Since the middle of July, David Trott, Michigan’s most infamous Foreclosure Vulture, has raised nearly $200,000 from a wide array of bankers, Trott & Trott employees, real estate investors, attorneys, and various PACs like the NRA, GM, Ford, DTE Energy, Quicken Loans, and Koch Industries. But, during that same time, he racked up donations of $1,190,174.33. Where did the other $1 million come from?
Trott himself, of course. That brings the total for his self-funding to $3.4 million. He’s put $3.4 million into buying a seat in the U.S. Congress. Heck, he’s starting to make Terri Lynn Land look like a grassroots fundraiser! He’s truly testing the waters to see if a Congressional seat can be purchased and he’s willing to spend several million dollars to find out.
Keep in mind where Trott got his money. As Curtis Hertel Jr., the Register of Deeds for Ingham County put it so well, it’s from the machine that Trott built “that was made to feed off of human misery”. Trott not only owns a foreclosure business, he owns all the businesses that go along with that from title companies to the real estate agencies that resell the foreclosed homes. He’s not just a vulture, he’s a vertically integrated vulture.
Here’s journalist David Dayen from his appearance on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes:
CHRIS HAYES: What money is there to be made the process of [foreclosure]?DAVID DAYEN: There’s not a whole lot of money to be made if you’re just doing the legal work. But Trott & Trott had a unique business strategy where they bought up practically every company down the line that gets a little bit of money out of the foreclosure process. There’s a requirement in Michigan that you have to put legal notices out in the newspaper. They bought the newspaper that did that. There’s a requirement that you have to do a title search. They bought the company that does the title searches and they get money off of that. They bought a real estate agency that then sells the houses after they go into foreclosure. So they kind of made money at every step down line and once you add that up, it’s lucrative.
HAYES: Yeah, they created, it’s sort of a “turnkey” foreclosure operation for the banks where they’re, basically, at every step in the line, they own it.
Trott even took a little of that ill-gotten booty to charter a private jet in September from Air Charter Team, Inc. Because that’s how multi-millionaire Congressional candidates roll. You didn’t think they’d schlep along with the rest of the teeming masses at an airport, fer cryin’ out loud, did ya?
Trott is so busy spending all of those millions to buy this seat that he doesn’t have time to waste debating his opponents, Democrat Bobby McKenzie and Tea Partier Kerry Bentivolio. They were scheduled to debate on Monday but Trott pulled out without explanation at the 11th hour. This is from the McKenzie campaign:
Bobby McKenzie, the Democratic nominee for the 11th Congressional District and incumbent Congressman Kerry Bentivolio will be participating in a congressional candidate forum in front of hundreds of students at Seaholm High School in Birmingham. The forum will be held at 12:15pm this upcoming Monday, October 20th.Regrettably, David Trott, the GOP nominee who is best known as the “Foreclosure King” of Michigan, will not be participating in the forum. Despite his campaign initially informing the organizers of the forum that October 20th was a suitable date, Trott inexplicably backed out of the event. What’s more, Trott’s campaign has been unwilling to negotiate with the McKenzie campaign about scheduling any future debates or forums that would be open to the public.
“We would welcome the opportunity to debate David Trott in a public forum,” said the McKenzie Campaign. “While we are glad to be participating together on an upcoming discussion on WDIV-TV Flashpoint, we continue to hear from people of the district that they deserve the opportunity to see and hear the candidates speak on a range of issues and answer a range of questions from them directly. It’s unclear as to whether Trott is unable or unwilling to debate in a public forum. But many certainly suspect that Trott is concerned about his ability to adequately defend his record of kicking tens of thousands of Michigan families out of their homes.”
Trott is pulling off this whole “filthy rich and hungry for power” thing pretty well, I have to admit. From charting private jets to kicking sand in the face of his opponents, he’s got the “derisive multi-millionaire” schtick down to a tee.
Really, the only thing he’s missing is pencil mustache that he could twiddle while while cackling at “the little people” who are below his contempt.
So, what’s it going to be, 11th District voters? Are you going to vote for a guy whose own brother thinks is insane (Bentivolio), a guy who spent time working to keep America safe (McKenzie), or for a parasitic leech on the jugular vein of society (Trott)? You can’t say you don’t have choices.
Please use your ballot wisely. The rest of us are counting on you.
