Barrett misused $40K of campaign funds, End Citizens United alleges in FEC complaint

Michigan State of the State - January 29, 2020

State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, talks with reporters after Governor Gretchen Whitmer's State of the State address to legislators on the House floor at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, on Wednesday, January 29, 2020. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

End Citizens United has filed a campaign finance complaint against state Sen. Tom Barrett, accusing him of violating campaign finance laws in the fledgling days of his congressional campaign.

Filed Wednesday, Sept. 21, the complaint accuses Barrett, R-Charlotte, of allegedly violating federal election law when spending a cumulative $40,000 of state campaign funds on his bid for the 7th U.S. House district.

That money, the group alleges, was moved from Barrett’s state Senate campaign committee to the political consulting form Roe Strategic in four payments of $10,000 for efforts listed as “redistricting consulting.” End Citizens United believes this labeling is misleading as Michigan has its own Independent Citizen’s Redistricting Commission (ICRC) and state lawmakers had no direct impact on the finalization of chosen maps.

Further, they contend, redrawn maps had already been approved by the public prior to the payments even beginning, drawing further questions on the true nature of the payments.

Barrett’s first payment is listed as occurring Oct. 28, 2021, 13 days before Barrett registered his congressional committee with the Federal Election Commission and roughly three weeks before announcing his run for federal office. Three more $10,000 payments to Roe Strategic from Barrett’s state committee, for the same reasons, also occurred on Nov. 10, Nov. 19 and Dec. 15 of 2021.

Barrett officially announced his candidacy on Nov. 15 of that same year.

RELATED: Slotkin, Barrett advance to November in tossup Michigan congressional race

Following the announcement of his campaign, Barrett’s congressional committee began paying Roe Strategic what would end up being more than $114,300 for strategic consulting fees.

Jason Roe, principal at Roe Strategic, told MLive that the accusations within the complaint are wrong.

“I was working with him on the redistricting process as he was looking at where his Senate district, what his final district, was going to be,” he said. “This was all related to redistricting. It has nothing to do with his congressional campaign.”

As for why the payments occurred around the same time the ICRC was wrapping its work, Roe remarked that the redistricting process remained fluid throughout 2021, saying: “There was nothing final about the maps.”

“Everybody knows this is a very fluid process. There were legal challenges and a lot of shoes to drop into 2022,” he said.

According to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, using funds from a candidate’s state campaign to help run for federal office is prohibited.

End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller characterized the spending as being dishonest and slammed Barrett in a statement sent to MLive.

“He dishonestly spent tens of thousands of his state campaign cash on his congressional campaign, then lied about what he used that money for,” she said. “We’re asking the FEC to immediately investigate Barrett and hold him accountable.”

Barrett is facing off against U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, who has represented a version of the district since first elected to office in 2018. He progressed in the August primary after his sole Republican competitor, Jake Hagg, was disqualified from appearing on the primary ballot because of insufficient petition signatures.

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