J.D. Vance’s visit to Shelby Township may have violated state and federal campaign laws because of its use of public facilities for campaign purposes.
The Aug. 7 visit featured Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, appearing in front of the Shelby Township police station offering remarks at a podium while surrounded by on-duty police officers and other government officials as the public municipal complex, including the library and courthouse, were shut down for the morning.
Melissa Arab of Shelby Township said she filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel about the visit, which she deemed to be a campaign appearance for his and former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Arab said Vance’s use of the township police department’s building and on-the-clock personnel sends the message the department and the township support Vance and Trump.
“This is our tax dollars at work supporting a candidate,” Arab told The Macomb Daily. “It is a blatant violation of the Hatch Act.”
The act is a federal law passed in 1939 that limits “certain political activity of federal employees while they are on duty, in the federal workplace, or acting in their official capacity,” says the OSC. A U.S. Senator is a federal employee.
Arab believes the township also violated the state Campaign Finance Act by using public facilities for a political campaign.
“They are also breaking laws of the state of Michigan by having tax paid public officials appear at a political event for a political candidate and show support of that candidate while in uniform, on duty, and on the property of a government office, voicing their gratitude and support of the Trump Vance team and standing behind a Trump Vance election sign,” she said.
Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson, a political science professor at Wayne State University, concurs although she noted she is not a lawyer.
“The whole idea of holding an explicit campaign rally-type of event at a police station, the best interpretation (for the potential violators) would be it is highly questionable,” Sarbaugh-Thompson said. “I think the strict interpretation is that it violates the (state) law. It is an inappropriate use of public taxpayer resources.”
Mark Brewer, an election law attorney and Democratic activist from Mount Clemens, said the Shelby Township visit along with Trump’s stop last Tuesday at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office violated the state Campaign Finance Act and possibly the Hatch Act.
“It looks like the Trump campaign and the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department are trying to set the record for the most campaign finance and election law violations at one event,” Brewer posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Aug. 20 the day of the Trump visit.
Arab said the Vance and Trump events were designed to intimidate voters, including some police officers who don’t support the GOP ticket.
The two are “going to police departments and lining up police officers behind them like SS men from the Gestapo,” a reference to Nazi Adolf Hitler’s personal security team.
“Their heads were going up and down like bobbleheads, agreeing with Trump,” when the former president was at the Livingston County event that all of law enforcement supports him, she said.
Also speaking at the Shelby Township event was Republican Macomb Prosecutor Peter Lucido, the county’s chief law enforcement officer.
The event was held outside the police station located in the municipal campus at Van Dyke and 24 Mile Road.
Shelby Township Supervisor Richard Stathakis, who attended the event, defended Vance’s use of the public assets.
“A sitting United States Senator requested to visit our police department, view our police station, and meet our police officers,” Stathakis said in an email response. “We have never turned down similar requests from other local, county, state and federal officials, as well as other police chiefs and command officers. It just so happens this individual is a vice-presidential candidate accompanied by U.S. Secret Service protection roughly a month after an attempt on his running mate’s life. We could not miss this opportunity or any other to showcase the Shelby Township Police Department, the nation’s best local law enforcement team.”
Shelby Township officers and Macomb Sheriff’s deputies were on duty and on hand to provide security, including shutting down Van Dyke Avenue to ban public access to the area.
“Our responsibility to offer a safe environment for those visiting our township is not a partisan decision, and we have done the same for others regardless of political affiliation or political views,” Stathakis said.
Stathakis noted that in 2000, the township police department, at the township’s expense, provided security for Vice President Al Gore’s overnight stay at a private residence. Gore was a Democrat who ran for president against George W. Bush.
“Thankfully, having the JD Vance event at the Shelby Township Police Department significantly saved resources as there is no more of a secure location within our borders. Because of this, Chief Shelide accommodated the Secret Service requests as efficiently as possible,” Stathakiss said.
In responding to a state Freedom of Information Act request, the township indicates it did not spend any extra money on the visit.
A spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the office had not received a complaint as of noon Friday.
Stathakis did not respond to an inquiry about Shelide speaking at the event after he was suspended for 30 days in 2020 for making inflammatory comments about Black Lives Matters protesters, disguising himself on what was then known as Twitter. At the time, the supervisor called for the chief’s dismissal but was overridden by members of the board.
The Aug. 7 event was closed to the public and attended by a few dozen supporters and members of the media who were allowed to ask questions.
Arab noted the courthouse and library were unnecessarily shut down until about noon following the 10 a.m. event.
Arab, who is operations director for an online legal services company, said it didn’t matter whether the candidates were Republican or Democrat, or the location of the appearances.
“They (police departments) were campaigning for a political candidate,” she said. “I wouldn’t care if it was used for Trump or Harris. It’s just not right. If it was held in Livonia I would’ve still reported it. It didn’t matter where it was.”
In his speech, Vance railed on the Biden Administration and Harris’ record on immigration and Southern-border security.
Shelby Township may have been chosen by the Vance campaign due to the arrest of two foreign nationals this year for alleged criminal acts in the township. In one incident, an asylum seeker is accused of causing an auto crash that killed Nancy Richmond, 88, and her daughter, Crystal Brunn, 63. In the other incident, a man who is believed to be an undocumented immigrant is accused of sexually assaulting a young girl.
— Managing editor Jeff Payne contributed to this report.
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