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An attorney has filed a campaign finance complaint against the dark money nonprofit Our Home Our Voice, alleging it is working illegally with the Citizens for Local Choice ballot committee which seeks to repeal Michigan’s renewable energy siting law.

The complaint follows a Planet Detroit report that raised questions about the legality of a $53,000 donation from the 501(c)(4) nonprofit Our Home Our Voice to the ballot committee, which attorney Mark Brewer said may have violated campaign finance rules if the group was soliciting donations specifically to hide donors. Planet Detroit also reported on Facebook posts where OHOV raised funds while possibly alluding to a ballot initiative.

Brewer, a former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party who is working with Our Land Our Rights, a group opposing the ballot initiative, filed the complaint with the Michigan Bureau of Elections. The complaint references the Facebook posts in Planet Detroit’s report showing a ballot committee member appearing to use the dark money nonprofit to solicit funds for Citizens for Local Choice.

Brewer told Planet Detroit there were “repeated instances where they admitted they were raising money for the ballot question committee.”

The complaint, filed on behalf of John Tuckerman, a landowner in Lenawee County, alleges that Our Home Our Voice is “an incorporated 501(c)(4) social welfare organization in name only” and “has actually been acting as an unregistered ballot question committee to further its goals.”

The complaint states that OHOV failed to register as a ballot question committee or file required reports, claiming these are violations of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act.

“Instead, it illegally funneled donations to Citizens for Local Choice (“CLC”) to hide donor identities,” the complaint says.

Although 501(c)(4)s are generally under no obligation to disclose donors, Brewer previously told Planet Detroit that using such a group to hide donations could be a crime if the nonprofit was fundraising specifically for the ballot initiative. 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently charged two individuals in connection with a scheme to use a dark money nonprofit to hide the donors for the “Unlock Michigan” ballot committee, which she said violated the transparency required by Michigan campaign finance laws. 

The Citizens for Local Choice Ballot initiative seeks to overturn Michigan’s recently passed siting law for large renewable energy developments. This law gives the Michigan Public Service Commission the final say over site approval for these projects. 

The law could allow energy developers to overcome restrictive local ordinances that block large-scale wind and solar projects from being built, helping Michigan meet its 100% clean energy goal by 2040.

Those supporting the ballot initiative say they want to keep decisions over large renewable energy projects in local hands. Opponents say restrictive local ordinances have blocked projects that could be a lifeline for struggling farmers and restrict property rights.

Facebook posts appear to show Our Home Our Voice campaign finance violation

The complaint against OHOV includes several Facebook posts from November and December, showing the group fundraising for a “statewide approach” with a “seven-figure expense,” which could allude to a ballot initiative and the multi-million dollar cost these generally entail. Brewer said a December 18 post from ballot committee member Norman Stephens was a “specific admission” that Our Home Our Voice was raising money for the ballot question committee.

“Our Home Our Voice is dedicated to retaining local control of zoning for wind/solar/battery ordinances,” Stephens wrote. “Without signatures for the ballot initiative (election which gives us local control again) and donations to pay for collecting those signatures, rural Michigan residents can expect oceans of solar panels and thousands of wind turbines inundating the state and everything we have fought for goes down the tubes.”

The complaint also includes information about addresses, personnel, and a website source code that it says were shared by OHOV and Citizens for Local Choice.

“All this was being coordinated so that OHOV could raise this money and hide the donors and then turn around and give this money to CLC,” Brewer wrote in the complaint.

Alan L. Canady, a Michigan campaign finance and election lawyer, previously told Planet Detroit that a qualified 501(c)(4) is not necessarily required to list contributors and wasn’t aware of anything keeping it from contributing to a ballot initiative. But he said the Facebook appeals for donations could signal a campaign finance violation.

“That raises a question, and that would be some, at least tangential, evidence that they’re soliciting specifically for this,” he said. “That could be an issue.”

Our Home Our Voice and Citizens for Local Choice did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment on the allegations in the complaint.

What happens next?

Now that the complaint has been filed, the Michigan Bureau of Elections could issue a summary dismissal or begin a process that could result in an informal resolution, which could lead to a formal warning or a conciliation agreement. If the bureau cannot reach an informal resolution, it could hold an administrative hearing or refer the issue to the attorney general’s office for enforcement.

Brewer said this process could take months. For now, he said it’s important that voters who may support the petition for the ballot initiative are aware that its backers have been accused of hiding funders.

“One of the important purposes of the campaign finance laws is to get disclosure of financing, so the voters can take that into account when they decide whether they support something,” he said.