Detroit mayoral campaign gifts from unidentified sources reflect "the abysmally low standard applied to political fund-raising in Michigan," the Free Press editorial board says.
It cites an example that "sure flunks the smell test:"
Detroit Forward, a super PAC supporting Detroit mayoral candidate Benny Napoleon, received a substantial donation from a 501(c)4 — the kind of nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors — called the Michigan Community Education Fund.
At the head of both organizations? A Detroit businessman named Chris Jackson.
The pro-Napoleon super PAC got at least $149,.000 this fall from the nonprofit Jackson created Sept. 26 -- its single largest donor, according to the paper's lengthy Sunday editorial, headlined with the phrase atop this summary.
For voters who want to understand who’s paying for political campaigns, the trail goes dead.
Detroit Forward . . . [is] a symptom of a broken campaign finance system that abets special interests who seek to manipulate the political process without leaving fingerprints. . . .
As for the Michigan Community Education Fund, it may never be clear who funded it, or even how its money was spent. . . . It could be more than a year before its financial documents — which won’t include donors’ names — are public.
