ASK ELi: Who Funded Ruth Beier's Campaign?

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Friday, June 12, 2015, 12:00 am
By: 
Alice Dreger

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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