Michigan county pols, sheriff set to shut down local muckraking newspaper

 The Arenec County Town Crier", an anonymously published local newsletter, has gone out six times a year for many years to about a thousand homes, ranting against and lampooning local officials, but never endorsing a particular candidate. Yet county politicians, abetted by sheriff and local prosecutors, are attempting to shut down the little publication for violating election laws prohibiting anonymous distribution of campaign literature and "malicious information about candidates", threatening misdemeanor charges which involve fines and possibly jail.

MLive.com reports

An underground newsletter that routinely criticizes elected officials in Arenac County is under scrutiny for potential election law violations.

As Michigan's election season heats up, local candidates are stepping forward to say they're fed up with political attacks printed in the "Arenac County Town Crier."

The Town Crier, written and mailed anonymously, goes to a few hundred, perhaps even 1,000 Arenac County homes about six times yearly, local authorities estimate. The newsletter is known for assailing officials for their perceived incompetence as well as moral and even legal derelictions.

This week, a criminal complaint against the Town Crier is headed for the Secretary of State's investigative arm, according to Arenac Sheriff Ronald Bouldin. The complaint alleges that the newsletter violates state election law precisely because its authors are anonymous.

State election law requires that anyone who prints or circulates false or malicious information about a candidate for public office must identify himself, Bouldin said.

The sheriff won't investigate the complaint himself, he added, because he's often targeted by the Crier.

"I can't look into it because I'm party to it," said Bouldin, who is running for re-election. "I want the investigation impartial, not political."

So Bouldin forwarded the complaint to the Michigan's election authorities, the Secretary of State in Lansing. As of Wednesday, the office hadn't received the Town Crier complaint, but a spokesman said another had arrived.

Bouldin's wife, Donna Bouldin, submitted a complaint against a Web site titled "sheriffbouldinmustgo.com," the department spokesman said.

The latter complaint, like that against the Town Crier, alleges that the enterprise is illegal because its sponsors go unnamed. Secretary of State investigators, meanwhile, will review the evidence to decide whether an inquiry is warranted, the spokesman said.

Bouldin is hardly alone in believing the Crier complaint to be founded. Arenac Clerk Rick Rockwell, the county's head election official, agrees that the newsletter oversteps state law.

"My opinion, and I'm sure I'll be disputed in the next Town Crier, is that the newsletter violates election laws," Rockwell said.

But not all agree. Arenac's police officers' union, for example, long a Bouldin critic, contends that neither the Crier nor the anti-Bouldin Web site are illegal.

"I think Arenac County residents are exercising their First Amendment rights," said Dan Kuhn, Police Officers Association of Michigan vice-president and agent for Arenac County.

"They're not saying vote for or don't vote for someone. They're criticizing elected officials who opened themselves up to criticism. I think they have that right. This is America."

But a growing number of political candidates who've endured Town Crier lampooning think it's their rights that have been abridged.

Arenac County Commissioner Joseph Sancimino, for example, complained in June to Michigan's Democratic Party head. His June 11 letter calls the Town Crier "disgusting trash" that degrades and slanders with false information.

Adams and Au Gres Township supervisors, too, Hubert Fisk and Don Pawlaczyk respectively, filed written complaints against the Crier with the county clerk, also in June.

"It needs to be taken care of," Pawlaczyk said Wednesday. "This kind of misinformation hurts people, especially now, right in the middle of an election cycle.

"The newsletter is so deceptive, it's hard for a politician to even address it," he added.

Pawlaczyk and others who have suffered the Crier's wrath are offering a reward. At least some alleged victims have pooled a $1,000 cash reward "for the first person who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of conspirators" behind the underground Town Crier, Pawlaczyk said.

Election law violators, for their part, face a misdemeanor charge carrying a maximum $1,000 fine and 93 days in jail.

"In my mind, it's political advertising," Bouldin said of both the Crier and Web site. "My interpretation of the law is that you have to sign political ads."