FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
September 24, 2014
Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org
Snyder Administration Sells Access to Chief of Staff
Dennis Muchmore named in documents detailing scheme to sell access to corporate donors
LANSING — According to a report in the New York Times, Dennis Muchmore, chief of staff to Governor Rick Snyder, was listed in a document detailing a system that allows corporate donors to buy access to senior staff of Republican governors. The documents detail the schedule of a symposium in Carlsbad, CA attended by Muchmore as a senior staffer to Governor Rick Snyder. In return for large donations, corporations were granted access to Muchmore and other staffers.
“Giving corporations a $1.8 billion tax giveaway is only one of the perks that corporate donors get under Gov. Snyder’s watch. They also get to rub elbows and have direct access to his chief of staff,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “We know that corporations get special treatment in Snyder’s administration, as evidenced by the power wielded by Muchmore during the Aramark scandal. These revelations are extremely troubling. Who do Gov. Snyder and Muchmore work for, Michigan voters or their corporate donors?”
Recently released documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Progress Michigan, showed that Department of Corrections Director Dan Heyns quietly cancelled a $98,000 fine issued to Aramark after an email conversation with Dennis Muchmore. After the cancellation of the fine came to light, Gov. Snyder claimed that he did not know the fine was forgiven.
“Who is running our state government?” Scott questioned. “Either Gov. Snyder is lying to Michiganders about his knowledge of the cancellation or he has allowed his Chief of Staff to unilaterally make decisions about highly controversial state contracts without prior approval or even informing him after the fact. Now, with this revelation that Muchmore attended these events with corporate donors we have to ask who is running the State of Michigan? This is either a sign of a totally corrupt governor or proof that Gov. Snyder has lost control of his administration. At some point the governor needs to be held accountable.”
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