to a tailgating event hosted by the Michigan Republicans at the MSU vs. Notre Dame game this Saturday in East Lansing. ... Our spot is in the T-lot directly in front of the stadium. Look for the gigantic "DeVos for Governor" sign.




• WHAT:  You're invited to join
  
  Fall Campaign Kickoff Party!
  
  2:30 PM - 5:30 PM
  
  10701 W. McNichols Rd
  
  Detroit, MI 48221
  
  Come and Have fun, food & drinks with the
  
  Team for Change and meet DeVos for
  
  Governor Campaign Manager:

And if you do manage to get there with your camera and put it on YouTube, please post a diary here about it.

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This diary entry is a summary.  Please see the full analysis for a more in-depth examination.

The Detroit News/WXYZ-TV EPIC/MRA poll just released new information on MI-Gov and MI-Sen.  Here's my election analysis based on the numbers:

Keep in mind that there are a lot of problems with the methodology of polling in general (question wording bias, bias because of the kinds of people who decide to respond, bias in phone ownership, answers differing from actual voting behavior, question order influences).  On top of that, no poll accounts for voter energy and election day GOTV.  Finally, remember what Mark Grebner had to say about ballot proposals.

In this particular poll, 57% females were questioned as opposed to 43% males.  The fact that females were more likely to answer the poll tells us two things.   It tells us that the method used to pick respondents is not representative of the population.  It also explains some of the difference in favor of Granholm and Stabenow (since women tend to favor Granholm and Stabenow by a greater margin than men).

With all of that in mind, onto the numbers...

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