Shannon Price's Political Posse Swarms Plymouth Township

The necessary disclaimer: I am an unpaid blogger for Patch. My opinions are my own, they are only opinions, and do not reflect the opinions of Patch. I work for no political candidate or elected official, and have never taken a nickel from any elected official or candidate.

So now that Plymouth Township Supervisor, Richard Reaume has resigned in disgrace, the rest of the Board of Trustees have begun to work on a process to replace him. They had a “Special Meeting” on Saturday to set the framework for this process, and it was a standing room only crowd for this very important meeting. There were at least five potential replacement candidates in the room. Trustees Robert Doroshewitz, and Chuck Curmi, State Representative Kurt Heise, Wayne County Commissioner Shannon Price, and Plymouth Township resident Carl Berry. There were several Republican operatives in the room as well, and it was obvious that they were there with Commissioner Price.

I was disgusted by this blatant attempt at intimidation by Commissioner Shannon Price. He literally showed up with his entourage, and they all sat in a block at the back of the room, with Mr. Price behind them, and throughout the meeting, he could be seen walking back and forth among them, to whisper in ears. Price wanted to show the other potential candidates who was holding all the political aces in the deck I guess. In the end, Price looked like a crooked huckster of a politician, and it was embarrassing to see, coming from a Republican.

Among his “posse” was a guy named Mike Mitchell, (Left Side In Picture #3 above) who is a Republican apparatchik, and does not live in Plymouth Township. I am given to understand that Mr Mitchell helped with Price’s campaign, and was rewarded with a spot at the public trough. He is apparently Commissioner Price’s secretary. At least he answers the phone when you call Mr. Price’s office. To be honest, Mike and I have shared some of the same pavement on election day, and most likely vote alike in general elections. I am going to give him a bit of a pass here, because his boss Shannon most likely ordered him to be there.

There was also Brian Szmytke. Brian does not live in, or pay taxes in Plymouth Township. He is a Republican operative, and collects his check from Michigan Republican Party. His very official sounding job title, according to his Linkedin page is State Regional Director-Michigan Republican Party. I’m not exactly sure why he chose to be at the meeting, but he sure was nervous about me writing about him. All in all, I think he’s a good kid, but a bit out of his element when the political gloves come off. Experience is all the kid needs, and all in all, I find it hard to dislike him.

Also among the posse was, Tom Stroup. I find it easy to dislike him. Tom Stroup does not live in, nor pay taxes in Plymouth Township. Mr. Stroup is another Republican apparatchik, and friend of Commissioner Price. Stroup has absolutely no business in Plymouth Township. I’ll take him seriously if he ever moves here, or contributes anything of value to our community, other than showing up for Price. I’m guessing we’ll never see the guy again once this thing is over.

The most lethal member of Commissioner Shannon Price’s band of boogeymen, was a man named Stuart Sandler. His friends call him Stu. I walked up to Mr. Sandler during a break in the meeting, introduced myself, asked his name, and offered my hand to shake. His response was, “You don’t need to know my name, I don’t like you very much.” Hmmmm We’ll get back to Mr. Sandler’s rude response in a minute, but first let’s talk about his credentials.

Mr. Stuart Sandler is the CEO of Decider Strategies, which is a political organization specializing in, political strategy, public relations, and grassroots consulting, according to his linkedin page. So basically, he runs campaigns for politicians, and makes a hefty profit doing it. He does it very well too, as he has been listed by some magazine or other, as one of the 50 most influential Republicans in Michigan. You’ll find Stuart in pictures 2 & 3 above.

Make no mistake, Stuart Sandler is good at what he does. He is an absolute assassin, and if you are in his crosshairs, you can expect to be shot. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, and in a rather nefarious case, when he worked for former Attorney General, Mike Cox, he was not above wearing a wire, and secretly taping conversations with his boss’s enemy. It happened. Twice.

Winning is his goal, and he will look you right in the eye, and tell you he is going to beat you, but he will also use every nefarious trick in the book to defeat you as well. He doesn’t care. That is why he is so successful, and that is why so many high profile politicians pay him the big bucks to get them elected.

Look, I like that kind of guy to some extent. I like the confidence, and bravado. What I don’t like is the dirty tricks. I don’t like a guy who will wear a wire to help protect a client that couldn’t keep his pants zipped, as was the case in the Cox affair. Pun intended. I understand that he is beholden to the client, who is paying the money, and all that, but it just gets embarrassing to me, as an old school Republican, that things have to be done this way. Things have become very dirty within the Republican Party, and Stuart seems to thrive in that environment. I don’t like that.

So getting back to the Plymouth Township issue, I just found it disgusting that Mr. Shannon Price would show up with the likes of these people, especially the assassin, Stuart Sandler. I can’t help but wonder what his sudden interest is in Plymouth Township politics. He doesn’t live in Plymouth Township, he doesn’t pay taxes in Plymouth Township, so why was he suddenly interested in the replacement process for our former Supervisor? I can’t think of one other reason than he was paid to be here. Again, shame on Shannon for pulling such a stunt. Is this what we can expect for the next year and a half if Price gets appointed Supervisor?

I have a little message for Mr. Sandler before I move on. Stuart, you know nothing of what is wrong with Plymouth Township. You’ve never contributed a single thing to our community. We don’t need some big fancy political muckety muck coming into our township trying to influence an election or an appointment, and then collecting your check, and riding out of town to cash it wherever you call your home. Lastly, when I walk up and introduce myself, and offer my hand, the correct response is to shake it. I don’t give a rats patoo;t who you are, I have been working for our Republican Party since you were in elementary school, and I deserve that simple courtesy, whether you like me or not. I cast my first vote for President Reagan when your Mommy was still cutting your meat for you. To put another point on it Stuart, every single thing I have done for my party, I have done for free. The dirty work. Standing in the rain at the polls, doing lit drops, manning the phone banks when you were but a child. I’ve done it all Stuart, and unlike you, I did it with a sense of patriotism, not for a check. I am the grassroots of the Republican Party. It is because of me that you have a job, and get to wear your fancy suits at the convention, and wax poetically in front of the cameras. A final word of advice: Don’t be so rude and condescending to those who get your clients elected.

Well, now that I’ve got that off my chest, I am sure that I can expect to be attacked rather vigorously by Stuart, Shannon, or any number of their sycophants, but quite frankly I do not care. Those who know me, know that I have no worries of such things. I am lower than whale poop on the bottom of the ocean, have gained and lost just about everything, more than once in my life, and to be quite honest, that is a liberating feeling. As the great songstress once sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” I have absolutely nothing to lose, and I love that freedom. Allows me to be honest.

So as I sat next to the Price Machine at the meeting, I thought about it, and I looked around the room. I wondered if all the candidates had operatives in the room. I didn’t see a soul there for Mr. Doroshewitz, same for Mr. Curmi. Mr. Heise was sitting alone, and as for Mr. Berry, I really couldn’t tell. He was sitting with the Price Machine, which in my opinion was a mistake. Folks who noticed that, rightly or wrongly, lumped them together. Mr. Berry indicated to me that he was there before anyone showed up. So I’ll take him at his word on this one thing.

As the meeting moved on, there was much debate, and in the end, the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees decided to post the Supervisor vacancy in the Observer newspaper. The problem though, is that posting won’t be seen by any potential candidate until the paper comes out on Thursday, March 26th. The deadline for applying, with a letter of interest, and resume, is Friday, March 27th. Granted, folks who pay attention, kind of know about this whole sad affair, but it just seems rather odd that they would shorten the process so drastically. Mr. Reaume is not even leaving his job until April 6th, and then the board has 45 more days to pick a replacement before the issue would have to go to a special election if they couldn’t agree on a replacement. So why the rush?

Treasurer Ron Edwards stated that the new candidate should have time to work with outgoing Supervisor, Richard Reaume before he leaves. Really? Why? To learn how not to do the job? Reaume left in disgrace for cripes sake. Why would we want him to be mentoring the new Supervisor? That’s like having Hilary Clinton mentor somebody on transparency. All you get is delete delete delete. How about we delete Richard Reaume, before we appoint his replacement.

Here is my theory about why Big Ron is so hyped up to get this deal done at the next meeting. It is well known that Ron Edwards, and Shannon Price are tight. They are thick as thieves, ying and yang, and whatever other cliche you can come up with. Price is Edwards, and Edwards is Price. Heck, Price is Reaume as well. In the Plymouth Observer, Price even made a point to say that, he supports Richard Reaume. Price, Edwards, and Reaume make a nasty little threesome.

So Reaume, and Edwards want Price appointed, and they want it to happen immediately. Why? My thought is that they do not believe that Mr. Price could win a special election. In a special election, Carl Berry, who sat with the Price Machine, would be the man in charge of the four person committee that would select a candidate to be the Republican nominee. Most astute observers believe that this small committee was elected to be in the bag for Price. I have no real proof on whether that is true or not, but the smart money is that they would choose Price.

So if Price is the Republican nominee, that would force Doroshewitz, Curmi, or Heise to run as an Independent if they wanted to be elected in a special election scenario. I personally think that with the horrible reputations of Reaume, and Edwards these days, either one of these men could thump Mr. Price in a special election. Mr. Price should have never hitched his wagon to men with such terrible political baggage. Remember when Reaume got caught on camera stealing campaign signs for Edwards? Remember when Edwards tried to beat the heck out of the Township Clerk? Or when Edwards got caught having a meltdown on the 911 emergency line because he wasn’t getting out of his fireworks before everybody else? It was all on the TV news, and it was all embarrassing to the township. Well when you think of these things, remember that Price is thick as thieves with these guys.

Reaume + Edwards = Price. That’s the only math you need to know.

It also hurts Price that he helped Ron Edward’s son Mathew in a primary campaign against popular State Senator Patrick Colbeck. The kid never had a chance among Republicans to beat Colbeck, but with two candidates on the ballot, it gave Democrats a chance to make mischief. This meant that Colbeck had to spend money on a primary challenge when that money could have been way better spent on beating Dian Slavens. Thankfully, he beat her, and Price & Edwards political shenanigans did not cost the Republicans a seat in the Senate. Why did Price help Edwards? I wondered that at the time, then I found out the payoff for Price, The Plymouth Township Supervisor position.

Going further it really hurts that Price basically moved into Plymouth Township around 100 days ago, give or take. It is the consensus among most folks that he moved here specifically to take over the Supervisor’s seat. Why would he want to change jobs a month or so after he got elected, when he is not staring at term limits? I’ll tell you why. Dian Slavens is out of a job. She will certainly look at Shannon’s seat on the Wayne County Commission, and think that she can wrest it away from him next election, and Shannon loses sleep at night over that potentiality. He figured he could surreptitiously slide on over to Plymouth Township, and be the knight in shining armor if Reaume got recalled, or resigned. Well the best laid plans, so to speak.

Personally, I don’t want some carpetbagger coming into my township, and 100 days into his residency in the community, thinking that he will be the new leader. How narcissistic do you have to be, to think that you can get away with this? I hated it when Hillary Clinton pulled that crap in New York, and I hate it now. I don’t care who it is. Do your time. Become a contributing member of our community. Get to know folks other than the political operatives, and for gosh sakes, leave the outsiders home when you come to our meetings! We don’t need them, we don’t like them, and we don’t want them.

There is one last thing that happened at this meeting. If you look at the picture at the top of this page, you will see Commissioner Price walking among the outsiders he showed up with. He is leaning over and speaking into their ears. Almost like a puppet master does with with his puppets. Well I may not have a problem with that, except for when he was doing it. He pulled this crap when Plymouth Township taxpayers were standing at the podium giving their public comments on the issue at hand.

It takes a lot of courage for some folks to walk up to that podium and speak before a packed house that included media. They do it because they care. They do it because they are invested in, and love their community. So while one taxpayer was trying to make his comments, I watched Mr. Shannon Price walk up and whisper in the ear of his cronies, and they all started snickering.

I can’t think of a more disrespectful thing to do to the people of our community. You are asking for the top leadership job in this community. The top paying job in this community. You have lived here 100 days, and you want to be the leader, and you do not have the simple decency to show a little respect, and listen to what our community members have to say? It would seem to me that Mr. Price would put his best foot forward, and at least pretend to listen to the taxpayers, who will pay his salary, if he is appointed.

I was incensed when I witnessed this, and I let it be known by an angry scowl when I made eye contact with the Republican guy Szmytke. I just shook my head, and they all shut up. I’ll forever think less of Mr. Price for the utter disrespect that he showed to our community members.

Look, the bottom line is that five men showed up for this meeting that were potential candidates. Only four of them have any legitimacy, and only three of them will make the taxpayers feel like justice was done...