Jocelyn Benson abuses public resources in botched launch of governor campaign

Joce­lyn Ben­son announced her run for gov­er­nor today in a tax­pay­er-fund­ed gov­ern­ment pub­lic build­ing: a bla­tant­ly ille­gal and uneth­i­cal act that is con­sis­tent with Ben­son’s abuse of the law in her capac­i­ty as Sec­re­tary of State.

As Meghan Reck­ling not­ed on X:

When ques­tioned by the media on this bla­tant mis­use of state resources, her excuse? ‘It’s cold out­side,’ and ‘no one ever brought it to my atten­tion that it would be inap­pro­pri­ate.’

Seri­ous­ly? The per­son in charge of Michi­gan elec­tions doesn’t know it’s ILLEGAL to use state resources for cam­paign pur­pos­es? It’s not just inappropriate—it’s a bla­tant vio­la­tion of the law.

Lans­ing is full of pri­vate build­ings she could have used, but instead, she chose to dis­re­gard basic ethics and the law. If she can’t even fol­low the rules in her cur­rent office, why should any­one trust her to lead our state?

As a state offi­cial, Ben­son absolute­ly must know that pub­lic resources, includ­ing gov­ern­ment build­ings, may not be used for pri­vate, per­son­al pur­pos­es like mak­ing a cam­paign announce­ment. This is why politi­cians hold fundrais­ing events all year long not in their gov­ern­ment offices, but in pri­vate loca­tions near­by.

Ben­son’s cam­paign announce­ment came as no sur­prise — because Ben­son botched her roll­out by acci­den­tal­ly post­ing her cam­paign announce­ment on X the day before. The post was tak­en down moments after it was acci­den­tal­ly pub­lished.

As not­ed at The Mid­west­ern­er:

“Michi­gan, I’m over­whelmed by your sup­port today – thank you!” [Ben­son’s announce­ment] read. “Michi­gan­ders are ready to fight for a trans­par­ent, afford­able, and safer future for all of Michi­gan. And we’re just get­ting warmed up.”

Benson’s post was accom­pa­nied by an image of the for­mer hate crimes inves­ti­ga­tor for the dis­graced South­ern Pover­ty Law Cen­ter pos­ing in a pink blaz­er next to her “Joce­lyn Ben­son for Gov­er­nor” logo that linked to a dona­tion page at Act­Blue, Democ­rats’ favorite fundrais­ing plat­form.

Bridge Michi­gan reporter Simon Schus­ter not­ed the linked page did not work.

Already, Joce­lyn Ben­son’s cam­paign is being run like her Sec­re­tary of State office, incom­pe­tent­ly and with con­tempt for the law.