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Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Developing: Senate Majority Leader Meekhof Takes Over Colbeck's Office



By Brandon Hall
(Email Him At WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com)


Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof didn't just boot Senator Patrick Colbeck off all his committees, Meekhof is also taking over management of Colbeck's office.

According to a letter from Jordan Hankwitz, Meekhof's Director of the Senate Business Office:

"effective immediately, the Senate Majority Leader will directly oversee all personnel actions for staff assigned to your office, including, but not limited to, hiring, rehiring, transferring,status changes, leaves of absence, terminations and separations of employment, timecard approvals, and intern registration. Approvals regarding personnel actions must be submitted to the Senate Business Office Human Resources Department for appropriate routing."

But wait, there's more!

The letter also says that "effective immediately, all office operations expenses and eligible reimbursement for your office require approval of the Senate Majority Leader."

(Read the full letter below)

Meekhof says the actions are punishment for Colbeck attending a Right To Life dinner in Holland a few weeks ago without notifying his office he'd be in Ottawa County. Swamp protocol in Lansing dictates legislators must tell their peers when they are visiting the district they represent.

Colbeck and Meekhof have been feuding for years, with Colbeck being the only re-elected Senator not to receive a prominent committee chairmanship in 2015 after upsetting Meekhof, who took the reigns as Senate Majority Leader that January.

One aspect of the story has been surprising: not a single Senator has defended Colbeck in the wake of Meekhof's punishment. Sen. Rick Jones even said he would have kicked Colbeck out sooner! While Colbeck's base has been energized big league, the impact outside of that orbit seems to be minimal, though Colbeck has received a flurry of well needed earned media for his Gubernatorial campaign. 

Can one imagine what the reaction would be if Tim Greimel or Jim Ananich rebuked someone in their caucus for attending a Planned Parenthood fundraiser?! 

The outrage would be deafening.

For Colbeck though, crickets. I guess that's what happens when you don't repeatedly bend over for the Lansing cartel, it can be a lonely road.


 __________________________________________________________________
Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

>>>Email him at WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com
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12 comments:

  1. The Lansing swamp apparently is much deeper than simple Michiganders ever knew. Meekhof's actions should be unacceptable to any voter. Shame on him and his thug friends.

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  2. Senator Colbeck is running for Governor and Meekof's choice, AG Schuette is being bludgeon by Grassroots for the State corruption done and gone on during Schuette's on duty watch.
    This is dirty politics by Meekof and needs a flash back firestorm!
    Senate Majority Leader needs Censured and a vote of Confidence now!

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  3. Meekof has been a disapointment since his leadership to most republicans

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  4. This is just despicable action of Meekhof. I cannot understand how anyone can think they can do this kind of thing.

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  5. Meekof should be greeted with a bucket of pitch and a box of feathers and run out of town on a rail. This man is a disgrace to all that responsible people stand for. His handling of the automotive tax increase was bad enough, but this tops everything. It's a good thing that we have term limits.

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  6. I really hate the Establishment GOP in MIchigan.

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  7. Elect Pat Colbeck #MIGov
    http://facebook.com/DraftPatrickColbeck

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  8. Outrageous.

    Meekhof is MAD.

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  9. How can the voters of his district even vote for Meekof. His voters must love corruption. Meekof is clearly trying to disenfranchise Colbeck's voters by nullifying Colbeck's election. I can't believe Schuette supports Meekof's dictatorial antics.

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  10. The lowlife Arlan Meekhof is now Term Limited, and therefore I believe before he leaves office he will be doing all his uttermost vile best to stick it to anyone who has not supported and gone along with his disgusting and deleterious costly tactics.

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  11. Does anyone else find it odd that a so-called Republican would be unaware of a RTL event in his own district (to say nothing about being aware of who else would be attending)?

    This argument fails the smell test.

    And Rick Jones isn't exactly a pillar of Conservative values himself either.

    Supporter of Red Light Cameras here in Michigan.

    Supporter of numerous tax hikes (not counting his support of the vehicle registration and gas tax hikes that ignored the will of Michigan Taxpayers from Prop 1).

    Supporter of higher fees on Michigan Motorists for insurance.

    Cronyism (Col Etue, anyone).

    I've got pages and pages of this stuff on him if anyone is interested.

    And to the crux of their arguments, I still haven't gotten a direct reply to numerous messages that I've sent to my state senator on various issues (Pavlov), so to claim that protocol was been violated by not communicating with someone's office is a pretty lame excuse. If you cannot (will not) read what a constituent sends you, what s the likelihood that you'll even read something from a colleague?

    The 2018 Gubernatorial election cannot come soon enough.

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  12. Give the arrogant and unconscionable MI Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meefhof a call: 1 (517) 373-6920
    Fax: 1 (517) 373-2751
    E-Mail - senameekhof@senate.michigan.gov

    ReplyDelete