Here's another one.
http://www.freep.com/news/politics/hijinks6e_20041006.htm
Citizens get into the mix of campaign clashing
October 6, 2004
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF, DAWSON BELL AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Full moon?
No, it's just a presidential campaign that had rival sides clashing Tuesday over free underwear for votes, rowdy trespassers at a Republican campaign office in Dearborn and rowdy Republicans at another office in Plymouth.
Maybe people are a little testy with President George W. Bush coming to town today.
First, Michigan Republicans called Tuesday for the prosecution of filmmaker Michael Moore for handing out free clean underwear and ramen noodles to college students who vote on Nov. 2. Moore even offered to clean students' dorms if they vowed to vote during his "Slacker Uprising Tour" at Michigan State University and other campuses in Michigan and around the country, where he exhorted crowds to oust Bush.
That amounts to bribery, said GOP executive director Greg McNeilly, who cited state law that prohibits exchanging anything of value in return for coaxing anyone to vote. McNeilly asked prosecutors in Wayne, Ingham and Isabella counties, where Moore made the offer, to prosecute.
"This is a serious question of the integrity of the election process," said state GOP spokesman Chris Paolino.
Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings, a Democrat, could not be reached immediately for comment.
Neither could Moore.
Also Tuesday, a mob of up to 100 people stormed into a Republican campaign office in Dearborn, disrupting volunteer GOP workers until police quelled the disturbance.
Yvette Robinson, 28, director of the Dearborn Victory Center, said the intruders numbered 200 and arrived in three large buses plus cars. She said they swarmed into the building, surprising the campaign workers. Robinson said they chanted anti-Bush slogans and other chants, such as "Give us back our overtime."
Paolino said Republican campaign offices in several other states were similarly disrupted.
Dearborn police said they were called about 1 p.m. to the Michigan Republican Party's Dearborn Victory Center. Police issued two tickets to bus drivers for blocking traffic, said Dearborn Officer Chris Wenzara. Police estimated the crowd at between 50 and 100.
Rodell Mollineau, spokesman for Sen. John Kerry's campaign in Michigan, said he knew nothing of the intrusion and questioned whether the protesters were Kerry supporters.
"I can tell you this, if we were going to stage a protest, you would have known about it," Mollineau said.
Finally, in Plymouth, a Kerry backer claimed he was harassed by the Bush campaign when he scored a free ticket to Bush's appearance today.
Ryan Secord said staffers for the Bush-Cheney campaign office in Plymouth blocked his car Tuesday and demanded that he return a ticket he obtained moments earlier for Bush's address to students at Oakland Community College.
Secord, 18, a Schoolcraft Community College student from Northville, was wearing a button on his pants supporting Kerry when he went to the GOP office.
Nobody questioned him inside, he said, even after he told a staffer taking his name and phone number that he didn't want any calls from the GOP because he wasn't likely to vote for Bush.
Secord said when he tried to leave the parking lot, four men stood behind his car. He said he was told he couldn't leave unless he gave back his ticket. Secord said he wouldn't.
John Truscott, a spokesman for the Michigan Bush-Cheney campaign, called the Plymouth incident "unfortunate" and said volunteers probably "were a lot more sensitive" because of what had happened in Dearborn and other centers Tuesday afternoon. Truscott and Paolino said the Bush rally today was aimed at supporters and volunteers. Later, Truscott said national Bush campaign officials said the event should be open to anyone who obtained a ticket.
Weird enough yet?
Well, one last thing. Michigan's Canadian-born Gov. Jennifer Granholm can aspire to the White House if legislation introduced Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ultimately changes the U.S. Constitution to allow the foreign born like Granholm and Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president.
