The petition to recall Governor Snyder was filed with election officials Monday in Washtenaw County
MARQUETTE -- The political action committee, called Michigan Citizens United, submitted a petition to recall Governor Rick Snyder Monday.
Michigan Citizens United started as a Facebook page--there are seven members. In early March the group created the website michigancitizensunited.org.
I spoke with Gerald Rozner, a spokesman for the group, on the phone Tuesday. He says he was asked to take his position through a Facebook chat. Rozner tells me the other members want to remain anonymous. He does not know the other six members personally or their whereabouts.
Rozner says there is no connection between this group and any union, although the group has solicited support from unions. Rozner says as of right now they have not received any official union support.
The petition to recall Governor Snyder was filed with election officials in Washtenaw County, Governor Snyder’s county of residence.
On their website, the group says they plan to begin collecting voter signatures as early as next month. They will need about 800,000 valid signatures to make the ballot in November.
Rozner says the recall group was primarily motivated by the new law signed by Governor Snyder that gives more power to emergency financial managers.
"The first and largest reason is what they just did to Benton Harbor, using the emergency financial bill, manager bill, where they go into a distressed community, either start cutting back on revenue sharing and so forth, and then force it into insolvency and move in with a financial manager," said Rozner. "That's the biggest problem."
"I don't know a lot about them, although they do appear to be affiliated with the M.E.A. The fax number to contact them is the same as the fax number to contact the M.E.A.," said Marquette Republican Party Chair Dan Adamini. "So we know there's some affiliation there."
That's the allegation by some of Governor Snyder's supporters, that this recall group may just be fronting for some unions in Michigan.
At this point, that is not entirely clear.
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