GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) ? While it doesn't provide a definitive answer, the Michigan State Police report on Roy Schmidt's efforts to recruit a fake candidate to run against him provides some clues to why he got into this mess when he switched to become a Republican.
"He said for basically fundraising," said Matt Mojzak, the 22-year-old Schmidt recruited to run against him. "Because if (Schmidt) didn't have somebody to run against, then (he doesn't) have (his) fundraisers, (he wouldn't) have money to pay people, (he wouldn't) have the money from fundraising," he said.
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But what campaign?
Conventional wisdom would have been this fall's 76th House contest.
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But what about down the road?
If he wins in the fall, Schmidt is term-limited in the House. Four years and he's out.
Could one clue to his political future be in this text from Speaker of the House Jase Bolger?
"What I may love best is that Brewer wasn't going to help u for Mayor. Now u don't need him...." Bolger wrote as he and Schmidt talked about efforts by Schmidt to switch from the Democrats to the GOP, and find a weak candidate to run against him as a Democrat in the fall.
The Bolger text suggests that Michigan State Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer wouldn't help Schmidt in an eventual run for mayor of Grand Rapids.
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While downplaying the text as small potatoes compared to the larger controversy, a? spokesman for Brewer? wouldn't comment on it directly.
Bolger spokesman Ari Adler said he was aware of talk over the years about a Schmidt run for Mayor, but did not know the specifics behind the text.
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Schmidt held a 1st Ward seat on the city commission for 16 years before he was elected to the Michigan House.
Friday, Schmidt spokesman John Truscott said the representative doesn't know where that comment came from, and that a mayoral run would make no sense.
Assuming he's re-elected to the House this fall, Schmidt would have to step down before the end of his term if he won the part time job as mayor in three years.
But consider this.
Add Schmidt's 16 years on the commission with another four as mayor, and Schmidt would increase the small city pension collected by elected officials for a job sources say he's always wanted.
Of course, he'd need to win first, and that could be expensive.
Mayor George Heartwell, who told 24 Hour News 8 he hasn't decided whether he'll seek reelection in 2015, figures candidates in a contested? mayor's race could spend more than $150, 000 each, making fundraising a big challenge.
And that's where the two political parties come into to play.
While the mayor's race is non-partisan, it helps to have friends who can raise a lot of money from outside the city.
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As for a Schmidt candidacy for mayor, Heartwell says his former commission colleague shouldn't bother.
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"He doesn't have a prayer after the shenanigans," Heartwell said.
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Source: http://michigan.onpolitix.com/news/132924/is-schmidts-next-ambition-gr-mayor?referrer=woodtv.com
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