Hints, Allegations And Things Left Unproven

     This election cycle in Lapeer County might be one of the nastiest in recent memory.

     And it's not even because of anything any candidates are saying publicly, a fact made all the more shocking by the fact that Todd Courser is running for office yet again.

     And it's not even the state representative's race that has been so heated this time around; that one seems almost a mere formality at this point. Instead, the attention is on two races that normally go unnoticed by most; county prosecutor, and county sheriff. In most years, the incumbents for those positions would likely win rather handily. But there's been much controversy surrounding those races of late, mostly relating to the Byron Konschuh "Donut-gate" alleged scandal and Lapeer Schools Superintendent Matt Wandrie's hit-and-run incident, and has been fueled primarily by the Lapeer County Corruption Page on Facebook.

     Now, normally this isn't a space I'd waste on an anonymous bomb-thrower on Facebook, as I'm much more interested by actual politicians and the things they're doing and saying, as well as the instances where those two things . But the fact that so many are buying into the nonsense this page is spewing, combined with personal attacks on friends of mine, hasn't left me much choice.

     I'll start off by saying this: I have no dog in this fight. The few relationships I have with anybody in the Sheriff's Department are through mutual involvement in the local music scene, and in fact I've been asked about joining up with one of the sheriff candidates' campaigns, by somebody outside of the department itself, but I have no intention of doing so, as I can't throw my support fully around any of the candidates running. And as for the prosecutor's race, the only skin I have in the game there is making sure Todd Courser never gets elected to another public office in this county again. (Not that he needs my help.) Hell, I've never even met Turkelson or Sharkey, probably won't, and I'm entirely fine with that. And again, I'm not endorsing anybody in this race, in part because I don't want my reputation being dragged through the mud by being directly involved in that situation, and in part because I'd like to keep my options open if any of them decide to take Courser's new radio home up on their offer of free airtime and would like a co-host with actual radio experience.

     See that? It's called full disclosure. I know that's a foreign concept to the Corruption Page, but it lends a bit of credibility to the things you say. Oh, sorry, I suppose now I have to explain what credibility means...

     So at the outset, the focus was squarely on Turkelson, with a post of a body shot being done off of him at a retirement party eight years prior. Not exactly sure where corruption comes into play there, as body shots aren't exactly a crime, so we'll move on. Of course, Wandrie-gate would be the next big story to cover, with the implication that Turkelson let the superintendent off easy because of their relationship outside of the case, the proof of which seems limited to the fact that both serve on boards of the same charitable organizations. Wait a minute... you mean to tell me that highly visible politicians and people like school superintendents get involved with charity work, sometimes even -gasp- with the same charities? Why, I've never heard of such a thing! Of course, that would be all well and good, until the county treasurer and sheriff candidate Scott McKenna got dragged into the mud with a web of supposed cover-ups, ties and associations that would make even the most diehard conspiracy theorist's head spin.

     Then there's the attacks on McKenna's character, which just get more outlandish by the day. First, there was the postings about McKenna having been drinking at the same Literacy Center function at which Superintendent Hit-and-Run was busted. For the life of me, I'm still trying to figure out what this proves about McKenna. That he enjoys the occasional drink out in public? If that's the case, then virtually every public office holder is disqualified from doing so. Elsewhere in the comments, another busybody chimed in complaining that McKenna and other parents were drinking at a banquet for the Lapeer Jr. Lightning, which wasn't a school function, therefore not illegal or against any rules. Now, I'm no lawyer, nor do I play one on the radio, but I'm pretty sure that there's no law that says you aren't allowed to consume alcohol at any function that benefits children, or where children are present. If there were, I'm pretty sure every open house I ever attended, or any school fundraiser ever hosted by a bar, would have been shut down. So to say that this is a bit of a stretch is probably understating things.

     It gets better from there, or stupider depending on your view. It was found out that a McKenna sign was placed at the home of a convicted sexual offender. The implication there being that anybody running for public office obviously endorses everybody that places one of their signs in their yard. Which is possibly the most ridiculous conclusion that could have possibly been reached. Do these people honestly believe that candidates are doing background checks on the owners and residents of any property on which they place a sign? Or that said candidates are personally placing all the signs themselves, and know exactly where each one is? The original post claimed McKenna's parents personally installed the sign and live across the street, claims which have both been called into question.

     Finally, brace yourselves for the brain cells you're about to lose trying to figure this one out. Recently it was revealed that a man in Flushing is suspected of having ties to ISIS. His whereabouts seem rather sketchy at best; reports claim he apparently graduated high school in Colorado, was a student at a university in Sudan, and disappeared off the face of the earth altogether sometime last year. How does this possibly relate to a guy running for sheriff in Lapeer? Well, McKenna was police chief in Mt. Morris Township, where th guy's family still resides, and... clearly he... should have... stopped this guy from joining ISIS... somehow? I'm sorry, but Evel Knievel couldn't have made these leaps. The FBI is following this guy, it's not known if he has any ties to any other potential ISIS recruits in Flint, and even the FBI doesn't have any answers. Hell, the Genesee County sheriff was "faintly aware" at best! How in the world does the blame fall on McKenna's shoulders? What exactly is he supposed to have done that the freakin' FBI hasn't been able to?!

     Of course, it's not enough to slam the people running for office; even their friends and supporters aren't safe. A sheriff's deputy went to bat for McKenna, and wound up attacked for it on this page, with some veiled threats to "connect the dots," whatever those would be. For a site that claims not to traffic in rumors and innuendo, they certainly don't seem to have a problem with it when it suits them.

     It's a damn shame the owner of this page couldn't stay out of the mud, because there's a lot here worth looking at and quite a bit of potential wrongdoing. Obviously Wandrie is in the wrong for his actions, and his attempts to diffuse the situation by sending out snarky letters to parents lambasting social media instead of the guy that hit a car so hard he pushed it into another car, and calling over 8 grand in damage a "minor fender-bender," are helping his cause none. And Turkelson doesn't exactly come across as a choirboy either, but I'm kind of a fan of factual evidence, and that's in short supply here. And there are no doubt legitimate reasons to not support McKenna; for one, the fact that after raising two millages, he still had to downsize his force, doesn't bode well for a much larger force at a department that supposedly returns money to the county every year. But none of them have anything to do with sex offenders, alcohol or ISIS.

     Truthfully, I debated on whether or not this page was even worth addressing. But there appear to be quite a few people out there, some that I do respect, that are buying into unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo posted by sources that won't sign their names to them, and if there's two things I hate, it's people that post unsubstantiated rumors as fact without signing their names to them, and anonymous bomb-throwers slandering good and decent people. Clearly I don't exactly pull punches on this page, and a few people have taken exception to the things I post here and let me know it. But of course, my name and face are tied to this thing fairly prominently (this blog is only tied to my Facebook account and all), and I don't think that anybody that reads this thing is exactly unaware at this point of who I am, what I do, and why I do it. But we don't exactly have that same courtesy with the Corruption Page; how do we know the author isn't somebody with a personal score to settle against any of the above parties? Say, somebody who's very close to a former challenger to the incumbent sheriff that might have had their own brush with the law. The motives behind this page are becoming fairly clear, as are the people responsible, and both will be brought to light in time if they continue to smear third parties that have done nothing wrong. Certainly it would be in Kalanquin and Sharkey's best interest to speak out against and distance themselves from the nonsense being spewed on it.

     Because anybody who's willing to plant skeletons in people's closets ought not protest too much when their own are found out.

     And in a town where everybody knows everybody, they always will be eventually.