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Image: Courtesy City of East Lansing
The question this week: Who funded Ruth Beier’s campaign?
Some background: Last week we answered a reader’s inquiry about who funded Susan Woods’ campaign for Council. In response, readers asked us to also examine and report who funded the other current Councilmembers’ campaigns. I asked our Managing Editor Ann Nichols to roll a die to determine which campaign I’d review next. This week we are looking at Ruth Beier’s campaign.
How I investigated the answer: I went to the Ingham County Clerk elections website and clicked on “campaign finance report search” and then searched under Beier’s name. Doing so gave me all the correspondence about her campaign. (You can do this with any candidate.) I focused on the campaign reports marked “received” October 25, 2013 and April 21, 2014 because those are the ones that listed her donors.
What the campaign finance reports show: From the time Beier began accepting campaign contributions in April, 2013, through her election in November, 2013, her campaign collected $8,339 in contributions. (I find no donations after the election.) The donations are shown below in table form. Here is what they show:
Only about 11.5% of Beier’s donations came from East Lansing residents (excluding her own donations to her campaign). These totaled $960 and came from 7 of the 81 individuals donating. (Note that the seven included me and my spouse, and that this election predated East Lansing Info’s creation as a local 501c3 nonprofit news source in July, 2014.)
Beier is a labor economist for the Michigan Education Association (MEA), a teachers’ union that describes itself as “representing about 150,000 teachers, education support professionals and higher-education employees throughout the state.” Her donations, largely from individuals scattered across the state of Michigan, came mostly from fellow MEA employees.
Beier accepted donations from two PACs, including $100 from the Michigan Education Association PAC (a union organization), and $50 from the Lansing Area for Human Rights PAC (an LGBT rights PAC).
There are no apparent donations to Beier’s campaign from individuals with active financial business before Council. Beier has said that when she was offered campaign donations from individuals who were expected to have financial business before Council, she refused those donations.
Most of Beier’s fundraising occurred within a month of beginning her candidacy in April of 2013.
Donor information : The campaign reports marked “received” October 25, 2013 and April 21, 2014 show the following:
Person |
Info |
Date |
Amount |
Ruth Beier |
Candidate |
4/4/13 |
994 |
Aron Sousa |
Sunset Lane, East Lansing; this reporter’s spouse |
4/8/13 |
250 |
Alice Dreger |
Sunset Lane, East Lansing; this reporter |
4/8/13 |
250 |
Renee Szuma |
Grand Rapids, MI |
4/7/13 |
50 |
Stu Skyage |
Ishpeming, MI |
4/17/13 |
100 |
Chuck Agerstrand |
Owosso, MI |
4/17/13 |
100 |
Steve Cook |
Lake Odessa, MI |
4/17/13 |
100 |
George Beier, Sr. |
Sequim, WA |
4/17/13 |
500 |
Bill Curtis |
Traverse City, MI |
4/17/13 |
50 |
Ervin Pratt |
Haslett, MI |
4/20/13 |
100 |
Tanya Pratt |
Haslett, MI |
4/20/13 |
100 |
Marcella Hartung |
Jackson, MI |
4/20/13 |
50 |
Barb Curtis |
Traverse City, MI |
4/20/13 |
50 |
Kia Hagens |
Detroit, MI |
4/20/13 |
50 |
Michelle Isreal |
Port Huron, MI |
4/20/13 |
25 |
John Beier |
Edison, NJ |
4/20/13 |
250 |
Mary Halley |
Jonesville, MI |
4/20/13 |
25 |
Sophie Beier |
Cranford, NJ |
4/20/13 |
25 |
David Crim |
Haslett, MI |
4/24/13 |
5 |
Thad Beier |
San Francisco, CA |
4/24/13 |
250 |
Bruce Grusecki |
Washington, MI |
5/1/13 |
100 |
George Przygodski |
Farmington Hills, MI |
5/1/13 |
50 |
Krista Abbott |
Grand Rapids, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
Chris Dusich |
Temperance, MI |
4/25/13 |
50 |
Dan McCarthy |
Southfield, MI |
4/25/13 |
50 |
Van Collins |
Saginaw, MI |
4/25/13 |
50 |
David Stafford |
Milford, MI |
4/25/13 |
50 |
Dennis Kubas |
Novi, MI |
4/24/13 |
50 |
Steven L. Smith |
Minocqua, WI |
4/24/13 |
25 |
Daniel Madejczyk |
Buchanan, MI |
4/24/13 |
100 |
Nancy Czamiecki |
Ann Arbor, MI |
4/23/13 |
100 |
Aesha Baldwin |
Ada, MI |
4/23/13 |
100 |
Nacne Duncan |
St. Joseph, MI |
4/23/13 |
50 |
Bruce Beckman |
Spring Lake, MI |
4/23/15 |
50 |
Wendy Heinig |
Harrison, MI |
4/23/13 |
50 |
Lisa Harrison |
Mason, MI |
4/23/13 |
10 |
Sue Rutherford |
Saginaw, MI |
4/23/13 |
50 |
William Bell |
White Lake, MI |
4/23/13 |
100 |
Jennifer Miller |
Mount Clemens, MI |
4/23/13 |
100 |
Saun Strobel |
Birch Run, MI |
4/23/13 |
100 |
Kathy Trongo |
Port Huron, MI |
4/23/13 |
100 |
Mary Henson |
Lansing, MI |
4/23/13 |
50 |
Sandy Paesans |
Bellevue, MI |
4/22/13 |
50 |
Jim Berryman |
Adrian, MI |
4/22/13 |
100 |
William Kuiper |
Muskegon, MI |
5/7/13 |
50 |
Craig Culver |
Spring Lake, MI |
4/19/13 |
100 |
Kimberly Edwards |
Lathrup Village, MI |
4/17/13 |
50 |
Mark Middlewood |
Royal Oak, MI |
4/16/13 |
50 |
Steven Amberg |
Huntington Woods, MI |
4/16/13 |
50 |
Gerald Haymond |
Farmington Hills, MI |
4/16/13 |
100 |
Terry LaJeunesse |
Hougton, MI |
4/16/13 |
25 |
Jon Toppen |
Grand Haven, MI |
4/16/13 |
25 |
Melvina Gillespie |
Kalamazoo, MI |
4/15/13 |
50 |
Jordan Harris |
Berkley, MI |
4/15/13 |
25 |
Sandy Grier-McGarvey |
Gregory, MI |
4/15/13 |
50 |
Tracy Stablien-Brooks |
Saint Clair, MI |
4/15/13 |
50 |
Robert Kwiatkoski |
Cheboygan, MI |
4/15/13 |
100 |
Helen Brish |
Woodhaven, MI |
4/15/13 |
50 |
Ken Sperber |
Sunset Lane, East Lansing |
4/10/13 |
30 |
Ruth Beier |
Candidate |
4/7/13 |
10 |
George Beier, Jr. |
Berkeley, CA |
4/24/13 |
500 |
Roberta Beier |
Kansas City, MO |
4/26/13 |
250 |
Ray Vlasin |
Cricket Lane, East Lansing |
8/13/13 |
200 |
Rulesha Payne |
Caledonia, MI |
7/23/13 |
100 |
Suzanne Clark |
Williamston, MI |
5/23/13 |
100 |
Tim Smith |
Grand Haven, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
Evelyn Baran |
Farmington Hills, MI |
8/1/13 |
100 |
Mike Schroeder |
Sturgis, MI |
8/1/13 |
20 |
Rick Flynn |
Sterling Heights, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
H. William Dungey |
Grand Rapids, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
Freya Weberman |
Huntington Woods, MI |
5/23/13 |
100 |
Jill K. Baker |
Bramble Drive, East Lansing |
8/24/13 |
100 |
Sue Hoard |
Washington, MI |
4/28/13 |
50 |
Brad Gibson |
Dexter, MI |
4/26/13 |
50 |
John Folsom |
Bay City, MI |
4/26/13 |
25 |
Ric Hogerheide |
Grand Blanc, MI |
4/26/13 |
50 |
Rondy Murray |
Lansing, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
Barb Cameron |
Howell, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
Mary Lieberman |
Petoskey, MI |
4/26/13 |
100 |
Nancy Knight |
Emerald Forest Circle, East Lansing |
4/24/13 |
30 |
Andy Neumann |
Alpena, MI |
7/8/13 |
40 |
Frank Knox |
Glenhaven, East Lansing |
10/8/13 |
100 |
Michigan Education Association PAC |
teachers’ union PAC |
8/25/13 |
100 |
Lansing Association for Human Rights PAC |
LGBT PAC |
9/15/13 |
50 |
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