It’s been nearly two weeks since a Kent County Prosecutor’s report showed that Speaker of the House Jase Bolger and Representative Roy Schmidt “tried to undermine the very fabric of our country, which is a free election.”
Since that time, our legislature has been paralyzed not only by their actions, but by Bolger’s refusal to even admit he did anything wrong, instead blaming on weaknesses in state law that apparently would have made him think twice about his unethical and disgraceful behavior.
If you were to listen to Bolger, he didn’t lie, he merely evaded the truth. He didn’t commit fraud, he temporarily lost his focus. He didn’t attempt to undermine our democracy, he showed us all that our election laws aren’t strong enough.
It seems there is a never-ending stream of excuses coming from Bolger’s office over what has happened, but the reality remains that he did lie, he did commit fraud, and he did try to undermine the rights of Michigan’s people to have free and honest elections.
As editorials from Michigan and out-of-state newspapers continue to call for Bolger to resign his leadership position, it’s clear that his continued role as Speaker of the House would only damage our ability to recruit businesses from those states and bring jobs back to Michigan. As job recruitment remains Governor Snyder’s own top priority, it has been frustrating for Michigan to watch his continued avoidance of denouncing Bolger’s actions.
While the Governor had managed to stay away from answering any questions about the issue since the news broke, WZZM managed to finally get him on the record late last week. His responses, unfortunately, did little to reassure any business looking to grow in Michigan that the Governor or the Speaker are truly focused on job creation more than they are on playing these pathetic political games and covering up for each other when they get caught.
Speaker Bolger’s disgraceful behavior was bad enough. His refusal to do the right thing and step down as Speaker made it even worse. But Governor Snyder’s inability to speak out against it and put the needs of our state ahead of the needs of his party are clearly no better.
The people of Michigan deserve far better than this from those they elected to office.