FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
May 15, 2019
Progress Michigan Calls for Immediate Investigation into Inman Bribery Scandal
Inman text indicates other representatives were willing to sell their vote for campaign contributions
LANSING — Progress Michigan is calling on House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Leader Mike Shirkey to launch investigations into the Larry Inman bribery scandal. Larry Inman was indicted by a federal Grand Jury for his role in asking a labor union for campaign contributions in exchange for a “no” vote on repealing Michigan’s prevailing wage law. However, the text message named in the indictment shows Inman was seeking campaign contributions for 12 members of the legislature.
“We know Inman sent the text message but what we don’t know is who the other 11 elected officials are or what they knew about the scheme to sell their votes,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “It’s important to know the full scope of this scandal and the only way to get to the bottom of it is for both the House and Senate leadership to launch internal investigations immediately.”
The text message sent by Inman to the Carpenters Union makes clear that other representatives were part of his scheme to get campaign contributions in exchange for votes:
“I have heard most got $5,000 not $30,000,” he wrote, according to the text quoted in the indictment. “They will give you the check back. I am not sure you can hold 12 people for the only help of $5,000. My suggestion is you need to get people maxed out. … People will not go down for $5,000, not that we dont appreciate it. Please get with the all the trades by Monday, I would suggest maxing out on all 12, or at least doubling what you have given them on Tuesday, asap, we never had this discussion, Larry.”
“This is exactly why Progress Michigan has called for the legislature to be subject to FOIA for years,” Scott continued. “The people of this state deserve to know if others were part of this scheme to sell their votes and if they were approached by any other organizations seeking to buy their votes with campaign contributions. We know the other 11 were house members last year, are the currently serving in the House? Are some them newly elected Senators? We call on Leader Mike Shirkey and Speaker Lee Chatfield to investigate and identify ‘Inman’s Dirty Dozen’ so the public knows which of their officials were looking to sell their votes.”