State Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, is raking in tens of thousands of dollars for her re-election campaign from corporate and other political action committees, but has received only a handful of contributions from the people she is supposed to represent, campaign finance reports show.
Michigan Campaign Finance reports for this election cycle filed by Bollin through Sept. 3 show 94.5 percent of her contributions came from corporate and other PACS and only 5.5 percent from individuals.
Only 20 individuals contributed to her campaign, including just 10 residents of Oakland or Livingston counties, where the district is located, who contributed a total of $1,750.
Michigan’s constitution says all political power is inherent in the people, but Bollin seems to believe that political power lies in the checkbooks of utilities, insurance companies, and other corporations.
The disparity between PAC and individual donors is especially shocking in a year when citizens have put a proposal on the ballot in November to get corporate money out of politics. With just 10 contributions from Livingston or Oakland counties, Bollin is not even pretending to put the people of her district first.
The donations from utility companies are particularly galling to Livingston County residents who just struggled through a lengthy power outage. They probably wonder how willing Bollin will be to hold utility companies accountable for poor service when she is cashing their PAC checks.
Bollin is running for re-election in the 49th House District, which includes the city of Brighton, Brighton Charter and Green Oak townships in Livingston County, and portions of western Oakland County.
The campaign finance reports show a stark contrast with her opponent, Democrat and former South Lyon mayor Dan Pelchat of Green Oak Township.
According to the campaign finance reports for this election cycle, Bollin’s campaign committee raised $106,400, more than five times the $20,127 raised by Pelchat’s committee.
Pelchat’s committee raised nearly 71 percent of its total from 158 individual contributors, all but $28 of that from Michigan residents.
His committee received $5,825 from PACs, but none of them were corporate PACs. Of that, all but $2,000 came from local Democratic parties and committees.
His campaign is a true people-powered campaign funded by and accountable to the grassroots in the district.
The list of corporate donors to Bollin’s campaign includes $1,500 from DTE and CMS, the parent company of Consumers Energy; $33,050 from healthcare and health insurance PACS, as well as banks, credit unions, business groups, and lobbying firms.
The analysis of Bollin’s and Pelchat’s campaign finance reports was done by volunteers in the Livingston County Democratic Party.
Judy Daubenmier is chairperson of the Livingston County Democratic Party.
