LANSING, Mich. – Two Republican operatives who led the fundraising effort for the Unlock Michigan Petition have been charged with campaign finance violations and perjury.
It was the campaign that ended Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency powers during the COVID pandemic.
Both women charged Wednesday, Feb. 21, are well known in Lansing circles as highly capable fundraisers. It is in that capacity that they’re in hot water. The Michigan Attorney General said their behavior was criminal when it came to generating money for the successful Unlock Michigan effort.
At the height of the COVID pandemic, Whitmer was using the 1945 Emergency Powers Act to enact sweeping health and safety restrictions that shut down schools, businesses and and put limitations on most public life.
There was pushback by both the then Republican-led legislature and the public. An effort to repeal Whitmer’s powers, Unlock Michigan, was successful and gathered more than 460,000 signatures and the Michigan Legislature voted to enact the ballot initiative, which repealed those powers.
The Michigan Attorney General said what happened is that fundraising for the effort was shady and was done to conceal who was donating and how much.
Heather Lombardini has been charged with two counts of campaign finance - failing to file a statement of organization, one county campaign finance - failing to file a campaign statement, and one count of uttering and publishing, a 14-year felony.
Sandy Baxter has been charged with one count of perjury, a 15-year felony.
Michigan AG Dana Nessel said Lomarbini, a well-known Lansing fundraiser, took in money for the effort and failed to follow campaign finance laws. Baxter was charged with perjury for reportedly lying to the investigators.
Authorities believe both women coordinated with the then-Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey to funnel more than $2.4 million of so-called dark money into the Unlock Michigan effort, reportedly 86% of all its funding.
Shirkey hasn’t been charged with anything. Nessel said that illustrates how Michigan’s campaign finance laws need to be overhauled.