Snyder to kick off re-election campaign with Super Bowl ad

Jan. 31--LANSING -- Gov. Rick Snyder's re-election bid is ramping up to high gear.

His campaign is spending more than $600,000 on an ad that will run on Michigan Fox TV affiliates during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

He'll follow up the ad with a two-day tour across Michigan, with stops in Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids on Monday and Traverse City, Frankenmuth and Farmington Hills on Tuesday before ending the tour with a fund-raiser in Southfield.

The ReElect Rick grassroots organization, formed to support Snyder's re-election, started the Reinvent political action committee Thursday to pay for things like phone calls to voters and social media efforts for Snyder.

And Moving Michigan Forward, a replacement for the controversial NERD fund Snyder used to pay for office expenses, went live Thursday night.

The new fund, a 501(c)4, took in $123,440 in the fourth quarter of 2013, including: $50,000 from HTC Global Services, $25,000 each from Consumers Energy and Jackson National Life Insurance, $20,000 from Alticor, a $2,940 in-kind contribution from the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers and $500 from Snyder's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore.

The fund spent $66,754: $37,314 on travel reimbursements for employees; $19,590 in contract costs for fund-raising, legal costs and accounting; $6,699 for mobile office meetings and tele-town halls, and $3,151 for general operations.

The new fund is in direct contrast to the NERD fund, which was steeped in controversy because Snyder declined to reveal the donors.

The New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify fund collected more than $1.6 million on Snyder's behalf over three years. It was used to pay for things like the salary of Rich Baird, his transformation manager, as well as housing and travel expenses for Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr. Under federal guidelines governing such funds, donors' names do not have to be released.

Snyder decided to close down the NERD fund last year and replace it with something transparent.

"It's essentially structured like the previous fund, but the difference is total transparency of donors and the way the funds are expended," said Bill Martin, chairman of the Moving Michigan Forward fund.

"It's designed to help offset the costs to pay for things like mobile and virtual town hall meetings," Martin said. "Taxpayers shouldn't pay for that."

Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661 or kgray99@freepress.com

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