Pressure is mounting for Terri Lynn Land to come clean about her potential violations of federal and state campaign finance laws. Land is one of the top self-funded politicians in the country — she has dumped nearly $3 million of her own money into her campaign coffers — yet she has not reported assets in financial disclosure statements that indicate where these millions came from.
Land claims that forgetting to mention a joint bank account she holds with her husband that contains millions of dollars was simply an an “oversight”. This is a remarkable statement considering that she was once the Michigan Secretary of State, responsible for monitoring campaigns and elections in our state.
What appears to be clear is that the source of her immense personal wealth is from Land & Co. She has repeatedly told people during this election cycle that she has nothing to do with Land & Co., that it is her husband’s company, despite having listed herself as “owner,” “special projects manager” or “self-employed” at Land & Co. in 38 separate campaign donations she has made over the past 20 years.
Now the Michigan Democratic Party is calling for two separate investigations:
- One to the State of Michigan calling for an investigation into 15 donations Land made as owner of Land & Co. to her Secretary of State campaign. At the time, Land’s husband, Daniel Hibma, was treasurer of her Secretary of State campaign and owner of Land & Co. Ms. Land is now saying that she had no ties to Land & Company. Either she lied to the people of Michigan about her business experience or lied to the State of Michigan about her ownership of Land & Company.
- The second to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) calling for an investigation into whether Land broke the law by self-funding $2.9 million to her campaign without having $2.9 million in her own assets.
The FEC compaint can be found HERE and the pertinent parts of the complaint filed with the State of Michigan detailing, among other things, the 15 contributions she made to her Secretary of State campaign, can be found HERE.
Johnson issued this statement:
Since Terri Lynn Land refuses to answer questions about her controversial and potentially illegal Land & Co. finances, the only way for Michiganders to know the truth is through investigations by the State of Michigan and Federal Election Commission. As a former top elections official, Ms. Land should know better, but as a candidate to replace Carl Levin, she should be following the basic letter of the law that’s required. Sadly, Ms. Land doesn’t think the rules apply to her so we are left with no choice than to pursue a full accounting and investigation of her finances at the state and federal level. Every day she continues to hide the truth about her finances and business experience for Land & Co. is another day that Michiganders can’t trust her to follow the laws on the books.
This isn’t going to go away and Terri Lynn Land has some serious explaining to do. Stay tuned.
