Mount Clemens — If Attorney General Dana Nessel had simply rolled over and tapped the shoulder of the person at the next pillow over, the current state of Michigan politics might look very different.
We may have had a different governor. We may have had functioning schools, affordable energy, or a growing economy. But we don’t have any of that.
Had Nessel done that, I certainly would not have had an ex-con standing in the lobby of the Macomb County Circuit Court earlier this week, hoisting his middle finger to my nose, his lawyer warning him not to do something stupid.
But there he was, dear reader, giving me (and you) the one-finger salute. Shawn Wilmoth is charged with a raft of felonies in connection with the fake signature scandal of 2022. His dirty work, Nessel contends, led to five Republican contenders for governor getting the boot from the primary ballot—including former Detroit Police Chief James E. Craig, who was leading Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the polls.
The candidates had paid Wilmoth’s firm, First Choice Contracting LLC, hundreds of thousands of dollars to gather signatures for their nominating petitions. In the end, state election officials determined that tens of thousands of those signatures were fakes and forgeries.
Squirming at the elevator doors, Wilmoth did not carry the look of a political mastermind. He looked like a worn-out carnival barker. He wore greasy hair, a leather biker vest, and a stain on his shirt.
Why five candidates would hire Wilmoth is anybody’s guess. A simple internet search shows Wilmoth was convicted in Virginia in 2011 of election fraud, having instructed employees to fraudulently sign petition pages.
To this effect, Nessel offered a smug lecture to the hapless candidates at a June 2022 press conference, after announcing charges against Wilmoth.
“I think that just googling some of these individuals would have seen things pop up from other states,” Nessel said. “Know who you are trusting with you money, your reputation and with your political future.”
That is very good advice. Very good advice, indeed. Advice so good that Nessel should have given it to her wife.
As it happens, Nessel’s wife, Alanna Maguire, was co-chair of Fair and Equal Michigan, a campaign organized to enshrine gay rights into Michigan law.
Fair and Equal hired Wilmoth’s firm in 2020 to gather 340,000 legitimate signatures. The group paid First Choice more than $1 million over a two month period, according to campaign finance filings.
A second firm, K2K Consulting, was paid an additional $250,000 by Fair and Equal to gather signatures during the same time period.
K2K is the Democratic-connected firm that received a controversial no-bid Covid contract from the state.
The deal was canceled once it became public.
When it was all said and done, election officials found that about 200,000 of the First Choice signatures were invalid for varying reasons: Signers didn’t exist in the voting rolls, some had incorrect or non-existent addresses, and some signatures that did not match those on file.
Ultimately, the gay rights proposal—like the Republican candidates after it—was blocked from the ballot.
So why then did Nessel do nothing? Was it family embarrassment? Professional incompetence? Something more cynical?
“This guy is a walking crime wave,” said Fred Wszolek, a political strategist whose group Unlock Michigan was criminally investigated by the attorney general in 2020 for petition gathering activities. “He gets paid untold thousands of dollars for bogus signatures. He does it over and over again. You think Nessel would have dropped the anvil on this guy. It’s hard to figure.”
As for Wilmoth, his pretrial hearing was inexplicably delayed yet again. His next appearance is scheduled for March 10th.
A clean shirt and manicure are highly recommended.
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff.
