We now know who was funding the deceptive mailers used during the Grand Rapids First Ward race in 2024

For several weeks just before the November 2024 elections in Grand Rapids, people in the 1st Ward were receiving deceptive and misleading mailers that were attacking candidate Alicia Marie Belchak. 

The mailers were claiming that Alicia Marie Belchak had supporters who favored defunding the police, even though the claim was completely bogus. As I noted in an article from October 30th:

If you look at the Belchak’s campaign website, the candidate survey from MLive, the one done by The Rapidian or the Voter Guide done by the Urban Core Collective, none of those candidate surveys suggest that Belchak wants to Defund the Police. In fact, on her own campaign website, candidate Belchak states: “As a mom, I know that strong, safe, vibrant neighborhoods are essential. That means funding public safety….” This statement is accompanied by a photo of Belchak and a GRPD officer sitting in his cruiser. 

The group behind the mailers was the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR. During the last campaign finance reporting deadline in October of 2024, there was no funds going to the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR. I did discover that there were people listed as part of the group, as I noted in my October story.

However, after checking the Michigan Secretary of State’s campaign finance records on Saturday, the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR finally submitted their campaign finance records. The Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR received $200,000 and spent nearly all of it. According to the expenditures portion of the campaign finance requirements, the group had 9 different expenses, with 6 of them contracted with a entity on Salt Lake City, Utah, two expenditures to a firm in Dallas, Texas, and one group – Right Strategies LLC, which has an office in East Grand Rapids on Wealthy St.

Regarding the contributions to the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR, all $200,000 came from one source, Maintain Our Majority PAC. The Maintain Our Majority PAC only has a page that allows you to make a contribution and has an address a PO Box.

However, on the contributions page from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office, there is an address for the Maintain Our Majority PAC, which is 220 LYONS ST NW SUITE 510, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503. When you look up that address, it is listed as SIBSCO, the real estate firm that was started by the Secchia family, which is now run by Charlie Secchia. Charlie Secchia is following in his father’s footstep, by being part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. According to campaign finance records from the Kent County Clerk’s office, Charlie Secchia and his mother Joan, each contributed $1,225 to Dean Pacific, the very candidate that was running against Alicia Marie Belchak. 

So, we have a member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure, Charlie Secchia, a person who is a Republican precinct delegate in Ada, who comes from a family that has provided millions to the Republican Party, and has his business office listed as the sole source of funds ($200,000) used to smear a candidate for a non-partisan race, claiming that people in the candidate’s camp wanted to defund the police. Here is just another concrete example of how the Grand Rapids Power Structure works, by using their wealth to deceive the public, while hiding behind a name like Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR.