KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The race between Rep. Brandt Iden and pastor John Fisher is heating up.
There is more than just a House seat at stake. Control of the Michigan House of Representatives could be up for grabs on Nov. 8.
Fisher, the Democratic challenger, says Iden is distorting the facts on his failure to file a timely financial report by “taking something that is a simple clerical error and making it sound like it was a felony.”
The incumbent Republican says Fisher is equally guilty when he “blatantly runs false ads against me pertaining to my business background.” Democrats are putting money into Fisher’s campaign and Gov. Rick Snyder has sent finances to the Iden campaign because it’s one race that could flip from red to blue.
And while both bemoan the fact that it’s gone negative, both of them appear personally in ads that attack each other. Outside groups are also running attack ads that the candidates have no control over, adding to the nastiness of the battle for the 61th district.
On the same day, that those two swapped allegations, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Brandon Dillon was in Van Buren County announcing that they were expanding their official complaint allegeing election violations against Republican Candidate Beth Griffin.
They had already filed a complaint with the secretary of state that she was using her county commission email site to send out campaign related messages. They were expanding their complaint because they found messages acquried through the Freedom of Information Act that explicitly suggested that Griffin knew that using the system was “not Kosher.”
Griffin and Democrat Annie Brown are running for the seat that is being left vacant by Rep. Aric Nesbitt, who is term-limited. Nesbitt has come to Griffin’s defense, saying the Democrats are playing dirty politics when they should be sticking to the issues.
Dillon called that a deflection not a defense, and says honesty and transparency are issues when you are running for public office.
Dillon says they face an uphill battle to flip nine seats because he says the state is “gerrymandered” to favor Republican candidates. He says they have no plans to coast in behind Hillary Clinton’s big poll numbers, and will be campaigning hard right up until the election.
