Whitmer, Nessel And Benson Failed Michigan – Now They’re Trying To Distract You With Faux Outrage
“Whitmer, Nessel and Benson are trying to actively distract voters from the economic mess that their ally, Joe Biden, has created across our country,” said Gustavo Portela, MIGOP Communications Director. “Instead of focusing on ways they can reduce the burden on working class families they are distracted pandering to their base while their inflation continues to tear through family budgets. We’re going to fire Whitmer, Nessel, and Benson and bring back opportunity and prosperity to our state this fall.”
Whitmer Failed To Fix The Roads
- Whitmer repeatedly promised that she will Fix the Damn Roads ever since she first announced she was running for governor in 2018.
- In 2021, the Biden White House graded the roads in Michigan a D+
Whitmer Failed To Fix The Lead Pipes
- At a 2018 gubernatorial debate, Whitmer called clean drinking water a “fundamental human right” and vowed to create the Department of Great Lakes and Fresh Water so residents complaining about water “won’t get ignored for two years” and called for expediting lead pipe replacement and providing bottled water.
- In July 2018, Whitmer released an ad showing kids playing with a water sprinkler in a backyard saying that Benton Harbor’s pipes “now [has] more lead than flint.”
- However, Whitmer failed to act after knowing for three years that Benton Harbor’s pipes were not safe.
Whitmer Failed To Timely Reopen The Schools
- In her 2021 state of the state address, Whitmer said that COVID-19 “stole” in-person instruction from students and announced an advisory council to “promote comprehensive recovery” in schools.
- A full year later, many school districts such as Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Battle Creek and Lansing refused to fully reopen.
Whitmer Failed To Bring Down The Cost Of Auto Insurance
- Whitmer promised to “bring down the cost of auto insurance” rates in the state.
- Auto insurance rates increased in Michigan in 2021.
Whitmer Failed To Revive The auto Industry
- Whitmer visited a Detroit auto show in her first month as Governor in which she expressed the importance of investing in Michigan’s auto industry and supporting advanced vehicle technology.
- However, Whitmer did not even place a bid for two new Ford factories that were announced to be built in Kentucky and Tennessee, missing out on 11,000 combined jobs.
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- Detroit News: Michigan is “…unprepared to achieve its dreams of dominating the automotive future.”
- In April, Ford Announced they are cutting 480 jobs.
- Whitmer neglected to declare the auto industry an essential industry during COVID-19.
Whitmer Failed To Repeal The Pension Tax
- Whitmer campaigned in 2018 on repealing the pension tax promising she would get it done in her first year in office.
- Whitmer is now in her fourth year in office and failed to get it done in 2019 as promised, outraging many retirees.
- The repeal had bipartisan support.
- Detroit Free Press’ Paul Egan: “…but more than a year after Whitmer took office, the tax remains in place, despite the fact majority leaders in both chambers say they support its repeal in principle.”
- Whitmer poisoned the well by tying the pension tax repeal to an increase in taxes on Michigan’s businesses.
Whitmer Failed To Get Money Out Of Politics
- Whitmer broke her campaign promise to get unlimited spending out of Michigan politics.
- Whitmer campaigned on her “Sunshine Plan” which called for the reversal of Citizens United.
- Whitmer received nearly $4 million in excess contributions after falsely claiming she was in an active recall election and then and citing an obscure memo in the 1980’s to claim she violated contribution limits.
- After being called out, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson suggested that Whitmer contribute the excess money to a charity.
- Instead of a charity, Whitmer transferred the money to the Michigan Democrat Party to spend on political campaigns, including hers.
Whitmer Failed To Attract Manufacturing To Michigan
- In 2022, Whitmer traveled to Washington to see Joe Biden to get his help to bring semiconductor manufacturing to Michigan.
- This comes after Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio secured a $20 billion deal with Intel to build semiconductor manufacturing plants in the Columbus area.
- In 2021, Whitmer skipped out on a presidential visit from Joe Biden when Biden went to Detroit to promote electric vehicle production.
- Whitmer’s excuse for not attending the event with Biden was that she was meeting with Semiconductor industry leaders trying to draw some of their business into Michigan.
- However, according to Michigan Campaign Finance records, Whitmer used that time in California to fundraise for her reelection.
- In 2022, Stellantis and LG announced a $4.1 billion investment in Ontario building electric vehicle batteries in Windsor, just across the river from Detroit creating 2,500 Canadian jobs.
- Whitmer secured a smaller $1.7 billion deal with LG which will create a much smaller 1,200 jobs in Holland.
- The Detroit News: “Michigan has missed out on another electric-vehicle battery plant – this time, to its neighbor across the Detroit River.
Nessel Failed To Bring Down Crime
- The violent crime rate in Michigan rose 8.98 percent in 2020, nearly twice the rate increase nationally of 4.65 percent.
- In 2018, Michigan ranked 14th in the violent crime rate in the nation, under just two years of Whitmer’s leadership Michigan rose to the 10th most violent state in the union in 2020.
- In 2020, The City of Detroit’s violent crime rate increased 10.2 percent from 2019, this is lower than other major cities in Michigan.
- Saginaw’s violent crime rate increased by 44.9 percent in 2020.
- Lansing’s violent crime rate increased by 28.7 percent in 2020.
- Flint’s violent crime rate increased by 25.2 percent in 2020.
- Grand Rapids’ violent crime rate increased by 11.5 percent in 2020.
- Kalamazoo ‘s violent crime rate increased by 13.7 percent in 2020.
Benson Failed To Fix The Broken Secretary Of State Branches
- Benson ran on a five-point plan to improve Secretary of State Branch offices, loosen election integrity standards and to make the government more transparent.
- Benson specifically ran on a 30-minute in-and-out guarantee for branch office transactions.
- Benson used the pandemic to shut branch offices down and then re-opened them on an appointment-only bases.
- The appointment-only visits made it difficult for Michiganders to get basic services completed such as getting a license plate on their car.
- Benson expanded online transactions and used that to falsely claim she got appointment times down to 30 minutes.
- In a last-ditch effort to get through the backlog In June 2021, Benson announced that she would be adding 350,000 new appointments by decreasing the appointment windows from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.
- Benson used the pandemic to shut branch offices down and then re-opened them on an appointment-only bases.
Benson Failed To Secure Our Elections
- Without state legislative approval, Benson implemented no excuse mail voting, mass-mailing unsolicited ballot applications to all names on the voter list and for ballots to be counted that are received after the election is over.
- A 2019 audit determined that the Michigan Bureau of Elections failed to properly safeguard its voter file and there were documented occurrences of unauthorized access to the system by former employees.
- In 2021, Benson personally pushed for the “For The People Act’s passage in the Senate.
- Benson praised the passage of the “For The People” Act in the House of Representatives.
- Benson lobbied the U.S. Senate to pass the bill and testified by video to the Senate rules committee.
- The For The People Act would have been an unprecedented federal takeover of U.S. elections. The bill if passed would have: