A $10,000 donation from the Gongwer News Service to the Senate Democratic Fund was reported erroneously by the Democrats, the Lansing insider site says. Gongwer made no such donation.
After Michigan Enjoyer reported the July 16 donation, which is listed on the Michigan campaign finance site, Gongwer Michigan President Zach Gorchow reached out. Gorchow wrote:
“Gongwer has never contributed to any candidate or political cause. The Senate Democratic Fund erroneously reported on its quarterly statement that Gongwer donated to it. We immediately informed them of the error, and they posted an amended statement removing the false information. Unfortunately, the erroneous information will remain posted in the original statement the SDF filed.”
The amended filing shows the Senate Democrats paying $910 in subscription fees to Gongwer, but removes the $10,000 donation.
This means a $10,000 mistake—whoops!—was made by the Senate Democrats in their initial campaign filing.
In an email to Gongwer, shared with Michigan Enjoyer, the Senate Democratic Fund owned the mistake.
“I sincerely apologize for the misattributed contribution,” wrote Molly McNary, executive director of the fund. “We identified the cause of the issue in MiTN and it will not occur again.”
Gorchow, in his email to McNary, expressed “extreme concern” that the mistake could wrongly tar the news site.
“I’m sure you can understand our extreme concern at anyone thinking Gongwer contributes to a campaign or PAC,” Gorchow wrote. “I’m not sure how this error occurred, but we ask that the SDF take measures to avoid a similar error in future reports.”
News sites generally do not donate to politicians or causes, especially even-handed sites like Gongwer, which rely on relationships with Democrats and Republicans both. Some news sites allow donations from individual journalists.
Michigan Enjoyer reached out to the Senate Democratic Fund to learn the nature of this error.
Last year, we reported that Gongwer receives six figures annually in subscription fees from the state. MIRS, another news site for Lansing insiders, gets the same sweet deal.
