LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — Swirling questions over whether Michigan’s former House Speaker misused funds from a shadowy non-profit fund are disappointing to Matt Marsden, but not surprising.
The longtime Michigan GOP insider has watched the allegations against Lee Chatfield by his sister-in-law; first that he raped her when she was a minor, and later that the former lawmaker had “misappropriated funds from a number of regulated sources,” according to her attorney.
While Chatfield raised significant funds through campaign accounts and political action committees, the Peninsula Fund—a 501(c)(4) group categorized as a social welfare organization—disclosed taking in nearly $753,482 in anonymous donations in 2020, spending $142,266 on travel and entertainment for public officials alone.
Chatfield’s attorney says her client believes the fund followed the law.
Related: Questions swirl over how ex-Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield used PAC funds
“Over my time in Lansing, I began to watch the 501(c)(4)s begin to morph into something that was a little less above board,” Marsden said in a recent interview with 7 Action News.
For seven years, he served in the offices of three different Republican senate majority leaders and was something of a fixture in Lansing politics.
‘Not the way Lansing used to work’
Today, non-profits like the Peninsula Fund can be found all over the state capital, used by Democrats and Republicans alike. They started to pop up in 2010 following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed for unlimited, anonymous donations to political non-profits.
Once novel, Marsden says the funds are now a valuable tool in lawmakers’ toolbox.
“If you’re a 33-year-old or 34-year-old person elected to office and you hire a consultant that tells you ‘Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Everybody has done it before you. This is just the way it works,’” Marsden said. “That’s not the way Lansing works. That’s not the way Lansing used to work.”
Related: Duggan once ripped ‘secret funds.’ Today, he ducks questions about his own.
During the end of Marsden’s time in the Senate, he says he was troubled by how a fund used to benefit senate Republicans, the Michigan Jobs and Labor Foundation, operated.
The fund’s president was Lansing fundraiser Steve Linder and it reported taking in nearly $2.8 million in anonymous donations between 2011 and 2015.
Unlike campaign funds, non-profit funds like these don’t have to disclose who their donors are, and all but a select few do.
Campaign finance watchdogs like Simon D. Schuster of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network say that secrecy allows donors to have unseen access to politicians.
“This is a way that corporations and businesses can completely circumvent the campaign finance system, yet still benefit politicians all out of the public eye,” Schuster said.
During the end of Marsden’s tenure in Lansing, while working for Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, he said the use of non-profit funds grew exponentially.
“What I think began to happen with the (non-profits) is they began to be used for more personal use than they were for messaging use,” Marsden said. “Trips, rental cars, drivers, bar tabs. You name it.”
Just like donors, expenses are not required to be disclosed beyond reporting totals spent in broad categories once a year.
“You can’t show a $700 dinner out bar tab on your campaign finance report,” Marsden said, “because someone like me who does opposition research would love to see that.”
Donors remain in the dark
Donors to the fund, according to Marsden, were “folks with very special interests, certain interests.”
In 2014, Marsden says McLaren Health was pushing for legislation to go around then-Gov. Rick Snyder and build a new hospital in Independence Township.
Around the same time, they dumped six-figure donations into the Jobs and Labor Foundation, the non-profit linked to senate Republicans. The bill got to the Senate floor, but did not pass.
Reached by phone, former fund president Steve Linder said he had no comment about how the fund operated.
“What does one give $50,000 to a politician for, unless one wants something?” Marsden asked.
Many dark money funds operating today are swimming in cash. In 2020, a non-profit linked to Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey collected $933,300 in anonymous donations.
The Michigan! My Michigan! Fund doesn’t disclose who wrote the checks, but it does show how big the donations were: two donors kicked in $50,000 each, another contributed $200,000 and the biggest donor of all gave $300,000.
Today, much of that money is being used to fund a Republican-led ballot initiative that would limit the health department’s emergency powers used during the pandemic.
7 Action News tried to talk to Sen. Shirkey about how the fund operates following a press conference in Lansing last week, but he crossed the street rather than talking to a reporter before ducking into a nearby restaurant.
‘Constantly stonewalled’
For well over a week, board members and legal counsel for the Michigan! My Michigan! fund avoided sharing even basic information about how the non-profit operates.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, exempt organizations are required to provide copies of their annual financial filings upon request.
“If the individual made the request in person, the copy must be provided on the same business day the request is made unless there are unusual circumstances,” the rules say.
But when 7 Action News made an in-person visit to the address on file for the fund—a title agency in Plymouth—reporter Ross Jones was greeted by a man who was not aware of what the Michigan! My Michigan fund even was and could not provide any financial records.
The same reporter made repeated visits to the Clark Hill offices of Andrew Richner, the resident agent and attorney for the fund, but was told both times that Richner was not in the office and that no one from his staff could provide any records.
Repeated phone calls and text messages to Richner asking where the filing could be picked up were ignored, and Richner would not e-mail a copy. Ultimately, 7 Action News obtained the filing through a source.
Reached by e-mail, fund president Phil Hoffman replied: “I have been advised by legal counsel not to respond to you. Sorry I couldn’t have been of more help.”
Secrecy, according to Simon D. Schuster of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, is viewed among politicians as a benefit to non-profits like these.
“If secrecy wasn’t baked into the formula, we wouldn’t be constantly stonewalled whenever we try to get a good amount of information about how these funds operate,” he said.
Today, Matt Marsden is a political consultant who doesn’t miss his time in the senate.
As long as Lansing remains addicted to dark money, he says a dark cloud will hang over the capitol dome.
“It progressively got more and more extreme as the years went on and eventually it was part of the reason I decided I wanted to leave,” Marsden said.
“Even the best cleaner or fixer can only fix so much.”
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.