AG RACE: Leonard Vs Schuitmaker The Gloves Are Off Brass Knuckles Are On

This past week the race for Michigan Attorney General turned vicious.  Despite using his wife in a campaign commercial, candidate Tom Leonard, sent out a very stern warning to Tonya Shuitmaker stating that his wife was off limits.  He stated that someone, but didn't name who, was poking around trying to get information about his wife's employement.  There have been rumors that there maybe some conflict of interest between his wife's job and the role of Attorney General if he is elected.

Also word got out this week into the Michigan Republican Precinct Delegate Group on Facebook that Tom Leonard donated at least 4 times to liberal Genessee County Prosecutor David Leyton.  Leyton was supported by Planned Parenthood.  


We have included both letters that were sent out to the delegates this week for you to decide who is right.

Here is Tom Leonard's email:

I have received dozens of calls, texts, and emails about the negative campaign being run from my opponent. They even include messages from party leaders within her own congressional district telling her to cut it out.

A strong commitment to our shared conservative principles is important. We need leaders who live up to that high moral standard and who will make us proud. That is why I am so disappointed in Senator Schuitmaker.

Desperate candidates sometimes resort to desperate actions – I get that. Unfortunately, that’s just politics. But after a couple weeks of hit pieces against me, she is now trying to go further and attack my family. That is unacceptable.
We recently found out her campaign consultant has requested personal information about my wife Jenell from her former place of work. I don’t know what Senator Schuitmaker is fishing for, but she is clearly looking for something to attack my wife for her own personal gain. 

This is wrong. This is above and beyond the desperate campaign mudslinging we all hate. My wife and daughter should be absolutely off-limits to personal attacks. If Senator Schuitmaker wants to take her campaign to the gutter, then she should keep focused on me. Leave my family out of it.
I am so deeply disappointed in her, and I feel awful for Jenell. Please know that no matter what my opponents do going forward, I am going to continue to talk about the issues that matter to you and about the conservative successes we have had in the Michigan House.

We all want leaders who will deliver on tax relief, second amendment rights and protecting the unborn. We are doing that in the House every day, and I am proud to run on that record. We all want an Attorney General with a record of fighting crime. In my case, that was on the tough streets of Flint as a prosecutor. I am proud of my law enforcement background, and I will be talking more about that in the days and months ahead as the convention and fall campaign approach.

You have my word – I am going to do all I can to keep my campaign focused on the issues that matter to you and not on the innocent families of my opponents. I know the type of convention campaign I am going to run - honest, effective, well-organized, and strong. It will be a campaign I can be proud of - that my family would be proud of - and that you can be proud to support.

I hope you will join me in sending a message to others that we aren't going to reward desperate actions.

Simply put, Tonya: cut it out. Our families are off limits.
Sincerely,

Tom Leonard

Now here is Tonya Schuitmaker's response:

Yesterday, my opponent in the Attorney General’s race, Tom Leonard, sent an email titled “Desperate campaign attacks” and denounced “the negative campaign being run from my opponent.”


For him to tell people he opposes negative campaigning is quite a shock, because as he’s traveled the state, he criticizes fellow Republicans, and the day I announced my candidacy, a so-called “news” website attacked me and ran Facebook ads promoting the fake news story. Who owns this website? Tom Leonard’s political consultant. Tom Leonard is clearly comfortable with negative campaigning, but only if it suits his political interests and especially when he can hide behind others.

Conservative Intel was outed by the Detroit News as to being a site owned by  John Patrick Yob who owns Strategic National a campaign firm representing Tom Leonard as well as other candidates including U.S. Senate Candidate Sandy Pensler, former U.S Senate Candidate and now one of Several candidates for Congress in the 11th District Lena Epstein, as well as Secretary of State Candidate Stanley Grot.

Why is Tom Leonard suddenly against “negative campaigning”? Because my campaign is letting Delegates know that he donated repeatedly to a liberal Democrat’s campaign. This liberal Democrat was endorsed by Planned Parenthood and was weak on illegal immigration. In fact, when the Attorney General’s seat was last open, in 2010, Tom Leonard donated to liberal Democrat David Leyton, who Bill Schuette defeated in the general election.

Tom Leonard says, “I didn’t recently become a conservative because I wanted to pander to delegates.” If he’s been a conservative for such a long time, why did he donate over and over and over to a liberal Democrat? The Attorney General’s Office is very important in Michigan and Delegates deserve to know this information; Tom Leonard is certainly not sharing it as he campaigns around the state.

Fake Outrage

In yesterday’s email, my opponent specifically accused me and my campaign of “trying to go further and attack my family”, “requesting personal information about my wife”, and “clearly looking for something to attack my wife”. He added, “my wife and daughter should be off-limits to personal attacks” and that he feels “awful” for his wife.

So, what supposedly caused these comments? A Freedom of Information request was made to find out the taxpayer-funded salary and benefits of the Head of the Film Office, the entity that distributed film tax credits until its core function was eliminated in 2015. Yep, that’s it. The Mackinac Center requests this public information on a regular basis and our campaign is doing a standard check to see the latest information as we review his record.

Strong American Campaigns

American campaigns are about a vigorous exchange of ideas, sharing your vision and differentiating with the opposition. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson fought it out, along with Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, George W. Bush and John McCain, and we all witnessed the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary. Abraham Lincoln would have never won the Republican nomination for president if his team had avoided differentiating himself from the other Republican candidates. In Michigan, the Gubernatorial candidates are mixing it up, just as they do every time the seat is open, and elections all across our state will contain disagreements among candidates, but the people will sort it out and our democracy will go on as it always has.

Since our country survived the strong campaign tactics of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Donald Trump and our Michigan candidates, I suspect we will survive some back-and-forth in the Attorney General’s race. I believe the biggest shame would be to keep information hidden from Delegates during the nomination process, and then we find out a candidate’s vulnerabilities in a general election against the Democrats, or if elected, people are surprised by the newly elected official’s actions. Our party is most definitely intellectually strong enough that we can have fact-based discussions in elections throughout our state, so the Delegates and voters can make informed decisions.

Sincerely,


Tonya Schuitmaker