Campaign Finance records show that the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association recently contributed money to two local Democratic Politicians

Shortly after the national uprising against the police lynching of George Floyd, we posted an article about which area politicians had been receiving funding from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association (GRPOA) PAC since 2014. 

There were several candidates who received contributions from the GRPD union who were running for office as City Commissioners or Mayors, which are non-partisan races. However, in most of the partisan races, the GRPOA PAC has overwhelmingly contributed to Democrats. This was the case for 2020 so far, based on data from the Michigan Secretary of State, with the two candidates taking contributions from the GRPD union being Democrats. 

Kent County Commissioner Carol Hennessy and State Senator Winnie Brinks both took $500 contributions from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association (GRPOA) PAC.

I sent an e-mail to both Hennessy and Brinks, asking the following question:

I saw that your re-election campaign received $500 from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association PAC earlier this year. The US is in the midst of one of the largest social movements in history – the anti-police violence/Defunding the Police movement. Considering this fact, why would you take money from a police union?

One could certainly argue that neither Hennessy or Brinks would need the $500 from the cop union to run an affective re-election campaign, so why would they accept this money?

In addition, as we reported, the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association endorsed the far right candidate for the 3rd Congressional seat, Tom Norton. 

One would think that the since the GRPOA endorsed a far right politician would be enough of a reason to not accept any campaign contributions from them, but here we have two Democrats taking money right in the midst of a massive social movement, which is calling for the Police to be Defunded.

As of this writing, I have not heard back from Commissioner Hennessy, nor from Senator Brinks.