Debunking the Republican-Led Recall of Reggie Miller

 

By Steven Meyer

 

On July 17 the submission of recall petitions was announced against 5 Democratic State Representatives from competitive districts in Michigan, which included Reggie Miller (HD-31) in Monroe (1). The recall petition against Miller was submitted by Holli Vallade who ran and lost in the 2022 Republican Primary for HD-31 after receiving only 36% of that party’s vote (2). The basis for Vallade’s recall petition is that Reggie Miller voted for the passage of a bill (HB 4474) to prevent hate crimes in Michigan (3). Currently Vallade is the Vice Chair of the Monroe County Republican Party. After losing the primary, Vallade’s campaign committee was officially dissolved on October 11, 2022 (4), though the donation webpage for Vallade’s campaign has remained active (5), and it would be against the law if the committee continued accepting donations through that portal over the past year since dissolving the committee (6).

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For Holli Vallade to actually remove Reggie Miller from office through a recall election, there are 3 increasingly challenging things that would have to happen: 1) On August 1, the baseless language in Vallade’s petition would have to be approved by The Michigan Board of State Canvassers; 2) Then Vallade would have 60 days to find enough people in HD-31 to convince with that toxic nonsense, and collect enough of their valid signatures to match or exceed 25% of the total number of votes cast for governor in 2022 in that District; 3) If it ever got so far as to make it onto the Ballot, then the majority of the District’s entire electorate would also need to be swayed by Vallade’s toxic nonsense to want to remove Miller from office less than halfway through the term that same electorate just elected Miller to serve in (1).

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Who besides hate-criminals would so strongly oppose legislation to prevent hate-crimes? On June 20, HB 4474 passed the House with the support of all Democratic and 3 Republican Representatives (7). Monroe’s 3 Republican representatives voted against it though. It occurred on Will Bruck’s (HD-30) second day of voting in Congress after being absent for the first six months of his term for military obligations.

Jamie Thompson (HD-28) was the Monroe Representative most publicly opposed to the bill, and on June 16 posted the following diatribe full of falsehoods and contradictions (8): “regarding HB 4474 and 4475... there are already laws on the books to protect individuals. It clearly states that in this a analysis [sic – Thompson attached images from the House Fiscal Agency’s analysis of the legislation]. Certain LGBTQ Dems are grandstanding on this... These bills are unconstitutional. You do not get to charge someone with a Hate Crime because they hurt your feelings. This is an attack on our 1st Amendment and they know this.”

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Thompson made fact checking that diatribe very easy by attaching that analysis which debunked all her falsehoods (9). Thompson was correct that there are existing hate crime laws in Michigan to “protect individuals”. So, it shouldn’t bother anyone other than hate-criminals that HB 4474 sought to use those existing laws to protect more “individuals” from hate crimes. The analysis attached to Thompson’s post explained that it is already a crime to: “intimidate or harass another individual” and to, “Threaten, by word or act”. Thompson callously dismissed such things as, “hurt your feelings”, nevertheless such things are all crimes. Thompson most glaringly ignored where the analysis quoted from the bill: “the term intimidate would not include constitutionally protected activity or conduct that serves a legitimate purpose.” So, Thompson lied that the bill was an “unconstitutional... attack on our 1st Amendment”. The Constitution allows for hate speech, and even allows Thompson to use government resources to promote hate groups such as “Mom’s for Liberty” (10, 11). Hate Speech becomes illegal though in the furtherance of other crimes.

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On June 27, Vallade posted on her campaign’s Facebook page that, “we do NOT support the Thought Crime Bill (HB4474)” (12). It is telling that Holli Vallade avoided echoing such bogus commentary in the text of the recall petition itself. Vallade should know that the justice system has not implemented any such sci-fi technology to enable prosecutors to indict the inner thoughts of defendants. If I were a techno-prosecutor charging the thought crimes of Holli Vallade, this might be my closing argument: Your honor, the defendant demonstrated an awareness of the fraud inherent to the Republican outrage over HB 4474, with the fact that the defendant’s better judgment prevented them from repeating such “though crime” nonsense on the recall petition filed before the Board of State Canvassers. Thus, Vallade knew that using more carefully chosen words for the discerning review board, might have avoided exposing the fraud behind the HD-31 recall campaign.

 

Sources:

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1. July 18, 2023 – Bridge Michigan’s Article, “Five Michigan House Democrats, one Republican face recall threats”: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/five-michigan-house-democrats-one-republican-face-recall-threats

2. August 2, 2022 – Official Michigan Primary Election Results: https://mielections.us/election/results/2022PRI_CENR.html

3. July 17, 2023 – Michigan Advance Article, “Recall petitions filed against 5 Democratic, 1 Republican House members”: https://michiganadvance.com/2023/07/17/recall-petitions-filed-against-5-democratic-1-republican-house-members/

4. October 11, 2022 – Michigan Secretary of State Campaign Records Showing that Holli Vallade’s Campaign was Officially Dissolved on this Date: https://cfrsearch.nictusa.com/committees/520821

5. Holli Vallade Active Campaign Donation Site: https://secure.anedot.com/holli4mich/donate

6. Michigan Campaign Finance Act; Act 388 of 1976: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/mcl/pdf/mcl-act-388-of-1976.pdf

7. April 26, 2023 – Michigan Legislature, HB 4474 Introduced: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2023-HB-4474

8. June 16, 2023 – Jamie Thompson’s Post of Facebook about HB 4474: https://www.facebook.com/StateRepThompson/posts/pfbid0289RP5FVhemvFp7aj5842dGgAqABkvqr4gnMfsW2ciHZDK9bu2b2it5Ye4rTEE1nel

9. June 5, 2023 – Bill Analysis by House Fiscal Agency, which Jamie Thompson posted alongside a lot of contradictory baseless nonsense: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2023-2024/billanalysis/House/pdf/2023-HLA-4474-E3861072.pdf

10. June 2, 2023 – Post on Jamie Thompson’s Official Government Page promoting an event with the extremist hate group, “Moms for Liberty”: https://www.facebook.com/StateRepThompson/videos/1280311236224666

11. June 6, 2023 – Annual Report from Southern Poverty Law Center on Hate and Extremism, with a Chapter on Moms for Liberty: https://www.splcenter.org/year-hate-extremism-2022/assault-inclusive-education#anti-students

12. June 27, 2023 – Facebook post on Holli Vallade’s Campaign Page, referring to HB 4474 as, “the Thought Crime Bill”: https://www.facebook.com/Holli4Mich/posts/pfbid02bRSj39uFvthA8MyFn4g64v9qGnabFBGos8kRk5TeNC92xgmnkREYhsnUaaSZDZNVl

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