Seemingly unable to say anything good about their own candidate for Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, Republicans have turned to their goto step in the playbook, lying and distorting. A recent TV ad from the Michigan Republican Party made all sorts claims against Democrat Jocelyn Benson, essentially labeling her as some sort of covert political operative for the radical left.
While I already countered all of the claims in that commercial (read here), it was disappointing to see those same scare tactics repeated by Detroit News "editorialist" Henry Payne this week.
Payne's commentary, available here, repeats the conspiracy theory that Benson's campaign is fueled entirely by George Soros and his "SOS Project", which apparently seeks to rig elections by planting operatives in state election offices.
Aside from how absurd this is to begin with, to believe it has any validity to it, you would have to assume 3 things:
- George Soros is some sort of evil demagogue intent on bringing down democracy.
- Jocelyn Benson is a pawn who doesn't understand her own role in his plan.
- Henry Payne isn't a crazy political tool who's scared of his own shadow.
Jocelyn Benson has proven herself to be the most qualified candidate for ANY political post we've seen in ages in Michigan, perhaps EVER. She spent a year researching the job of Secretary of State by talking to those who hold the job in other states, from both political parties, and writing a book that profiles them and the importance of the job. She understands one of the most important functions of the SoS job is to KEEP POLITICS OUT OF IT!
In contrast, Ruth Johnson is nothing more than a partisan politician. While serving as Oakland County Clerk, she also chaired the election campaign of John McCain within her county in 2008. She's even already signed on board to run Mitt Romney's campaign in Michigan in 2012, so she'd be running a partisan campaign while also pretending to do her duty of ensuring elections are fair, and campaign laws are followed.
There's no question who Michigan should be electing next week. Make sure you're telling your friends and family that even if they don't think they need to vote because the Governor's race is all but decided already, their vote is definitely needed in this important race. Polls still show the race VERY close, so we need to be reminding people of the real difference between Benson and Johnson, and why it's critical they cast their vote for her.