Facetious
Moderated
Delaware Anybody? 
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...-links-to-some-Democrats&template=fullarticle
Christine O'donnell - A ''faker'' herself? Sure looks that way to me.
Michigan Tea Party has some Democratic ties
Probe finds organizers, candidates have close ties
Despite blanket denials from top Michigan Democratic Party officials, the elusive group that wants to call itself the Tea Party on the November ballot has been linked repeatedly to Democrats since it emerged in May, a Free Press investigation shows.
From the group hired to collect signatures, to party activists who found candidates and the candidates themselves, the Michigan Tea Party has many ties to Democrats.
Michigan tea party activists, who joined in opposition to Democratic initiatives, call it the Fake Tea Party -- aimed at confusing voters and draining conservative support from Republicans in close races.
The Free Press found:
• Mike McGuinness, the recently resigned chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, who had denied any role in the Tea Party controversy, recruited his former ********** to run for state representative.
• Jason Bauer, 30, of Waterford, former operations director for the Oakland Democrats and McGuinness' roommate, notarized petitions for at least four affidavits to run for office for people who now -- directly or through a relative -- say they didn't sign the affidavits. Overall, he notarized 12 of 23 Tea Party candidate affidavits.
• State Senate candidate Frantt Whitehill of Midland, who insists he's a real tea partyer, is a Democratic donor who ran for precinct delegate as a Democrat in August.
• Three Tea Party candidates recently gave money to Democrats.
Bauer and McGuinness did not answer their door this week or respond to phone calls.
State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer repeated Thursday that the state party was not involved. "You really have to talk to Jason Bauer and Mike McGuinness," he said. "Both of them have resigned and the Oakland County party is moving on."
Did scheme brew Michigan Tea Party?
The mysterious Michigan Tea Party appears to be either a brilliant undercover political operation or a chaotic, poorly planned scheme.
• MORE: Political charades are nothing new in Michigan
Susan Qashat of Royal Oak told the Free Press this week that McGuinness "knew of my lifelong love of politics and asked me if I wanted to run for state rep and I said sure." She subsequently became a Tea Party candidate for state House. It is the first indication of McGuinness' direct involvement in the controversy.
Bauer is under criminal investigation for his role. Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe said he couldn't discuss the case, other than to say it would likely be an extended investigation. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has requested a one-person grand jury to investigate.
Republicans and tea party activists who say they have no connection to the so-called Michigan Tea Party believe the effort is aimed at confusing voters and helping Democrats win tight races by siphoning votes away from Republicans.
Stephanie McLean, a Lansing-based Democratic political consultant, said she finds it inconceivable that the state's top Democrat, Brewer, had a hand in the Tea Party mess. Still, she said it's obvious that whoever did "thought they were doing something really smart" to help Democrats.
In hindsight, she said, it was a bad idea likely to backfire.
Two of the Tea Party's 23 candidates are ineligible to hold office because they're too young; another, running for Congress, appears never to have been registered to vote.
For now, the fate of the Tea Party is unclear as the state Supreme Court considers whether to reverse an appellate court decision that would keep its candidates off the ballot.
The court's decision won't be based on whether the Tea Party is real or fake, or even whether candidate documents were forged. Instead, the legal issues are based more on technical requirements of state election law, such as type size on petitions.
If the Tea Party dies in the courtroom, it will have expensive for whoever paid for it. Estimates of the cost of collecting 60,000 signatures and legal bills start at $250,000.
The signature collection firm, Progressive Campaigns of California, is the same firm that was paid $1.5 million by state Democrats in 2008 for a failed petition drive to amend the constitution.
Mark Steffek, a retired Delphi employee and former UAW steward who is the chairman of the Michigan Tea Party, has declined to reveal his funding sources.
Steffek also has declined to comment on virtually every issue connected to his organizing effort, refusing to discuss how the party conducted its nominating convention -- another possible legal question for the court.
In a single interview with the Free Press after the petition signatures were submitted in July, he denied he was acting on behalf of Democrats.
Since then, he has not responded to multiple inquiries, including Thursday, when his wife answered the door at their home near Saginaw, but only to order a Free Press reporter off their property.
Not the first issue
After starting with the Democratic Party as an intern, Bauer, 30, of Waterford was listed as the operations director for the Oakland Democratic Party, until he was ****** out by party leaders after questions arose about his acting as notary for 12 of the 23 Tea Party candidates' petitions, including at that point one from a candidate who said he didn't sign it.
He was suspended from his job a year earlier, when interns working for him submitted fake letters to Republicans on the Oakland County commission, urging them to support a plan by Democrats to provide more health insurance for poor residents.
The letters were purportedly from a West Bloomfield ****** and a retired GM worker who didn't have insurance.
Several party members said Bauer should have been fired.
"I just felt there were enough real stories out there that he didn't need to make one up," said Bruce Fealk, a Rochester resident and county Democratic board member.
Bauer did not return a message left at the Waterford apartment he shares with McGuinness.
Both men attended Oakland University, where four of the Tea Party candidates also took classes about the same time.
McGuinness, 26, had served as chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party since December 2008, when he replaced County Commissioner David Woodward.
He was viewed as a rising star and strategic thinker who went from president of the OU student body and president of the OU College Democrats to working for the Democratic caucus in the state House to running state and local campaigns. But it was the success of Andy Meisner's run for Oakland County treasurer, a winning campaign run by McGuinness, that propelled him to lead the county party.
"He's incredibly talented and we ran a very clean campaign," Meisner said.
McGuinness spoke briefly to the Free Press on two occasions about the Tea Party, initially saying Bauer acted alone.
McGuinness said of himself: "I'm not interested in getting Tea Party candidates elected."
But at least one candidate said McGuinness personally recruited her for the Tea Party.
McGuinness resigned two days after Bauer, telling his board he was taking a job with an undisclosed nonprofit, and that continuing his part-time job as chairman of the party would present a conflict.
"Other than this instance, McGuinness did really well. He raised a lot of money and made sure we had legitimate Democratic candidates for all our seats on the ballot," Fealk said.
McGuinness also worked earlier this year for secretary of state candidate Jocelyn Benson in the three months leading up to an April nominating convention where Democrats chose Benson to run for secretary of state.
He was paid nearly $10,000 to line up support for Benson among groups critical to her nomination.
"Jocelyn didn't know anything about this until it was published last month," said Mark Totten, campaign manager for Benson.
In a statement released last week, Benson said she was "saddened" to learn about allegations against McGuinness.
Bauer notarized the Tea Party candidacy for secretary of state candidate Kyle Franklin, a friend of Bauer on Facebook. Bauer and McGuinness also contributed to Benson's campaign.
Other candidates also have direct ties to Bauer and McGuinness.
Oakland County Commissioner Tim Burns, D-Clawson, has a Tea Party candidate notarized by Bauer in his re-election race. Burns has gotten contributions from both McGuinness and Bauer and has received $4,800 from the Oakland County Democratic Party.
His Republican opponent in the race -- Clawson school board member Mike Bosnic -- is using the controversy to say he's the better choice for commissioner.
A union connection
At Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 85 in Saginaw, two directors of the political action committee are would-be Tea Party candidates, and a third union member lives in the same household with a congressional candidate.
On Thursday, business manager Robert Anderson told a reporter he hadn't heard any of them connected to the Tea Party. "I'll have to look into it," he said.
The union supports Democrats almost exclusively, Anderson said.
One union member, Frantt Whitehill of Midland, who wants to represent the Tea Party in the state Senate, hardly fits the profile of a tea party activist.
Earlier this year, he wrote a letter to the local paper praising federal health care legislation -- anathema to tea partyers. He is also a significant Democratic Party donor and won election as a Democratic precinct delegate last month.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...-links-to-some-Democrats&template=fullarticle
Christine O'donnell - A ''faker'' herself? Sure looks that way to me.
