POLITICS, BIG MONEY & RELIGION SATURATE HARTLAND’S SCHOOL BOARD RACE

10/19/24 

The Hartland Business Association (HBA) is partially responsible for the Clean Slate extremist school board members winning at midterms and is likely supporting the Clean Slate 2.0 candidates Yarber, Baird and Scott.

The HBA is influencing nonpartisan races by funding candidates who align with their politics and will serve their interests. A small, select group making large dollar donations to political candidates is dangerous. This influence peddling poses a real threat of partisan favoritism and school policy manipulation, with the possibility of sidelining actual education concerns. The HBA is functioning as a Political Action Committee (PAC), searching for and promoting candidates, but without transparency so we will shine some light on this shadowy organization…

Concerned community members have requested to know where the Clean Slate 2.0 is getting so much money from as the estimate for the signs and ads alone is in the thousands. However, during the last campaign finance reporting cycle, Yarber, Baird and Scott filed waivers that claimed they didn’t expect to spend over $1,000. The Clean Slate 2.0 refuses to respond to questions regarding who is funding their campaign, but we can make some educated guesses…

HARTLAND BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

After midterms, financial reports for the four Hartland school board candidates running on the “Clean Slate’ (Greg Keller, Glenn Gogoleski, Bob Merwin, & Michelle Blondeel) showed that the Hartland Business Association contributed almost three thousand dollars to the Clean Slate’s campaign. This is in contradiction to their website which states, that "the HBA chose to join with others to support a slate of four candidates for the open positions on the school board. While our organization’s financial support was small (<$1,000), our impact was significant.”

LOCAL GOP & DARK MONEY

Before midterms there were text messages sent attacking Hartland schools/supporting the Clean Slate that were “Paid for by Wes Nakagiri, Chairman of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners" Similar emails were distributed by the Hartland Business Association. We even saw countywide coordinated propaganda mailers spreading fear inducing misinformation paid for by the “Livingston County Republican Party”promoting school board extremist candidates. (These "in-kind donations" were not reported on the financial reports we reviewed of the Clean Slaters).

There were also local GOP financial donors like Wes Nakagiri, Connie Robinson (long time republican convention delegate) Janine Iyre (GOP executive committee member -more info in comments), etc. This is in addition to new friends this election like Betsy Devos (whose PAC is paying to advertise Scott/Baird/Yarber) the Grand New Party PAC (lead by a N@zi sympathizer, Yarber attended their fundraiser), Turning Point USA (multi million dollar national org), etc. -more info in comments.

RELIGIOUS FRIENDS

Another significantly large donation outside of the HBA was over $1,000 given by a deeply evangelical individual. This along with the HBA and local GOP donors accounted for over half of the Clean Slate’s total campaign contributions.

It is clear that the Hartland Business Association, local GOP and religious friends were largely responsible for the Clean Slate extremist school board slate winning during midterms and it is these entities that are likely backing Clean Slate 2.0 (Yarber/Baird/Scott) right now.

And it's not just financial help they are getting from religious friends. This election, MAGA churches like Floodgate openly endorse Clean Slate 2.0 candidates (Yarber/Baird/Scott) which is illegal and jeopardizes their tax exempt status with the IRS. MAGA pastors in Hartland like Bill Bollin (info in comments) inviting the Clean Slate 2.0 candidates on his stage and preaching his support to thousands of followers is a massive boost to their campaign. Bill Bolin also contributed financially to the Clean Slate's campaign.

The HBA is also providing other resources to help spread the Clean Slate 2.0’s anti-public education/wild disinformation campaign. The following is what the Hartland Business Association’s vice president, Michael Cain, blasted as a mass message to his contacts in a (poor) attempt to get people to show up to September’s school board meeting;

“Hartland School Board, is being forced to vote & knowingly lose a bad vote. DOJ enforced a gag order. They lost their free speech. Our candidates cannot speak out. They were threatened with Trump like lawsuits, to bankrupt them. One is quitting now. Very sad. Another is losing all hope. Our effort has been squashed. Hopeless...tbd? Parents rights are being stolen. Children's free speech rights are being taken away. Unconstitutional, new rules. Policy will require teachers to report young kids that say politically incorrect things. Teachers are being given police like power. Pure n@zi evil tactics. The kids should be spanked. The parents reprimanded. But old school, is out. The new policy will force the kids to go on a list like sex offenders. A permanent list that will follow them for life. Administered by the FBI & the DOJ. Teachers will get brownie points for being snitches. Need to contact the school board members or candidates, but they can't say much. Get up to speed! This is pure crazy and horribly wrong! Bring 100 ladies, dressed in red, to support the conservatives.”

Fun side note: Only SIX people showed up to that school board meeting wearing red, two of which are Clean Slate 2.0 candidates, so really only four!

Not-so-fun reality: This is a lot of money and resources working against the school board candidates that our teachers overwhelmingly support. Read Hartland’s teachers words as they speak out about the damage the Clean Slate has inflicted upon the district since being seated and how scared they are of the Clean Slate 2.0 (Yarber/Baird/Scott) winning by clicking the link to the 2023-24 staff survey comments below (also in comments) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/foRmedtfrwkmaYGS/

The Clean Slate candidates were bought and paid for in part by the business community, the majority of which don't even have school aged children. So much money being put into local races by a small group of big donors means that their campaign is NOT built on a broad consensus of voters, but rather the personal interests of a few who are trying to further their own agenda. This influence peddling not only is a threat to our democratic process, but can have devastating impacts on our school district and children.  

Hartland teachers have clearly stated that they need our help! You must start talking about this crucial school board election with everyone you know in Hartland. Take a minute right now and think of 5 people you can text this website to check out who the teachers have endorsed as the most qualified candidates for school board.

Known Hartland Business Association contributors to the Clean Slate (there may have been others)

-William Crouse (aka Frank Crouse) of Waldenwoods gave; $1,000 to Keller, $125 Gogoleski, $125 Blondeel, $125 Merwin

-Doug Kuhn gave 500$ to Gogoleski

-Thomas Parshall (Deer Crack and Imc Products Production Graphics) gave $500 to Gogoleski

-Michael Cain (Michigan Engineered Comfort Corporation) gave $500 to Blondeel

^NONE OF THESE HBA LEADERS HAVE KIDS IN THE HARTLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT^

Current HBA Officers, Directors and members:

-Frank/William Crouse, President 586-940-4187 crousefr@comcast.net (Waldenwoods)

-Michael Cain, Vice President hvac@mecc1.com (Michigan Engineered Comfort Corporation)

-Kelly McPherson, Treasurer kdle99@aol.com (Animal Crackers)

-Brian Crouse, Secretary 810-623-8742 crousebr@waldenwoods.com (Waldenwoods)

-Tom Parshall, Director 810-333-6947 tom@imcproducts.com (Deer Crack and Imc Products Production Graphics)

Note: the above contact info was found posted publicly.

Doug Kuhn, Wes Nakagiri (County Commissioner), Denise O'Connell (current Hartland Township Trustee & candidate), Brett Lubeski (Hartland Township Trustee candidate), Glenn Wilkinson, Kelly & Dave McPherson, Kevin Brennan, LouAnn Lathrop (Hartland Township Trustee candidate), Mike Horan, Summer McMullen (Hartland Township Trustee candidate), and Susanne Bianchette.

Screenshots and links in the comments of this post.