Keeping the grass roots growing!!
LAPEER — As of late, there has been a fair amount of contention among several candidates for State Representative 82nd District.
In the midst of the dispute is lifelong Lapeer County resident Jan Peabody, 53, one of four Republican candidates up for election on Aug 5. Several accusations have been made by Todd Courser in regards to Peabody’s campaign being endorsed by Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP).
The controversy surrounding this support is centered on the fact that Peabody supports religious values and opposes common core, which is an American education initiative that outlines quantifiable benchmarks in language arts and mathematics at each grade level from kindergarten through high school. GLEP and their leaders openly support gay marriage and common core, something that seems to be in direct opposition to Peabody’s beliefs and stances.
Though there is disagreement, Mike Murray, 49, of Oakland, Peabody’s campaign spokesperson is quick to challenge the perception of controversy surrounding Peabody. “I reject the notion that this is a controversy,” said Murray. “Todd Courser is just grasping at straws, making wild accusations at the 11th hour. There’s no other way to put it. He’s just lying. It’s horrible. This is a person that holds himself out as a Christian, and he’s just lying about her.”
Courser, another republican candidate for State Representative in the 82nd house district, has issued a number of statements in regards to GLEP’s support of Peabody, one of which states, “This group, Great Lakes Education Project, or as they should be referred to, the Great Lakes Disinformation Project, is the front group that is advancing both the homosexual agenda in Michigan and also advancing the Obama takeover of education in Michigan through Common Core.”
Gary Naeyaert, of Mason, is the executive director of GLEP and has been a legislative and communications advocate for 30 years. Naeyart said, “Yes, GLEP is supporting Jan Peabody. Right now we are supporting 56 candidates in Michigan on several different levels, both Republican and Democrat.”
According to their website, GLEP “is a bi-partisan, non-profit advocacy organization supporting quality choices in public education for all Michigan students. GLEP strongly supports efforts to improve academic achievement, increase accountability and empower parental choice in our public schools.”
When asked what drew GLEP to Peabody, Naeyart explained, “She’s a quality candidate. We think she represents Lapeer County very well and she supports improving thirdgrade literacy and school of choice, which are things that we agree with. Now, there are issues that we support that she doesn’t agree with as well, like the common core state standards. So we want to make sure people are clear that an endorsement from us, the only thing it guarantees is that the candidate supports school of choice and improving early literacy.”
“We communicated with over 500 candidates running for office this year,” said Naeyart. “We made them aware of us and made our questionnaire available to them. Of those that fill out our questionnaire, we then look at past voting records, past media statements that they’ve made on policy issues, specifically on education.”
There have been accusations and insinuations that Peabody has received “tens of thousands of dollars” in support from GLEP, something that Naeyart denies. “We made a contribution to her campaign of $250. I believe that was the contribution that we made. We are producing independent expenditures that are not coordinated with her campaign or approved by the campaign. We actually have a nice letter to Mr. Courser from our attorney, asking him to cease and desist making statements like he’s been making, like, I believe what I saw yesterday was $100,000 that he claimed we have spent on her behalf. We’re filing some additional campaign finance violations against Mr. Courser.”
Courser has also filed a campaign finance complaint against GLEP, alleging they violated campaign finance regulations when sending an email accusing Courser of violating campaign finance regulations by including a hyperlink to another candidate’s website.
“Not only is it ridiculous for GLEP to accuse me of a violation for simply including a hyperlink to another candidate’s website, GLEP violated campaign finance rules while accusing me of violating campaign finance rules. If that isn’t ironic I don’t know what is.” said Courser.
Courser has called into question whether Peabody can be trusted to stand up to rich special interests and lobbyists after accepting money in support. When asked what is expected of Peabody in return for the contribution GLEP has made to her campaign, Naeyart said, “Good government. I mean we would expect that she would be consistent with her position that she articulated during the endorsement process. She articulated to us that she supports school of choice and improving thirdgrade reading proficiency. We would expect that she would support those, which is already her position. We’re not expecting her to change her position on issues that she may differ with us on.”
Murray addressed the campaign tactics being employed by the candidates, saying, “There are real issues in Lapeer County. Lapeer County’s unemployment rate is consistently higher than the state’s as a whole. Jan Peabody has a plan to tackle that. Todd Courser’s plan is to talk about liberal billionaires. He throws up this smoke and tries to dodge and weave and smear Jan Peabody. I’ve not seen anything put forward by him other than these mailers he puts out attacking Jan Peabody. Jan has not said a single negative thing about him. She’s not attacking him or any of the candidates, for that matter.”
In regards to the controversy that has been stirred by GLEP’s support of Peabody, Naeyart said, “We’re well aware that there’s controversy. But we’re an independent organization that’s providing information for voters. I don’t see why it’s any more controversial than Americans For Prosperity doing independent expenditures on behalf of Todd Courser. Are those controversial? We’re aware of the controversy that Todd Courser has been making a number of untrue statements about us. It’s a free country unless you libel or slander or defame somebody. We’re not liberal billionaires, traveling the country and funding candidates. None of that is true. GLEP is the farthest thing from liberals. And we don’t operate outside of Michigan. We are very few of the things Mr. Courser is claiming that we are.”
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