My response to a Phil Skaggs-endorsed mailer that insultingly cites GRIID to smear a campaign opponent

Editor’s note: GRIID regularly critiques local politicians specifically about the policies they promote or vote for. GRIID also monitor’s campaign financing in a very detailed fashion, since I believe that it says a great deal about a candidate. However, what GRIID does not do and will never do is endorse candidates, and this is primarily because I don’t put much faith in electoral politics and believe that history and work of social movements are the primarily way that change occurs.

I came across a recent political ad that was put out by the Phil Skaggs for State Senate campaign. My thoughts on political ads, especially attack ads are such that they are a despicable form of campaigning, as it often reveals the character of the candidate and team they are working with. The political ad was a mailer and the entity putting it out is Michigan Deserves Better.

When you receive a flyer from Michigan Deserves Better, you are looking at a product meticulously designed to deliver maximum political damage while shielding the actual corporate or private donors funding the operation from the public eye, since as a 501(c) (4) entity they don’t have to disclose their donors. Now, the Skaggs camp might say that they are not responsible for this smear ad, but they haven’t put out a statement says that they don’t support it. Michigan Deserves Better is a tool of the Democratic Party establishment and they will go after anyone who threaten the interests of that establishment.

Above is the front of the mailer that went out which attacks one of the two 29th District State Senate Democratic Party candidates Abbie Groff-Blaszak. Below is the back of the mailer meant to smear Groff-Blaszak. The back of the mailer – here below – includes a quote from a GRIID article, which is interesting and something that I will now respond to.

Ever since I first encountered Phil Skaggs in 2018, when he was a Kent County Commissioner, every interaction I have had with him informed the fact that I have nothing but contempt for him. Skaggs was one of several Democrats on the County Commission that would not support the demand from the immigrant-led group Movimiento Cosecha for Kent County to end their contract with ICE.

During the 14 month campaign, where Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE would attended over a dozen Kent County Commission meetings, Skaggs would consistently ignore what immigrants and allies had to say. What was equally problematic is that he would gaslight immigrant organizers and even referred to some of the tactics used in the campaign as “Bolshevik Cosplay.” Equally outlandish is the fact that years later Skaggs tried to take credit for ending the contract with ICE, along with Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young. I wrote a rather length response to this bastardized account of what actually happened in that campaign, which you can read here.

I have also written several articles over the years about Skaggs as a politician. Phil Skaggs claimed that he came to a protest put on by Black organizers right after the City of Grand Rapids and the GRPD release body cam footage of the GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya. Skaggs posted a paid statement, which I wrote about and provided numerous talking points about Skaggs as a politician that I want to include here.

• When a GRPD liaison (Captain VanderKooi) to Immigration and Customs Enforcement contacted ICE to have Jilmar Ramos-Gomez arrested, Skaggs never condemned the racist profiling of Jilmar, who was not only a citizen of the US, but had served in the US military.
• More than one African American who has served on the Kent County Commission with fellow Democrat Phil Skaggs, has often referred to him as being a bully and a racist. Commissioner Womack was threatened by Skaggs for challenging him to be the minority chair for the Democrats within the County Commission. According to Womack, Skaggs told him that he would ruin his political career if he ever challenged him again.
• After the Movement for Black Lives put out a toolkit on defunding police departments, I wrote an article about candidates that had received funding from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association before 2020, which included Phil Skaggs who had received money from the GRPD union three times.
• In 2020, the Kent County Commission unanimously wanted to provide Care Act funding to Grand Rapids for the specific purpose of purchasing the ShotSpotter technology to be used by the GRPD, despite the overwhelming opposition from Black organizers and residents. Skaggs supported using $500,000 for the GRPD to purchase technology that would promote more government surveillance.

In 2022, Phil Skaggs was elected as the representative for the 80th House District in Michigan. In 2023 the Democrats had control of the Governor’s office, the Michigan Senate and the Michigan House. Despite this trifecta Rep. Skaggs and many of his fellow Democrats failed to pass progressive policies, many of which were promised. The Democrats still voted for increased police funding, maintaining the Prison Industrial Complex, massive subsidies to developers, plus they refused to adopt the policies that renters have been demanding.

Additionally, immigrant justice activists were told that if they supported Democrats in the 2022 Election, they would pass the Drive Safe bills, which would give undocumented immigrants the chance to obtain a driver’s license. The Democrats failed the immigrant community and even during the lame duck session could not get enough votes from their own party to win what they promised to immigrants.

On the matter of questionable sources of campaign finances Phil Skaggs doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Besides taking money from the GRPD union, Skaggs has taken money from the Michigan Realtors PAC and other corporate PACs while running as a State Representative. Skaggs also created his own PAC called PHILPAC, which has also taken money from corporate donors and PACs. We’ll have to wait until late July to look at who is contributing to Skaggs, but if his previous contributors are any indication it will include more corporate donors.

My other major response to the attack ad from Michigan Deserves Better has to do with the quote from GRIID used in the mailer. The source of the GRIID quote used is from an article I wrote in 2020, which looked at the groups that the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation was funding, which included the West Michigan Leadership Academy. Specifically, I wrote:

The West Michigan Leadership Academy is actually part of the NYC Leadership Academy, which just has a subsection on their website for the West Michigan Leadership Academy. One of the major funders listed for the NYC Leadership Academy is he Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation.

The mailer uses the following language: The West Michigan Leadership Academy “is another front group for the DeVos family’s commitment to Neo-Liberal Education model.”

I didn’t use that language specifically referring to the West Michigan Leadership Academy, I never said they were a DeVos front group and the reference to a Neo-Liberal Education model was connected to the Education Network of Greater Grand Rapids. Therefore, the Michigan Deserves Better mailer took my GRIID article out of context and cut and pasted phrases that worked better for their ad smearing Abbie Groff-Blaszak.

Now, I have been tracking how the various DeVos family foundations have used their money over the past 13 years. One of the ways that the DeVos family foundations use their money is to fund non-profits, many of which provide social services or charity to individuals who are struggling. I call that money “hush money”, since it is primarily meant to prevent non-profits from criticizing billionaires like the DeVos family, specifically how they have used their wealth to get public policy adopted which benefits their interests, like the Three Towers Project.

I also recognize that there are many non-profits who take money from the DeVos foundations in order to fund their work, even if it means they have to hold their noses in the process. It is an unjust dynamic that is systemic in what is often referred to as the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. I would suspect that there are dozens of non-profits that Phil Skaggs supports that have taken money from one of the many DeVos foundations, like Baxter Community Center, Linc Up, ICCF or the Kent County Habitat for Humanity, but I doubt he has called them out on taking this money.

In the end, the Michigan Deserves Better mailer that smears Abbie Groff-Blaszak is designed to make Phil Skaggs look good. It doesn’t. In fact, it just makes Skaggs look desperate, since he is relying on mud slinging campaign tactics, which people have come to detest.