| Linked here is this afternoon's filing by paid petitioners for the so-called "the Tea Party" of Michigan. 38,000 signatures roughly are required to put a new party on the ballot -the filers claim to have submitted 59,400 (but with an unknown number of sheets, so I am waiting for the Secretary of State to count and number the sheets before looking at this much harder). If that number holds or is anywhere near reality, it will be a hard number to challenge in terms of signature validity. But the Tea Party may have other legal issues, and I'll report on those as appropriate. Two new names show up now. First, is Eric Tincher, of Kalamazoo, whose name I withheld except from news media contacts, who was the primary subcontractor for the paid effort. He's known as a subcontractor to PCI, Inc, or "Progressive Campaigns", the petition company I reported was involved. This is tertiary verification my accuracy on that report - I name him now because he signed as the legal agent depositing the signatures. John Roby now appears as the "Secretary" of the Tea Party. Campaign finance donations show him to be a near clone of Mark Steffek - a UAW line worker or similar person with a regular $2 to $10 payroll deducation donation to a UAW PAC. Not much else is known about Roby - but several people are working down that path now. |
