By Alethia Kasben
Managing Editor
Posted: September 20, 2024 3:14 PM

The Bureau of Elections earlier this summer sent letters to former House Speaker Lee Chatfield's campaign and political action committees with hundreds of potential problems with past filings.

In the letters, the bureau said it reviewed every report filed with the Department of State by committees associated with Chatfield, who served from 2015-20, and compared reports line-by-line with bank records obtained by the Department of Attorney General.

Attorney General Dana Nessel earlier this year charged Chatfield, a Republican of Levering, who was House speaker during the 2019-20 term, with 13 felonies related to the misuse of nonprofit and campaign finance funds.

The bureau's review "revealed significant discrepancies that impacted all of the committees associated with Lee Chatfield for State Representative," a letter said.

Chatfield had a candidate committee and four independent political action committees registered with the Department of State.

The letters, sent on July 3, 2024, give Chatfield 15 business days to respond to the hundreds of discrepancies found by the bureau. The department will then determine if there is reason to believe a violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act occurred, the letters said.

Chatfield's attorney did not immediately return a request for comment. Chatfield has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against him.

The errors and omissions flagged by the bureau include thousands in undisclosed contributions and expenditures, prohibited expenditures, missing expenditures, undisclosed fundraising events and more.

Specifically, some of the flagged items include payments to Chatfield family members that the bureau found to clear the bank account but not included in campaign finance reports. Others included payments to Victor Strategies, owned by Rob and Anne Minard, who worked for Chatfield's campaign and in his official office. The bureau said they were improperly reported as incidental office expenses.

Cash withdrawals from ATMs in Las Vegas, Neveda, were also flagged as undisclosed and prohibited expenditures.

During his time in office, Chatfield was a prolific fundraiser using his official state campaign finance accounts.

Chatfield operated a traditional candidate committee but then multiple leadership committees, which allowed him to send more money to the House Republican Campaign Committee and his GOP colleagues.

The former speaker also started the trend of operating multiple leadership PACs, which allowed him to contribute more funds to the HRCC than would have been allowed if only operated one (See Gongwer Michigan Report, July 29, 2019).

At one point in 2020, Chatfield amassed more than $800,000 across his committees, which he spent down considerably leading up to the election that year.

Chatfield also reported several instances of using campaign funds to pay wages to members of his family. In 2019, a Chatfield spokesperson said members of Chatfield's family did part-time work to help the team.

Chatfield's wife, Stephanie Chatfield, has also been charged – and pleaded not guilty – to two felonies related to the misuse of political funds. The charges allege that she was aware of and monitored improper transfers with the aim of assisting the conspiracy.